This summer SCSE, hosted five-day summer camps from July 16-20 and July 23-27, 2018. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math and the events involved all of the engineering fields in UMD’s Swenson College of Science & Engineering and emphasized hands-on activities.
Campers designed their own chocolate flavors with the help of some chemical engineering concepts.
The camps targeted middle school boys one week and middle school girls the next. Camp director and staff member of Swenson College’s Electrical Engineering Department Shey Peterson said, “One of our main goals is to get young people interested in pursuing engineering as a career. Of course, we’re also focused on making sure the kids have a fun and exciting week.”
UMD faculty and staff were on hand to help the day campers with activities like building solar-powered toy cars, using chemical engineering to design chocolate flavors and employing mechanical engineering concepts to build high-flying rockets.
“This year we hosted 17 boys one week and 20 girls the next week for what we called STEM in Motion camps,” said Swenson College’s Outreach Specialist Amy Kireta. “We’ve tailored the camps for middle schoolers as it’s important for this age group to have positive and engaging STEM experiences to see themselves in future STEM careers.”
Each camp concluded with a visit from parents so the participants could share what they created and demonstrate what they learned.