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Valley Tech nurtures curiosity at STEM camps for kids

Emily Buechler roars with delight as she watches as her team’s raw egg survive a toy-car ride down a short ramp Thursday at the STEM camp for fourth-graders at Spokane Valley Tech. The other students are, from left, Jerrisa Barnes, Mitchell Burch and Isaac Morris. (Dan Pelle)
Emily Buechler roars with delight as she watches as her team’s raw egg survive a toy-car ride down a short ramp Thursday at the STEM camp for fourth-graders at Spokane Valley Tech. The other students are, from left, Jerrisa Barnes, Mitchell Burch and Isaac Morris. (Dan Pelle)Buy a print of this photo
By Jody Lawrence-Turner jodyl@spokesman.com(509) 459-5593

The wiggling stops and their attention narrows. In almost no time, fourth-graders are identifying human bones, building circuit boards and coding video games.

“If they taught this in school, I’d be listening more,” Adams Elementary School student Logan Sloane said.

Spokane Valley Tech’s new after-school “STEM camp” is hooking 10- and 11-year-olds on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The school, operated by the Central Valley School District for a consortium of districts, is recognized as a state leader in STEM education. Now it’s hosting a different group of 44 fourth-graders every month for six sessions.

“Our strength is the way we are engaging students in learning without them knowing it,” said Camille Nielsen, Central Valley School District STEM coordinator.

Students build a house hoping it can withstand a fan. They design a mock circuit board. They learn about biomedicine.

“It’s fun,” said fourth-grader Emily Buechler. “It’s stuff I’ve never learned before.”

The main project involves students working with high school mentors to explore light, heat, kinetic, sound and chemical energies using a VEX kit – extreme Legos, as senior mentor Brian Cooper describes it. The kit is used to build a car to hold an egg. On the last day of the camp, the students send the car and its on-board egg into a wall repeatedly, each time decreasing the padding until the egg breaks.

Cooper, who attends Spokane Valley Tech, has enjoyed mentoring the younger students.

“You can tell they are here to learn,” Cooper said. “It’s surprising how quickly they soak up information.”

Students not only learn the STEM subjects; along the way, the fourth-graders also learn communication, collaboration and problem-solving skills.

The new camp is going better than district officials “ever could have hoped,” Nielsen said.

The district will build on this year’s success and add fifth-graders to the camp next year with the help of a $12,000 grant. District officials hope to eventually offer science, technology, engineering and math after-school camps to fourth-graders at all elementary schools.

Meanwhile, Spokane Valley Tech Director Scott Oakshott will host other school directors from around the state who want to learn more about the school’s after-school STEM camp.

The state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction last month acknowledged Spokane Valley Tech as one of three high schools statewide with an outstanding STEM program, naming it a model and mentor to other districts.

The school offers project-based classes in manufacturing, biomedicine, engineering, sports medicine, computer science and entrepreneurship.

“We are charged with helping other schools learn about STEM schools,” Oakshott said.

District leaders from around the state have contacted the school to arrange a visit. Spokane Valley Tech administration will also travel to make presentations. The school, at 115 S. University Road, is “as close to a STEM school as you can get,” Oakshott said.