GOLDEN, Colo. — With schools closed and field trips canceled, the Colorado State Patrol is stepping in to help out in a new way.
The CSP created a couple of educational videos of “virtual field trips” for kids stuck at home and being homeschooled.
The first virtual field trip is led by CSP Sgt. Jeremiah Fenske. Sgt. Fenske visited the Rifle Falls Fish Hatchery near Rifle Falls State Park to get “an inside look at how Colorado Parks and Wildlife manages one of Colorado’s most important natural resources,” he said.
“We are trying to do some virtual tours or virtual field trips so that it gives a little bit more of an option for kiddos who doing homeschool and school at home while the stay at home order is going on,” said CSP Public Information Officer Josh Lewis.
The tour of the Rifle fish hatchery shows how CPW feeds and nurtures young cutthroat trout. The tour also describes how important the fish hatchery is to the sustainability to Colorado’s rivers and wildlife.
The second virtual field trip takes you to the Colorado State Capitol building. On this tour, you get to see parts the Capitol the public doesn't get to see, including inside the gold dome, where you can see the names of construction workers written on the walls after working on the dome over the years. CSP trooper guides also takes you to the underground tunnels that connect all the buildings of the capitol complex together.
“The state patrol is in a very good position because we have troopers all across the state that are members of their community,” Lewis said. “They are familiar with things that are close to them that maybe not a lot of other folks are aware of. It allows us to go to different places that maybe folks won’t normally be able to go to even without the pandemic going on.”
The Colorado State Patrol is working on producing more of these virtual field trips for the coming weeks.
If you want to see the virtual tours, visit the CSP YouTube page.