This summer, the University of New Hampshire at Manchester will be offering several science, technology, engineering and math learning programs in the STEM Discovery Lab.
“These programs provide an opportunity for children to learn STEM core concepts and practices in a fun and hands-on environment with engaging activities that help students experiment, collaborate and be creative,” said Mihaela Sabin, associate professor of computer science and STEM Discovery Lab faculty director. “These summer STEM programs provide students a wonderful introduction to the STEM fields.”
There are two STEM learning programs being offered to the public at UNH Manchester this summer: Design Make Code and EPIC - Elementary Program Introducing Computing. In addition, EXCELL in STEM will be offered for English Language Learning students within the Manchester School District, and Creative Computing Challenge will be offered for students in the North Country. Registration for all programs open on March 1.
Design Make Code: Play to Invent will be offered twice this summer, July 11-15 and July 18-22 from 8:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. The program is open to students in middle school who are new to coding and would like to design and build art machines with littleBits, and fabricate controllers using Makey Makey to interact with Scratch-programmed animations, stories or games. Register online.
Design Make Code: Bots Adventures will be offered August 1-5 from 8:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Bots Adventure is for students in grades six to eight, and is recommended for students who have previously completed a Design Make Code class or have some coding experience. Participants will build robots with Arduino brains, combine art, design and engineering to improve their robots and work in Scratch to program controllers and electronics. Register online.
EPIC - Elementary Program Introducing Computing is open to students in grades four and five who are interested in robots, challenging puzzles and visual programming. Register online.
“The EPIC program has run in Durham for several years and always fills to capacity,” said EPIC founder Karen Jin, assistant professor of computer science at UNH Manchester. “The students love the program because they start creating robots on their very first day.”
EXCELL in STEM is open to Manchester School District English Language Learners in middle school and high school, helping build their pre-college skills in English and STEM subjects at the same time.
“They learn to ask questions and seek out answers using scientific method,” said Michael Pugh, senior lecturer in English and ESOL. “Their improving English and growing STEM knowledge opens up opportunities for higher education, leading to meaningful work.”
EXCELL in STEM is administered by the Center for Academic Enrichment and the STEM Discovery Lab in partnership. The program runs from July 5 through August 2 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
Creative Computing Challenge is open to girls in grades seven to nine who live in the North Country area. This program offers girls a way to make personal connections to computing and computational thinking by creating mobile apps. This summer camp is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and NH EPSCoR. Students will create real mobile apps and also learn about computing careers and college fields of study. Creative Computing Challenge is being offered at the Mt. Washington Valley Career and Technical Center in North Conway. The camp runs July 18-22 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Learn more about the UNH STEM Discovery Lab online, or contact the lab at unh.stemdiscoverylab@unh.edu or 603-641-4320.
