Nine Boulder Prep students recently spent a week learning to cut, attach and smooth pieces of sheet metal to create a keychain, taco holder, phone stand and small box at Longmont’s TinkerMill.

TinkerMill volunteer Jeff Farrell, who led the metalworking class, set up each student with a toolbox stuffed with basic tools plus a workstation with a vise. They shared some of the more expensive and specialized tools, including a pop riveter and a spot welder.

“We wanted it to be approachable and something that could be done entirely with hand tools,” he said. “At the end, I tell them they’ve learned how to bend metal to their will. There’s not a lot teenagers get to control, but they can have control over this.”

Boulder Prep students recently finished their fourth week of the Gunbarrel-area charter school’s six-week “intensive” summer program. The students take a single class for four days, allowing for more experiential opportunities, off-campus community partnerships and work-based learning.

“We want to make our classes more relevant and connected to students’ lives,” Boulder Prep Headmaster Lili Adeli said. “We want to connect everything we’re doing to the ‘so what.’ Is it relevant to their … life? Or will it help them get a job?”

Along with the metalcraft class, students could take TinkerMill pottery, stained glass and welding classes. Partnering with TinkerMill, Boulder Prep teacher Kenny Gillis said, allows the students to use specialized equipment and benefit from expert community instructors. Gillis and a TinkerMill volunteer co-taught the welding class, with students learning to build a tower from pieces of square tubing.

“The thing I appreciated most was how much time the students got to spend practicing welding,” Gillis said. “At the end of that week, two or three students were seriously interested in welding as a possible career. We want to expose students to a lot of different things and see what sticks.”Metalworking student Rose Borck, who lives in Broomfield and is a junior, said hands-on activities are her preferred way to learn. Along with metalworking, her summer schedule included painting an outdoor mural with a resilience theme, making a lightbox in an introduction to engineering class and visiting the Boulder Valley Transportation Center as part of a career exploration class.

“Boulder Prep wraps what you learn in textbooks into real life,” she said. “I like getting physical products out of my work. I feel like I’m actually learning things.”

She said she generally likes the summer schedule of taking just one class at a time because she doesn’t have to mentally switch gears when switching classes, though she noted spending hours on the same subject can sometimes get tedious.

“I like that I can work at my own pace because I have more time in summer classes,” she said.

Outside of TinkerMill classes, Boulder Prep students this summer could stay up at Cal-Wood Education Center near Jamestown to participate in field research, visit Light Root Farm through the Natural Highs program, attend an engineering camp at the University of Colorado Boulder and bike around the area for a physical education class. Other options included local college tours and job site tours.

On the school’s campus, classes included science of the senses, water in the West, photography, dystopian literature, sewing, positive psychology, drama, optics, travel geography and food geography.

Students in the travel geography class researched a city, then gave presentations about those locations, including how to get there and what to see. In the food geography class, students learned about American history, including the Industrial Revolution, in the context of food, with teacher Lorena Rivera bringing in food samples and setting up activities to help keep students engaged.

“We’re trying to make history fun and relatable,” she said.

Emma Murphy, a senior who lives in Boulder, signed up for sewing because she learned from her grandmother and loves the craft but hadn’t sewn anything in a long time. She also took psychology, photography and geography classes.

“I needed a small school,” she said. “Big high schools are a lot. They’re not for everybody. The teachers here have a personal relationship with the students. I can talk to my teachers about anything. School is definitely a safe space.”

Another hands-on summer option was a two-week service learning class in the school’s kitchen. Students prepare breakfast and lunch for the rest of the school, learn about food safety and try various cooking techniques.

Boulder Prep senior Keir Williams, who lives in Longmont, said he was considering just getting his GED. But the summer classes, including the opportunity to cook, persuaded him to keep going with school.

“I cook a lot at home and have a bunch of commercial cooking experience,” he said. “It’s been one of my favorite classes.”

While he may keep cooking as a job skill to fall back on, he said, he’s looking at going into a trade. He’s considering electrical, concrete or carpentry work.

“I like cooking, but it really loses the spark when you have to do it for work.”

His plans also now include a high school diploma.

“I’m not ready to leave high school yet,” he said. “It’s a good community, and people here care.”