STEM Camp Theme Ideas

Are you running a STEM camp during a school vacation or over the summer? If you are looking for theme ideas, look no further! I have compiled a list of dozens of STEM camp themes, from tried and true favorites to ones I can’t wait to try!

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STEM Camp Theme – Books and Movies

This is definitely one of the more popular and fun STEM camp ideas. Whenever a new book or movie infiltrates pop culture, that is the perfect time to work in some STEM with a theme the kids already like!

• Once Upon a Time – Fairy Tale STEM Camp! Try these fairy tale STEM ideas or use these quick challenges throughout the week.
• Harry Potter STEM Camp (explore trains, castles, potions, quidditch stadium design)
• Percy Jackson STEM Camp (explore mythology and STEM)
• Super Hero STEM Camp – explore shields, graphic design, cool super hideouts and more. Find activity ideas here.
• Star Wars STEM Camp (drones, flying or ambulatory robots, create “light sabers” with LEDs)
• Storybook STEM from Brooke Brown – here is the August set but check out the others as well!
• Magic Treehouse STEM Camp (history and STEM activities, treehouse design, or tie into any of the book themes)
• Wild Robot STEM Camp (read the book and complete the challenges together throughout the week – can be followed up with Wild Robot Escapes STEM)
• Any of these Novel STEM books (such as Charlotte’s Web, Pax, The One and Only Ivan)
• Enter the world of Narnia (create a wardrobe, a sleigh, a dam, etc.)
• Surviving the Wild with Hatchet

STEM Camp Theme – Sports

Not all kids are natural athletes or even like sports, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with sports at STEM camp. Engineers play a crucial role in making sports successful for professional athletes. This is a great way to encourage kids to get involved with a sport even if they don’t like playing it.

• Stadiums and equipment (create a sports dome, better helmets, awesome goal posts, or design and create a new game with new equipment (or tie this in to the Harry Potter theme with a Quidditch STEM Challenge)
• STEM Olympics camp (dive deeper into the science of Olympic sports, from angular momentum of figure skaters to friction in curling, to the best bow and arrow, or build the best bobsled!)
• Balance and stability – what makes something stable or unstable. How do these factors affect an athlete’s performance?
• Healthy bodies, healthy minds – looking at sports nutrition, healthy activities and training the whole body, eye-hand coordination, etc.
• Some great ideas about using Makey Makey with Physical Education and more over at Gophersport.

STEM Camp Theme – Space

Space exploration has been on the minds of kids since the Space Race! While it may not be as universally popular with kids as it was in the 1960s, there is SO much to explore when it comes to this topic. Not only is there the moon, but there is the ISS, Mars, and so much more!

• Astronaut exercise in space – how can we keep our astronauts in tip top shape? Come up with new space exercises, games, and activities.
• Growing food and recycling water in space – learning about how it’s currently done, challenges faced, and exploring new ideas to solve this problem.
• Rovers and beyond.
• Design, build, and launch rockets!
• Satellites, telescopes, and communication.
• Visit Vivfy STEM for all your space camp needs!

STEM Camp Theme – Summer Fun

Most STEM camps happen in the summer, so why not use this time to either get outside or get soaked with water STEM activities?

• The Center of the Solar System – Sun Camp! Create solar ovens, sundials, or do a variety of activities with UV sensitive beads (visit Stanford Solar Center for more ideas).
• Get wet! Why not design and create a water slide, a submersible, or a cargo ship? Don’t explore water without trying Drippin’ Dash!
• Not near the ocean or a beach? Bring it to you! Design and create sand castles, water clocks, or dive deeper by exploring ocean clean up or craft a Minecraft coral reef.
• Explore states of matter with ice and water with these ideas from Kerry Tracy: Keep it Cool / Make it Melt!

STEM Camp Theme – Let’s Get Digital

If you have the tech, why not explore the world of coding or stop motion animation?

