While parents and caretakers shop at the Resource Center during a scheduled visit, children have access to the Inspiring Minds Center, a designated space connected to our Resource Center that provides access to STEM-based activities, software, and games.

Our Inspiring Minds Center includes a computer lab, reading corner, and STEM-based educational games focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The Center is a safe and comforting environment – our goal is to assist in closing the academic achievement gap for Colorado’s most vulnerable children.

A Precious Child also provides access to STEM-based activities to children visiting our Resource Center as well as take-home kits through local school partners. Inspiring Minds STEM Kids include: resources for free STEM-based educational websites, information regarding free or discounted rates to local children and science museums, age/grade appropriate STEM activities, parent/children STEM-based activity books in both English and Spanish and children’s books on STEM-based occupations.

All youth should be prepared to think deeply and to think well so that they have the chance to become the innovators, educators, researchers, and leaders who can solve the most pressing challenges facing our nation and our world, both today and tomorrow. But, right now, not enough of our youth have access to quality STEM-based learning opportunities.

Enrichment experiences matter because they help children acquire the vocabulary and background knowledge critical to achieving the high levels of literacy needed for many kinds of well-paying work.

In the US, we know that low-income children who do not participate in enrichment activities during the summer lose reading and math skills at a faster rate than their peers, and they never catch-up.