Our Story

Shegan and KeithIt 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 Panera Bread a few years ago, they asked....

"Why is it that all kids love science until about the 5th grade and then for the rest of their school years treat science as if it were boring, too difficult, or only for nerds.  And why is it that in the U.S. we don't actively teach kids how to design, create, build, and fully explore the science that they are curious about. Kids love science, so why do so few have an opportunity to explore it. Isn't science fun, mysterious, and engaging...?"

This made no sense to us.  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 want to enable the next generation of creative thinkers and science is a tremendous vehicle for learning how things work, especially for kids ages 2-12.  So we built a learning and discovery lab, KSL, that is open six days a week, all year long, including the summer. 

Every class we teach starts with a question to explore and we focus on guiding kids to find answers using our own unique hands-on science curriculum, instead of just telling them something abstract in a science book.  

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.  

We recognize that having fun is important, and while music, sports, other activities are indeed fantastic, even a toddler can experiment with a popsicle that melts. That's science. That's KSL.  We would love to work with your child to enable them to develop the creativity, analytical reasoning, and problem solving that is central to our program at Kids Science Labs. 

Click here to join KSL and register today!