Inspiring a Love of STEM: 3 Awesome Summer Camp Activities to Look Out For

The study of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) is vital for all 21st-century kids. When you consider that probably over half of the children today will be doing jobs that are not even invented yet, as a parent, you need to make sure they are fully up-to-speed with all the latest tech. They need to have all the right skills as well.

Your children can do all these by studying STEM. STEM will equip them with the tools they will need to build an exciting future for themselves.

It’s never too early to start fostering a love of STEM; even the youngest of children can benefit from taking part in some STEM activities. The extra-curricular study of STEM can vastly improve your children’s problem-solving skills and give them a better understanding of the world around them. It can also open a wider area of incredible career opportunities and boost their school grades.

Putting your children in a different setting, away from the pressures of their normal classroom environment, can work wonders by sparking new interests in STEM. STEM summer camps are perfect for this: children see them as recreational. In addition, these camps provide kids with many hands-on activities which will help them to forget any preconceptions they may have had about ‘hating math’ or ‘being rubbish at science’.

Summer camps also allow your children access to new inspirational, technological tools that they may not have had a chance to use at school. Teachers will also possess a high degree of specialism, putting them in the perfect position to inform and inspire your kids.

In the camp environment, the emphasis is on hands-on. If your children love to experiment, takes things apart and put them back together, STEM courses are perfect. They will leave camp with a much deeper, more practical knowledge of how machines and technology work.

Recommended STEM Summer Camps for Kids
Here are three particularly awesome STEM summer camp activities that are virtually guaranteed to foster a lifelong love of the subject:

1. Robotics

Nothing is more futuristic than robots so the chance to study robotics is bound to wow your child.

Under robotics, kids will have the chance to design, build, and program a robot. This is usually a collaborative process so your children’s social skills will also be developed, alongside their tech skills.

Robotics is closely linked with subjects such as mechanical engineering, electronics, and software programming. As such, so they will finish camp with a broad range of skills they can apply to other areas of their learning too.

2. Coding

The future demand for graduates with advanced coding skills is certain, so giving your kids the chance to have fun with coding this summer could be setting them up for an incredible career later on.

Coding involves instructing computers to perform functions using computer-based languages. At one end of the spectrum, incredibly advanced coding controls every electronic device in existence: from sat-nav systems to smartphones. However, even young children can learn basic code and coding is rapidly being adopted into national curriculums across the globe.

Coding is brilliant for developing problem-solving skills. To complete tasks successfully, kids will need to learn to troubleshoot, or ‘debug’ in coding terms. This skill can have a significant impact on their performance across the curriculum.

Coding activities at summer camp are guaranteed to have fun at their core for all ages, with lots of emphasis on games and fun app development.

3. 3D Printing

3D printing technology has recently become much more widely available and talked about, so your kid will be delighted to have the opportunity to take part in hands-on 3D printing activities.

Kids typically learn to create a model using the specially-designed software. Additionally, they will know how to prepare and troubleshoot ready for printing and to print and evaluate their creation. There are crossover links with all areas of the curriculum, from art to engineering.

3D printing at camp is a great chance for kids to fire up their imagination and to create something to take home and be proud of.

With the variety of STEM summer camps your kids can choose from, they will learn, have fun and be fully prepared to excel in this field in the future.

AUTHOR BIO

Maloy Burman is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Premier Genie FZ LLC. He is responsible for driving Premier Genie into a leadership position in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Education space in Asia, Middle East and Africa and building a solid brand value. Premier Genie is currently running 5 centers in Dubai and 5 centers in India with a goal to multiply that over the next 5 years.