Why we started hands-on science centers for kids?
Unlocking A Child’s Curiosity with Hands-on Science
We are focused on solving one problem “How do we unlock your child’s curiosity and unleash the brilliance of their mind, so they can solve the problems that we can’t see today?”
At KSL, we build beautiful retail science education centers and learning environments with the worlds’ most accelerated program for developing future leaders. Kids need creativity, problem solving, and grit to build us a better future tomorrow, so we inspire kids today with hands-on science.
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Shegan Campbell (right), Co-Founder and CEO. Keith Norsym (left), Co-Founder
It all started in Chicago in 2010 when two dads, friends, and avid problem solvers, Shegan Campbell and Keith Norsym, decided that instead of trying to find a great idea, they wanted to identify a problem that they were passionate about, and fix it. One Saturday afternoon at a coffee shop a few years ago, they asked...
"Why it that kids, who are naturally gifted in problem solving, even as toddlers, love science when they are young, but are not able to explore, design, build, and experiment, so they can learn how the world works through real hands-on science?”
This made no sense to us. So we brought together a team of the most innovative artists, teachers, musicians and innovators to solve the problem.
It's not just about biology, chemistry, or physics, because kids don't develop those specific interests until most often in high school or college. It's not about equations unless there is context for understanding why the equation is relevant. It's about exploring the fundamental questions that they ask parents everyday: Why is the sky blue? Why do I have to put the milk in the refrigerator? How does the TV work?
As parents, we see the curiosity of a child and capacity to learn as unbound. Every single kid we know uses problem solving as a critical resource for learning. Clearly there are things we could do better with schools and the education system as a whole, but instead of complaining about the problem, we started a company, Kids Science Labs (KSL).
At KSL, we are enabling the next generation to be creative thinkers and leaders. Science is a tremendous vehicle for learning how things work and enhancing problem-solving skills, especially for children 2-12 yrs old. To permanently solve the Creativity Crisis in the U.S., we have built KSL into one of the most powerful science education franchises for kids.
How do we teach hands-on science classes at Kids Science Labs?
Every program that we offer starts with a motivating question that tickles the brain and generates a sincere interest to discover. At KSL, we focus on guiding kids to find answers using neuroscience-inspired programs to develop new pathways of problem solving kids.
The essence of every one of our camps, parties, field trips or STEM classes available offsite to support our students in schools, is a question and series of experiments that help kids explore the underlying science concepts.
Rather than build the program based on what we want to tell a child, instead, our team of experts has spent decades recording the basic science questions that directly come from kids. Our teachers then frame the question in a way that motivates learning, and use 4-6 discovery experiments to explore the variables around that question, before applying the science to design in all of our hands-on science classes, camps, unique birthday parties, and field trips.
Kids Science Labs offers the best science classes for kids available anywhere
Since inception, our business has been built on providing hands-on science programs that kids love, and that yield the type of academic outperformance that every parent desires from a program that they enroll their child.
Kids Science Labs Mission & Core Values
At Kids Science Labs, we believe strongly in a set of core values that are focused on creating an environment for safe discovery and many opportunities to ask questions for kids. We also know how important having engaging and knowledgable teachers are to the learning process, so we sought out the best hands-on educators to help us deliver our dynamic and interactive curriculum.
KSL Mission: Through hands-on science, problem solving, and creative design, we will enable the next generation with millions of innovators and creative thinkers to solve the problems of tomorrow
We believe in the following core values:
A child's capacity to learn is unlimited
Kids are curious. It is our responsibility to engage and help their discovery
Investigating the question is more important than the answer
Science is a refinement of everyday thinking
Mistakes are incredibly valuable
Wondering "why" can change the world
Hands-on science opens doors to creativity and critical thinking
Kids Science Labs will change kids perspectives......forever
How did Kids Science labs grow?
Kids Science Labs has operated continuously since 2010, opening hands-on science learning centers in major cities around the United States. Each center is beautifully designed and provides our families and their guests, the most engaging hands-on science experience available in the world.
Our first center was in Chicago, and we expanded to include centers in the northern suburbs, western suburbs, and other cities in the U.S.
Each center is built to serve the community of parents and schools in its adjacent market, and provide a physical environment that kids could comfortably engage, open, spill, and create beautiful hands-on science. Our learning centers provide a number of programs to support the needs of our students, including but not limited to: Summer Camps, Holiday Break Camps, Birthday Parties, STEM Labs, Field Trips, STEM Nights, and Hands-on Science Classes"
When did KSL begin offering the best science summer camps for kids?
When it all started in 2010, we really just wanted to provide a comfortable and beautiful learning space for kids to explore hands-on science classes that allowed them to ask and engage questions that were not possible elsewhere. After all, when a child asks ‘Why is my ice cream melting?”, its actually much more complicated than “because it is hot”. The question actually demands a real experiment to explore the conditions of when ice cream melts and the engineering to design an ice cream or system that could disable it from melting.
We only began offering summer camp in 2011 because parents asked us to do more. Their kids never wanted to leave Kids Science Labs, so it was a real problem. It’s the same reason we began offering the best science field trips, the best afterschool science classes for kids, and the most innovative and awesome STEM Labs for kids, especially when they are young. Since 2010, we have received hundreds of five-star reviews, and feedback from tens of thousands of parents that are programs are special.
Every Summer Camp @KSL includes the following
- Afternoon Creativity Study - A daily 45 minute STEAM challenge that changes daily to give kids an opportunity to solve a basic science problem using their hands-on creativity and imagination.
- Morning Discovery Science - The first science class on a typical camp day is comprised of 4-6 discovery science experiments. Think of it as mixing lemons, sugar, and water to try to find the right combination of juice, and then adjusting the color, texture, and additives to see how it affects the flavor and emotional response of the juice. Basic Science.
- Morning Innovation Science - The second science class, on a typical day involves a real problem based on discovery science, and then we teach kids how to use engineering problem solving to make a real product, that often they take home on the 2nd and 4th day of camp.
- Afternoon FourSquare/Creators Choice - After a brief lunch, students are given options to choose sensory, engineering, art, or academic reading activities, so they can optimize a small bit of free time to play with friends or continue one of the morning experiences.
- Outdoor Experience - An outdoor, instructor led adventure, with sharks and minnows, selected sports, mentos & coke launches, and general fun activities for kids that compliment our more academic focus morning and help release some energy before pickup.
- The Big Close & Foursquare - We end the day applying the science and providing our students a strucured time to engage materials one more time before their scheduled pickup at the conclusion of the camp day