History and Mission
CU Science Discovery began in 1983 as a pilot program of 10 summer camps at CU Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium. The program flourished under the direction of Carol McLaren, who joined the staff in the fall of 1983 and served as Science Discovery’s director until 2005. During Carol’s 22-year tenure, Science Discovery added classroom presentations, teacher professional development workshops and wilderness camps to its suite of science education programming.
Science Discovery is now based at the Rose Litman Research Laboratory building on CU Boulder’s East Campus. In 2010, Science Discovery moved to CU’s Division of Continuing Education, and Stacey Forsyth became the director. Science Discovery currently serves more than 30,000 students and teachers around the state each year, and offers unique opportunities for CU undergraduate and graduate students to gain informal science education experience.
Science Discovery’s mission is to heighten interest and increase literacy in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by providing hands-on experiences that connect students and teachers to current CU science. Science Discovery capitalizes on CU Boulder’s scientific resources, facilities and expertise to excite students about STEM, expose them to a variety of STEM careers and professionals and inspire a future generation of scientists and engineers.
