JeffCo Schools Outdoor Lab Builds Greenhouse Projects

ARVADA, CO -- The Mt. Evans Outdoor Lab in Evergreen and the Outdoor Lab in Bailey have provided JeffCo sixth-graders with a week of hands-on outdoor science education in a beautiful mountain setting for more than 60 years. Now former and present employees of the program have raised close to $400,000 to build greenhouses on the two campus so children can learn about growing plants and how thermal heat from the sun can keep a space warm.

The greenhouses will be part of a new seed-to-table curriculum added to the Outdoor Labs already fun schedule of archery, star gazing, hiking and survival skills and other outdoor education, funded by the nonprofit Outdoor Lab Foundation.

Entrepreneur and philanthropist the late Rod Greiner donated the bulk of the finances to build the greenhouses, which were designed by architect Brian Sipes.

Water stored in 55-gallon barrels warms with the sun during the day and then heats the building at night, Sipes said in a video about the Evergreen greenhouse.

Arvada students visited the new greenhouses as they were being finished.

Watch the video below:

Image: Shannon Hancock, Outdoor Lab Foundation Executive Director via City of Arvada