CBTECH students Vivian Orionia, left, and Liliana Portillo show the latest in potato fashion Thursday. The two were guiding fifth-grade students from station to station at Potato Days.
February 12, 2026
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Potato Days
Fifth-graders get a glimpse of CBTECH programs
MOSES LAKE — Sometimes, learning physics and chemistry means making a few hash browns. “(My students) have made, how do I want to say it? Launching devices,” said Christine Armstrong, career and tech education director at the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center. “They have targets out there and if (the fifth graders) hit the targets they win prizes. And they love it.” The occasion was Potato Days, a chance for fifth-grade students across the service area to tour CBTECH and see what opportunities are available to them there when they get older. This year CBTECH hosted three groups of 250 fifth graders over the course of three days, to keep the numbers manageable.