MANOA — Dressed in a homemade fruit fly costume and an aloha shirt, Luc Leblanc held out his hand. In it was a black-and-yellow-striped caterpillar.

"Touch it," said Leblanc, a junior researcher in entomology at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, to a group of third-graders from Fern Elementary School yesterday. "Go ahead and touch it."

Malachi Molitau, one of the biggest kids in his class, jumped backward.

"No, no, no," he said, shaking his head. "I don't like that!"

He may not have wanted to hold the caterpillar, but 8-year-old Malachi did enjoy his first visit to UH yesterday. The experience only reinforced his desire to attend college, he said.

"I want to go to college so I can learn how to be an FBI agent," said Malachi, an avid reader. "If you don't know anything, you can learn it here."

About 95 third-graders and 55 parents from Fern Elementary descended upon the Manoa campus yesterday as part of a program at the school to introduce higher education at an early age. It's more common for students in middle and high school to learn about higher education.

UH officials said this was one of the few elementary-school groups that has toured the campus.

Last September, Fern Elementary principal Lani Kapololu presented to her teachers the idea of introducing college to the third-grade classes.

She got the idea from a study she participated in about 15 years ago at UH.

The study found that by third grade, average or below-average minority students developed study habits that determined their likelihood of attending college.

"If you wait until the fourth grade, it's too late," Kapololu said. "But in the third grade, we can still change some of those habits."

Stressing the importance of a college education has become a priority at Fern Elementary, where about 75 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a common measure of poverty. One-third are English language learners, most of them from Micronesia.

"You have to promote (college) now or they'll never believe they can go," Kapololu said.

Yesterday's all-day field trip to UH included visits to various academic departments, such as engineering and physics, to expose the students to potential fields of study. Every child who attended received a certificate of admission to UH and a $100 voucher toward admission.

They even toured the athletic complex, where they got to meet UH quarterback Colt Brennan.

"All I can say is (college is) an unbelievable experience, no matter where you go," Brennan told the excited students at the Stan Sheriff Center. "But I learned that not only do you have to go to school, you have to do well in school."

The students eagerly asked the superstar quarterback about his football experience growing up in California, what he's studying at UH, and even whether he has a girlfriend.

"I'm really surprised how excited they are," said Jane Toyama, a third-grade teacher at Fern Elementary who helped organize the field trip.

She realized how important this exposure was to her students, most of whom don't have immediate family members who have attended college.

"We tell them to dream and plan to go to college, but they can't dream about a place they've never been to," said Toyama, a 1997 UH graduate. "While we were walking, I heard them say that they want to go to college. Hearing them make statements like that makes it all worthwhile."

Mya Lolotai, 8, has already decided she's going to UH.

But she knows it's going to take a lot of work.

"I learned that I gotta get good grades and keep them up," said Mya, who wants to be a professional surfer. "I have to listen to my teachers, follow directions, listen to my parents and do my homework."

That's exactly what Toyama wanted her students to take away from the experience.

"Even if they don't know what they want to pursue, I want them to have a passion for education," she said. "I want them to know that college is a possibility, it's attainable and it's affordable. I want them to have a vision for their future."

Reach Catherine E. Toth at ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com.