STEM Summer Camps

FIRST General Forum
1

Hello everyone,

My name is Marissa and I was looking to submit the idea to my team about a STEM summer camp for students in the community. I just have the problem of determining how much it will cost to host this type of event. So if anyone has any guidance for this it would be greatly appreciated

2

With little to no information on what you are planning it is impossible to give an estimate. Are you going multiple days? Weeks? Are you doing hands on activities? Are you gathering sponsors? Will organization be done by parents or by another organization? Etc etc

3

Hey Marissa,

SPAM just got recognized for their camp in a box summer camp curriculum. Their website has information on how to put one together, and you can also contact them through the website. I left the team when the program was in it’s infant stages, and the kids seemed to have fun.

The timeline document says you need about a pound of lego per student. That was the closest to a price estimate I could find. Also as Arhowk mentioned, the price will vary dramatically depending on the type of camp you had in mind.

4

Just planned a VEX STEM camp out for the summer, ended up being $200 per student, 9-3 PM with lunch for 25 roboteers.

  • Food - providing water (est is 4 bottles per day per person (camp is in July). Cut up fruit chunks for the morning (watermelon, cantaloupe, oranges,) , crunchy (carrot, celery, broccoli, apple, and something else) for the afternoon. Lunch is sandwiches, chips and a cookie. Check your local grocery, for small groups they are a decent price. You’ll need to pick up the food. Coolers with water and ICE!!

– Materials – Each roboteer is responsible for bringing their own VEX parts. We’ll have some extra battery sets.

– Handouts, about 75 pages per person.

– Adult instructors (~$30hr)

– Site fee to cover cleaning, trash removal, etc.

We are doing VEX building from the ground up using the 2016-17 game if we have the parts, otherwise will do CleanSweep since I still have those elements. Goal is to be able to run a small 1v1 event the afternoon of the last day.

More details on what you want to do would be helpful.

I’m planning a similar event, a little more expensive since we will be doing Arduino’s and the kit that I want to use is $45 per person.
Gadget Cat Arduino starter kit

5

An age range would also be helpful to know when thinking of price estimates. Do you need a full curriculum and for how long? Is it going to be one full summer project or multiple daily/weekly activities?

I could certainly help with lego activities for younger children or full size FRC type robots for high schoolers.

6

As others have said, “STEM summer camp” is pretty open ended and can be implemented in many ways. It depends highly on:

  • location (what facilities are you thinking of using?)
  • will you provide food or expect kids to bring their own?
  • number of kids (partly dependent on facilities)
  • age of kids
  • what exactly you intend to do with them

STEM camps could include anything from bridge-building with popsicle sticks, the egg drop challenge, marshmallow and spaghetti, all the way up to working with full LEGO or VEX kits, or even Arduino or Raspberry Pi or other small computing devices.

7

FRC Team 2974 has put together a “Camp in a Can” free STEM camp package, which can help you plan the camp curriculum, activities, costs, etc. The camp manual contains a sample budget with estimates for a “typical” week-long camp for 20 students. If you are interested in Camp in a Can, send a email to me or to Walton Robotics ([email protected]) and we will get you all the information.

8

What 166 does over the summer is more geared toward the FLL and FLL Jr. age range. We host a summer LEGO camp for 2 weeks over the summer, basically teaching them how to build and use the NXT softwares. Our students mentor and run the camp both weeks, and help the kids out. The mentors also build and design a different challenging obstacle course and other games for the kids to accomplish by the end of the week.

Its really fun, we have been doing it for about 13 years now. Its a great fundraiser and a lot of the kids join FLL and FRC when they are old enough.

9

SPAM FRC Team 180 is offering to all FIRST teams a way to earn money through a program we call Camp In A Box. Your team can make about $3,500 a week for 25 students at $150 per camper. Everything you need is on our website www.spamrobotics.com from timelines, insurance suggestions, donations of LEGO, registration forms, lesson plans, etc (more activities and lesson plans are added weekly)

We have teamed up with our sponsor UL to also provide the AMAZING Safety Smarts video and curriculum to FIRST teams that sign up for Camp In A Box.

We presented Camp In A Box at Orlando Regional and will present at South Florida Regional (and hopefully at St. Louis). Our Camp In A Box has been to India, Philippines, Thailand, and soon to Africa. This camp is flexible enough that your team can use it as a one day camp and/or week long camp!

This camp is based on teaching STEM, LEGO and FIRST to your community and beyond!

Contact our Camp Team at our website www.spamrobotics.com if you have any questions… we are here to help YOU earn money by doing what you do BEST!

10

Dawgma has uploaded our Summer Camp Kit to our website and would be more than willing to help you organize running one at your school.