Hands-on learning activities are where campers build, create, experiment and learn in the real world. STEM Camp’s inquiry-based learning approach to hands-on activities means that campers aren’t told how to do things, but rather they are encouraged to try different ways and to ask various questions, to discover how they could solve a particular problem with the tools or materials provided. Their curiosity leads the way! The result is that campers not only learn about the different principles underlying the activities, they also learn that failure isn’t bad and it isn’t an endpoint – we learn so much when we fail, and it’s just the start of a new path to try!
We’ve created brand new and exciting fun for 2024, and to give you an idea of the sorts of things we’ll get up to, here are just a few of our hands-on activities that campers will participate in during our 2024 themed weeks.
What superhero would you be? What powers would you have? Let’s learn about what DNA is, how it encodes each of our super traits, and then build our own DNA models…and while we’re at it, we may as well use candy!
Our superhero Thanos needs a new mechanical hand – and only our campers can help! Of course, he’ll need to move his fingers or pick up objects. We’ll plan, then build a hand that will be perfect for fighting every evil villain.
Whatever creature you are, you need to survive in the elements, and having a shelter that withstands the elements is key! We’ll build our own shelters in the real world, then head to Minecraft to build virtually.
We’ll start with an outside scavenger hunt to refine our skills and build a compass and create a map, then hide geocaches for other campers to find. Finally, we’ll recreate our map in the virtual world of Minecraft!
In this activity spanning the week, campers will learn all about planets in our solar system, density, gravity and more. We’ll recreate our entire solar system in a ‘snow globe’, use candy to drill ‘core samples’, and more!
In Minecraft, your crops will thrive if you water them. But of course, you can’t use salt water; which is all we have! Campers will learn about the water cycle and use the desalination process to get the salt out of the water to make it useable.
There sure is a lot of science in a bubble: surface tension, hyrdophilic and hydrophobic molecules (don’t know what those are? your campers will be able to tell you!). We’ll make bubbles big enough to float a Minion to learn all about them!
Gru needs an antidote to turn those purple minions back into our fun-loving friends! Sure, we’re going to learn about states of matter, particle distribution, & non-Newtonian fluids, but nevermind all that: we’re going to make SLIME!
The Minions have been sent on an underwater mission by Dr. Nefario, but they can’t be seen by anyone else! How will they know if someone is approaching? Campers are going to build a super spy periscope, of course!
