Sky School brings hundreds of students to Mount Lemmon for research

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TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - Tucson students who struggled in high school are doing research this week on top of a mountain.

The University of Arizona’s Sky School takes students on three- or five-day science trips. One group of students in a credit recovery school traveled to Mount Lemmon.

Daniel Oscar Sanchez Reyes tried a couple of big high schools in Tucson before dropping out.

“At those schools, whenever I’d walk through the hallway, I used to get anxious, and I used to have panic attacks, which you know – not a very ideal thing to be dealing with at school,” Daniel said.

About eight months after dropping out, he joined Edge High, a free charter school for students who need to make up credits.

Edge High science teacher Lee Borzick said Daniel’s story is not unique and that many students are struggling after the pandemic.

“We have a large number of students still dealing with social anxiety from the pandemic – mental health issues – so you see a lot of that coming to the classroom,” Borzick said.

Six University of Arizona graduate students lead classes at Edge High over the semester. They then took students on a four-day research trip to Mount Lemmon. Program director David Austin said students learn about light pollution, astronomy, and water resource management.

“It really encompasses all these different areas of sciences and creates this front door for local school kids to learn about all the amazing departments and resources at the U of A,” Austin said.

This year alone, 639 students and 79 teachers from 26 schools were able to look through the telescope at the top of Mount Lemmon and do research at the summit. Sky School is run by thirty graduate students, funded by grants and donations, meaning more than half of the students were able to attend the program for free.

“Kids who never thought that they could do science, they weren’t good at math, they just didn’t understand it, they thought it was out of reach for them, have come up here and fallen in love with it,” Austin said.

“I couldn’t be more thankful for Sky School. It’s just impacted my life greatly; I feel I’ve become a better person from the experience. I feel I’m more outgoing, more articulate, and more talkative,” Daniel said.

He is on track to graduate from high school in December.

Sky School relies on grants and donations, so if you’d like to contribute, just follow this link.