Sparking creative minds: Local students learn STEM skills at Kids College sessions

Some of Chase Schubert's earliest memories include turning over rocks and looking at caterpillars, which sparked his lifelong love for science.

Today, he's helping spark that same passion for kids. Schubert was one of several Whitman College students who helped run Kids College micro-sessions last week at Pioneer Middle School in Walla Walla.

Kids College is an annual summer program at Walla Walla Community College that allows students ages 9 to 13 to participate in courses such as BioWorks, ChefLab, and GeoExplorers. This year, WWCC teamed up with Whitman College and Walla Walla Public Schools to offer micro-sessions before the summer so kids could try out some of the courses.

"We here at Kids College, especially with this micro-session, want to get into a bunch of different STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) topics," Schubert said. "We've talked about chemistry, we've talked a lot about physics and we're just kind of getting those like very small moments. It gets a creative mind going."

On Thursday, April 9, during the second Kids College micro-session, students learned about many STEM subjects, including aerodynamics and bridge-building. They put their new knowledge to use by building Rube Goldberg devices, which are typically complicated machines built to perform simple tasks.

"We've given them an assignment to make a piece of garbage go into the trash," Whitman College professor Dan Schindler said. "They're trying to, as a group, come up with an idea of how they can create a machine to get their piece of garbage into the trash."

Schindler and all the Whitman College students who taught the Kids College sessions are part of the Human-Centered Design program, which is a people-focused method of problem solving. All the curriculum for the session was developed by Whitman College students in the Sociology of Education class.

One fourth grader, Arlo V. McAdie, got to spend the day making bridges out of pasta, cars out of balloons and paper airplanes.

McAdie said a lot of the things he learned at Kids College would help him later on because he plans to be an architect.

"My favorite part was building the machine and practicing working in a team together," McAdie said.

One room over, the kids split up into two teams to design competing trash assistance devices. Fourth grader Karley Masias and her twin brother Karson were on competing teams.

"It's been really fun today, and we're challenging each other," Karley said. "I've really enjoyed it."

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.