PRIEST RIVER — What happens when you add food coloring to bleach?

It disappears, of course. Priest River Lamanna High School students Sarah Bach and Carmen Needs recently demonstrated how food coloring reacts in different liquids, with a focus on creating abstract art. For example, when they added different colors to a pie pan full of milk, they could then swirl the colors around to create colorful patterns. The demonstration to students, parents, community members, and county and state candidates was part of an event Thursday, hosted by the school’s 21 Century Community Learning Center Agoge.

“It’s part of the ‘Lights On Afterschool,’ and schools are doing it around the United States,” Needs said. “Our school just decided to be a part of it.”

The Lights On Afterschool rally at PRLHS was, in fact, one of more than 8,000 such rallies across the country with the purpose of spreading the word about the importance of afterschool programs. Featuring the theme, “How STEaM Impacts Our Government,” several county and state candidates for the upcoming election attended the event.

Candidates were each given a minute to speak, and directing their attention to the students, they each spoke about the importance of education, afterschool programs and STEaM and how such programs have affected them. While the candidates were there to speak and show their support of programs, they were also there to learn from the kids and learn what they have been up to at PRLHS.

“Tonight is about the kids,” said PRLHS Principal Joe Kren. “Tonight is about all of the amazing afterschool programs that we have.”

The students had several interactive projects going, including how to make paper airplanes with a competition to find out which ones flew the farthest, marshmallow catapults, paper tower building and electronic snap circuits.

“I’m teaching them how to make several kinds of electronic snap circuits,” said PRLHS sophomore Logan Millward, who was surrounded by several youngsters. “I’m trying to teach them how to do different kinds of circuit boards, how circuit boards can make sound for speakers, or how drones fly.”

Students also demonstrated color-changing ozobots, and spoke about the school’s STEaM Club, drone lab and cybersecurity competition team. PRLHS senior Beverly Landeros is one of three team members of CyberPatriot through the National Youth Cyber Education Program centered around the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition. It is the first year Priest River students have participated in the competition.

“I had a little bit of knowledge about technology because I work in the school district, but I was going in and learning about Windows Server 2016, Linux and just getting a basic introduction to all these computer systems that I was never able to touch before,” Landeros said. “So it’s been a huge learning curve, but it’s been a lot of fun.”

Landeros was the one who put the team together as she wanted to take on the competition for her senior project. Her teammates are both home-school students who attend the cybersecurity program through 21st CCLC. The team will go through qualifying rounds this week, followed by a second round the following week. Teams are then placed into three divisions for the state competition, and the winners go on to nationals, she said.

“I’m nervous, but I’m looking forward to it,” Landeros said.

Cherie Coldwell, 21st CCLC director, said while the rally well, attendance was much lower than expected.

“For those folks who did come out, they seemed to have a good time,” Coldwell said. “And for the candidates, they had the opportunity to see what kind of opportunities are available for the students who participate in the afterschool program.”

The 21st CCLC was implemented in Priest River in 2014 and offers tutoring and other academic enrichment opportunities to students in the district, grades seven-12, four days a week during non-school hours. In addition to science, math, English and Spanish labs, the program offers metal working, art, a game club, wooden fishing lures, Kung Fu and more. There are a few new additions this year, including a writer’s workshop.

The program is federally funded and has entered the fifth and final year of the supporting grant, though Coldwell told school board members in September she hopes to find a way to continue the program next year.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.