ABOVE: Kindergarten students at Fairmont Elementary School place plastic dinosaurs into plaster of paris for a STEM project with Boy Scouts of America. From left: Cameron Hartwig, Vera Pomerenke and Seeley Luedtke.

FAIRMONT– In an effort to reach more youth, Twin Valley Council- Boy Scouts of America, is doing some STEM programming in conjunction with Fairmont Elementary School.

The program kicked off this week with a lesson on fossils for kindergarten students as part of their art class. About 130 students will go through the program over the course of two weeks.

Erik Karre, District Director of Twin Valley Council- BSA, said the program is called Learning for Life, which is school-based. He said this is the first time they’ve gotten involved to this extent with Fairmont Area Schools. Karre said they had initial conversations with Superintendent Andy Traetow and then co-principals Brian Grensteiner and Michelle Rosen.

“Our ultimate goal is to serve more kids and there’s kids within the school that we’re not currently serving so we looked at ways to partner with the school,” Karre said.

He said administration liked the idea of the Boy Scouts organization coming in to provide some programming, particularly STEM activities.

“They put us in touch with some teachers and kindergarten and first grade teachers were interested,” Karre said.

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, but can really cross over to many other areas as well and that’s apparent in the fossil program which is done as part of a kindergarten art class.

Helena Johnson is the art teacher at Fairmont Elementary School. Johnson teaches all students in the school grades K-6. She shared why she was interested in STEM programming as part of her class.

“A lot of times people think art is one thing, but this gives the opportunity to build in science and see the connection with other disciplines,” Johnson said.

She said she thinks it’s also good for her students to see someone else come in and teach them something a little different.

Students pressed items including small, plastic dinosaur skeletons and different shaped shells into clay to create their own fossils. In a few weeks, the program will resume and students will be able to paint the fossils they created.

“They loved it. They went bananas for it, especially when they brought out the real fossils they could see and touch,” Johnson said.

Liz Paul, District Executive of Twin Valley Council- BSA, who is based out of Mankato, has been leading the class. Paul has provided information to students on fossils and dinosaurs.

Karre said they’ve reached out to some area groups to see if funding opportunities are out there. He’d like to see programs and partnerships like this continue to happen.

“We want to be able to get our mission and values out to more kids in the community. We also want to be a partner in education and help schools achieve their goals,” Karre said.

While this is one of the groups first big events with a local school, Karre said they’re open to being able to offer programs either quarterly or even once a year. He said they also discussed letting the school use the local Boy Scout’s camp, Cedar Point, for a field trip.

“This is step one. We’ll see how things go,” Karre said.

At the end of the May, a STEM program involving kites will take place for first grade students at the school.