UTAH — More kids are spending their summers learning, and more of those summer camps now involve STEM subjects. Kids around the state are attending science, technology, engineering and math camps all summer long.
At Hurricane Elementary, young kids ages 5 to 7 years old are building robots out of Legos at a day camp.
“Youth are learning to problem solve, they are learning they can be engineers at 5 years old,” said USU extension professor Paul Hill.
“The computer programmed it, and you put the things on it you want it to do, and then you press go,” said one of the young student participants, Charlotte Sullivan, told KSL TV.
At the University of Utah Warnock engineering building, high school girls paired up to work on electrical circuits on Wednesday.
Freemont High School student, Lylee Nebeker, is one of two dozen students living on campus this week and experiencing all different kinds of engineering.
“I liked the chemical lab, and then with the nuclear reactor that was cool to see,” said Lylee.
Hi-Gear camp coordinator Amy Arkwright said a lot of people don’t know the U has a nuclear reactor. She said another highlight for the girls during this camp was checking the pressure on an artificial eyeball.
“The girls loved it, they were just amazed,” said Arkwright.
“There’s a $1,000 college scholarship awarded at the end,” said her co-coordinator Jamie Garza.
Several other STEM camps are also happening at the U this summer, and at other college campuses around the state.
School districts have different offerings; for example the Granite Technical institute has camps for everything from biotechnology to programming to tech design each week.
At the Robotics camp in Hurricane, Hill says even young kids can learn these subjects like engineering.
“Different ideas to solve a problem is what they are going to need to change the world,” he said.
