Pair of NHS seniors put on a three-day science camp for middle-schoolers

When it came time for Newberg High School seniors Eli Gonzalez and Joseph Holtan to formulate a senior project, both were looking for a way to share their passion with others.

As longtime friends and classmates, it made sense to team up.

As future engineering students, helping spark a similar passion for science in others also fit, which is why they created Explore: STEM!, a three-day camp for eighth grade students.

Holtan said leading 22 middle school students through a variety of experiments, activities and demonstrations for a 90 minutes three days last week turned out even better than he imagined.

“We’ve never taught middle schoolers before, so there was only so much we could picture until it came to the real thing,” Holtan said. “But it’s definitely been really cool. We couldn’t have anticipated how interested the kids were in us as teachers, asking questions.”

Holtan, who wants to be a chemical engineer, led the class through several hands-on chemistry activities, including the “Elephant Toothpaste” lab, which involved mixing potassium iodide with hydrogen peroxide to make a rapidly-expanding foam.

The pair of seniors also showed students how a mixture of baking soda, sugar and lighter fluid will create growing “ash worms” very much like “black snakes” or “pharaoh’s snakes” fireworks.

A color-change experiment was also planned, but turned into a demonstration when time became limited.

“That one was the most engaging for them,” Holtan said. “We had some oohs and ahs, so that was pretty good.”

Gonzalez, who will compete at the ORTOP state championship this weekend with his NHS robotics team Bullet Bullet Proof, led activities Feb. 25 that were devoted to technology. Students learned some basic programming using a “digital sandbox,” a small programmable board with lights and sensors.

On Friday, Gonzalez led the class on a tour of the NHS metal shop and let students examine Bullet Proof’s robot, but most of the day was spent on an engineering lab creating water wheels.

Gonzalez, who aspires to be a materials engineer, enlisted the help of some of his robotics teammates, as teams of four competed to design the fastest water wheel.

“As it progressed, the kids started to like us and they knew what they were doing and would listen to us, so it went really smooth Friday,” Holtan said. “But I think they learned every day. I think they liked every day.”

Gonzalez and Holtan spent months organizing the camp, which included sending an email to parents of eighth-grade students, who were then able to sign up their children online. The duo also had to arrange for transportation to and from the high school and prepare quizzes for the students to demonstrate that they had learned.

“We just wanted them to be interested and have fun,” Holtan said. “We wanted them to learn some things, but we wanted it to be a lot more focused on them enjoying their time here and so generating interest in high school STEM classes.”

It was suggested at one point that the pair could volunteer with the district’s current six-week after-school CTE program for middle school students, 8th Period, but Gonzalez and Holtan wanted the chance to be creative and really shape their own project.

They also said they felt it would have been too easy to latch on to an existing program, but now joke that they could have saved themselves a lot of time had they done so.

“It’s definitely been a lot more of a process than we anticipated because there is communications, busing, materials and designing the curriculum,” Holtan said. “It was a challenge we hadn’t anticipated, but I think it’s been pretty good.”

The two seniors said they were encouraged to get positive feedback from parents and from their project mentor, district STEM coordinator Andy Byerley.

“That was helpful because the first day, since the kids didn’t know us, it was hard to tell if they weren’t having a good time or were just kind of shy,” Holtan said. “Friday they were very energetic and high fiving, so it was a really good indicator they were having a lot of fun.”

The project could even extend into the future.

“I have two people approach me to do this next year and the year after as their senior projects,” Gonzalez said. “We’re happy to be leaving a legacy.”

Written by: Seth Gordon