When you think of summer camp, you may have flashbacks to horseback riding or camping in the woods, but there’s another type of summer camp that is becoming increasingly popular – STEM summer camp.
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STEM summer studies are an opportunity to expose younger kids to STEM fields or to help prepare high school students for their college experiences. At any age level, these camps help to stimulate the brain when school isn’t in session and provides students with the real world skills they will need for their future careers.
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There are tons of STEM-related summer camps in our local area (Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Delaware). Here are just a few to keep on your radar this year:
K-6 (Kindergarten and Elementary)
- Located in Washington, D.C., NSBE’s Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK) is a three week day camp for elementary school students currently in grades 3-5 that exposes campers to STEM through hands on engineering projects, the roles and responsibilities of engineers, and African American images in STEM.
- iEngineer@UMD is a summer STEM camp for rising 4th and 5th grade students offered by the University of Maryland A. James Clark School of Engineering’s Women in Engineering. This one-week commuter day camp is an exciting opportunity for girls to learn more about STEM through a variety of fun, hands-on activities. Applications are closed for 2015, but be on the lookout for 2016.
- Mad Science of Washington, DC offers camps that combine in-class discovery and exploration, outdoor games and physical activities, and hands-on applications of the scientific principles presented. Campers create, build and assemble a variety of take-home projects while exploring how science affects the world around us. There are several locations through the Washington, D.C. metro area.
- Camp GrAd Lab 2015 – Hosted by The Great Adventure Lab, this camp offers K-6 kids hands-on indoor and outdoor activities including Lego Robotics, electronics, physics, nature science, 3D design, video game programming and more. Its five locations span across Montgomery County and Howard County in Maryland.
Grades 6-8 (Middle School)
- BridgeValley Community and Technical College’s STEAM Academy (West Virginia) is held June 15 – 19 for rising 5th and 6th graders and June 22-26 for rising 7th and 8th graders. It provides workshops to stimulate a child’s interest in STEAM areas like computer game development, 3D engineering (car design), robotics, rocket building, and filmmaking and Photoshop. This is a popular camp with only waitlist options still available for 2015.
- Stepping Stones to Your Future is an annual summer engineering camp for rising 7th and 8th graders, offered by the University of Maryland, College Park. This one-week commuter camp is an excellent opportunity for young men and women who are interested in science and engineering to work with current University of Maryland students on a variety of fun and hands-on engineering activities. While 2015 applications are closed, keep an eye on the application process for 2016.
- Located in Washington, D.C., NSBE’s Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK) is also for students grades 6-8. Similar to the camps designed for students in grades 3-5, this exposes campers to STEM through hands on engineering projects, the roles and responsibilities of engineers, and African American images in STEM.
Grades 9-12 (High School)
- Johns Hopkins University, Whiting School of Engineering: Engineering Innovation Summer Camps teach students to think and problem-solve like an engineer while earning Johns Hopkins University credit. Locations are in Baltimore, Frederick, Howard and Montgomery Counties in Maryland.
- Headquartered on the campus of Morgan State University, the Baltimore Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Aerospace Academy is free and open to all Maryland students in grades K-12 and their parents. There are classes during the academic year and in the summer, there are four one-week sessions when classes meet Monday through Friday. Sponsored by NASA, the Baltimore SEMAA program delivers: hands-on/inquiry-based K-12 curriculum that is aligned to the National Math, Science, and Technology standards.
- P.I.C.E. Camp is a week-long commuter program hosted by the University of Maryland, College Park designed for young women who will be entering the 9th and 10th grade next fall and would like to learn more about engineering. Students are introduced to the world of engineering through projects, tours, and guest speakers. While 2015 applications are closed, this is a good camp to look out for in 2016.
- Camp STEM Is WVU Tech’s annual camp for high school students (grades 9-12) interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Campers attend classes, conduct interesting experiments, take part in team projects, go on field trips and tours, and learn about careers in important STEM fields. While 2015 applications are closed, this is another great option to consider in 2016.
All ages
- Systemic Solution at Northern Virginia Community College offers STEM Summer Camps in engineering, programming, cybersecurity, robotics and event 3D printing. Designed for rising 4th graders to 12th graders, a 1-week camp is $285. A 2-week camp is $450. Registration fees cover equipment, materials and coach salaries.
- For rising 3rd through 9th graders, Fairfax Collegiate Summer 2015 Robotics Camps teach the engineering, electronics, and programming of robots by allowing campers to design, build and control LEGO Mindstorms NXT or VEX robots. The camps are divided into Grades 3-4, Grades 5-6 and Grades 7-9 and are hosted at a variety of locations around Fairfax County, Virginia.
- The Smithsonian offers two summer camps in Washington, D.C. focused on video game design – “Smithsonian Video Games: Design and Play” and “Smithsonian Advanced Video Game Design.” These camps make the best of the STEAM movement by asking campers draw inspiration from the Smithsonian’s museums to create characters, game levels, and animation, and learn the ins and outs of game design and development.
- TIC Summer Camp offers a combined focus on sports and technology, and a ratio of one counselor to every four campers allows for individualized instruction. Locations are in Washington, D.C. (Georgetown Day School), Maryland (Connelly School of the Holy Child) and Virginia (St. John Academy).
- West Virginia University’s Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources is hosting five weeks of Engineering Challenge Camps in June and July 2015. These camps range from elementary to middle to high school as well as one for women only and other geared toward makers.
- Marshall University College of Science’s Summer Science Adventure camps (West Virginia) span several fields, including forensic science, microscopy, anatomy, microbiology, and computer programming. Camps are staffed with MU professors, graduate students and local professionals ranging from a 2:6-2:20 staff-camper ratio.
- Delaware Technical Community College offers a variety of youth camps across its campuses statewide, which cover topics from robotics to civil engineering to wind energy science to coding. These are opportunities for Delaware students to explore, learn, and discover all things STEM.
- iD Tech Camps held at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware are co-ed, week-long summer STEM programs for kids and teens ages 7-17 that focus on Minecraft game design, Java programming, C++ programming and 3D design. (BONUS: Right now they are running a special offer – save $100 with promo code DELAWARESAVE100 when you register and pay in full by June 15, 2015.)
Do you see you favorite summer STEM camp missing from this list? Let us know and we’ll add it in!
