Wilderness Internships Part Of Students' STEM Education
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - Denver teens are trading sidewalks for mountain trails for a month this summer as part of a wilderness preservation internship.
Six Denver School of Science and Technology students are participating in The Nature Conservancy's Leaders in Environmental Action for the Future, or LEAF, program.
The paid internships consist of enhancing hiking trails, mapping invasive weeds with GPS and repairing fences for wildlife and ranches. They've already made one major discovery: a rare boreal toad breeding ground.
"It's been a lot of fun. It's hard work, but it's really rewarding in the end," a student told CBS4.
The federal program is part of a larger effort to encourage STEM -- science, technology, engineering and math -- education.