Wenatchee Students Experience Hands On Learning at Winter STEM Camp

Snowshoes, pelts and S'Mores were just a few highlights of the three-day at Lake Wenatchee

Kirk Beckendorf with the Cascadia Conservation District shows students how to collect snow samples and measure moisture content. Photo by Dominick Bonny.

Thirty-three students from the Wenatchee School District spent three days building snow forts, learning about animal pelts, trekking through the woods on snowshoes, building fires, creating art and more this week at the YMCA Camp at Lake Wenatchee.

The entrance to the YMCA Camp at Lake Wenatchee. Photo by Dominick Bonny.

The camp, now in its fifth year, was designed by 2022 regional teacher of the year Tina Nicpan-Brown. When she started the camp it was only open to fifth graders, but this year’s group was made up of third-through-seventh graders from the Wenatchee Internet Academy and Valley Academy of Learning. Both are alternative schools in the Wenatchee School District.

Tina Nicpan-Brown this week at the YMCA Camp on the banks of Lake Wenatchee. Photo by Tina Nicpan-Brown.

Many of the students are homeschooled part-time or receive a majority of their instruction in a video format, so the STEM camp offers an opportunity for students to spend time together while engaging in hands-on learning.

The three-day, two-night camp is largely-funded by a grant Nicpan-Brown wrote and secured, but much-needed support also comes from organizations and individuals in the Wenatchee Valley. Those donations help provide everything from gift cards for chaperones to snow pants and boots for students who need them.

“If any had needs as far as clothing or materials fees we make that happen through scholarships – I don’t turn any student away,” she said.

Michelle Haight volunteered to help chaperone and attend the STEM Camp with her daughter Chloe, a fifth grader at Valley Academy. Her husband and their son also attended and she said they’re enjoying their first year participating.

“I like to do education with them, so that’s why I decided to come as a camp leader,” Haight said. “And my husband came because I asked him to. So it’s a family affair.”

Chloe said making sushi, feeling animal pelts and simply riding the bus up together were a few of her favorite experiences of the camp.

Wenatchee Internet Academy student Oren Fulwiler and his father Josh also attended and Oren counted making S’mores and playing king of the hill among his highlights. He also learned new facts animals and how they survive in the cold.

“We did a class today and there’s like this thing called torpor and it’s a certain type of hibernation,” he said. “And I had heard about it in video games and I knew it was real but I didn’t know it was a type of hibernation how like you’re awake but you’re not awake and you can get up really easily.”

Oren and Josh Fulwiler on snowshoes at the Winter STEM Camp at Lake Wenatchee this week. Photo by Dominick Bonny.

He said bears and chipmunks are both use this specialized type of temporary hibernation.

Nicpan-Brown said it takes her most of the year to plan, organize and secure funding for the camp, and explained why it’s important to her to do so.

“I’m a full-time educator, I’m getting my doctorate degree and I put this together on my own time,” she said. “I am not paid to do this, but I feel this is what’s best for kids. It helps me build relationships, it helps us get common experiences so when we continue to talk in the classroom we have something we can all relate to.”

Her dedication to providing high-quality educational experiences to her students is not lost on her colleagues. Tracy Gelb is teaching language art and history at the Wenatchee Internet Academy this year and spoke to Nicpan-Brown’s impact as an educator.

“She’s just a standout. She’s a leader. She’s innovative. She has vision and she prepares activities that engage the students,” he said. “She’s just a highlight of the Wenatchee School District and an amazing teacher.”

Tracy Gelb instructs his small group during a learning exercise designed to teach students how to measure the moisture levels of snow. Photo by Dominick Bonny.

Not content to rest on her laurels, Nicpan-Brown is currently planning a Spring STEM Camp and wants to make these camps available to any Wenatchee student who want to participate. She said she encourages parents of students outside the Wenatchee Internet Academy and the Valley Academy to “make some noise” and tell the district they want this opportunity for their kids as well.

“Every year I say this needs to happen for every kid in our school district,” she said. “I would encourage anybody who wants to have their kid join us in spring to contact the Wenatchee School District.”

Nicpan-Brown also said she is still in need of funding to fully cover the spring camp and if folks would like to help, to contact Jen Dolge at the Community Foundation of North Central Washington.