• Brick Flick Camp – LEGO Stop Motion Animation Camp. Legos are my favorite thing to use for stop motion animation because they are small, easy to manipulate, and the base plates make it easy to track position. New to stop motion animation? Read this stop motion animation post to help you get started. Want to go more digital? Try the red ball challenge or other digital stop motion activities.
• Want to try Digital Stop Motion Animation instead (or too!)? These digital stop motion projects have everything you need.
• Coding Camp – Start with code.org, try a video game coding adventure with CodeCombat, or hop onto Tynker. Don’t forget to introduce coding vocabulary. Make it active for little ones by starting with Hop Scotch Coding!
• The Fantastic Green Screen – Get a green screen and get creating! The possibilities are endless and Anita Goodwin has some great green screen tips.
• Minecraft Adventures – There is sooooooooooo much to do in Minecraft. You can create a theme-based realm, work on Redstone circuits and other awesome Redstone creations, design your own Minecraft amusement park, make your own skins, or explore history, landmarks, and architecture.
• AR/VR – augmented and virtual reality! What’s the difference? What can we do with these technologies?
• Design and create your own app! There a number of free and paid platforms to do this. Some kid-friendly ones:
  • Kids App Maker
  • MIT App Inventor
  • Infinite Arcade gaming app ($)

STEM Camp Theme – Material-Specific

Maybe you don’t want to pick a specific theme for your camp but you have a LOT of legos or other building materials. Plan a camp around that!

• Legomania – this timeless brick toy could be used for a whole summer of camp ideas. Think about building up, or building an entire mini city, doing math with legos, stop motion animation, or storytelling. Find STEM-specific lego activities for K-5 here.
• Wheeeeeeeeee, PVC! PVC pipes can be used to create awesome water sprinklers, marshmallow shooters, musical instruments, marble runs, pendulum paintin, or whatever your heart desires.
• Robot Camp – if you have Dash, Sphero, Ozobots, Beebots, EV3s, Edison robots, etc. you can spend a whole week exploring what you can do with them! Get started with coding mazes or try some games and activities.
• 3D Print It! During the school year, it can be hard to fit in time for 3D printing. If your camp enrollment numbers are smaller than your classroom size, this is the perfect time to print some awesome 3D projects! Start with CAD basics and then progress to creating useful objects for around the home or school.

STEM Camp Theme – Natural Disasters

While this can be a bit emotional to get into, natural disasters are happening all around the world, affecting both people and animals, not to mention water systems, forests, and the atmosphere.

• Volcano Week! Carol has compiled a fantastic set of activities all about volcanoes.
• Save the Environment! Protecting the environment activity from Renee at Science School Yard or this oil spill activity from Vivify STEM.
• Earthquakes Abound! Study earthquake proof structures, create a shake table, learn about plate tectonics, and put your skills to the test with an Earthquake STEM activity.
• Other natural disasters to explore – tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, mudslides, blizzards, floods, fires, and avalanches.

STEM Camp Theme – Mixed Bag

These are some ideas that didn’t quite fit in the other sections!

• Up in the Air – explore all types of aircrafts! Start out with paper airplanes and helicopters. Grab a free paper helicopter STEM activity when you sign up for this free STEM Resource Library. F
• Math All Around Us – A look at how math affects us in every part of our lives, from math in nature, to money, to math in music, and in games we love to play. Two of my favorite things to explore in math are the Fibonacci sequence and Pi (and of course Tau).
• Inventor’s Workshop – take a novel idea from start to finish
• All About Animals! Look into animal adaptations and habitats, bird beaks, prosthetics, or genetics.
• Medieval Mayhem – build mini weapons of mass destruction (so much fun, requires some specific materials).
• Grossology – this was SUCH a fun one to teach (and the kids LOVED it)! Make snot/slime, or “poop,” explore how much liquid and mass toilet paper and diapers can handle before breaking/reaching capacity, collect samples from places the kids think are “dirty” and then watch the bacteria grow, and dissect owl pellets!
• We Love Science: Pick a science branch and get to it – paleontology, meteorology, biology, chemistry, zoology, botany, etc.
• Somewhere Over the Rainbow – exploring light, colors, and optics.
• Ship’s Ahoy! Build and test boats, create a capstan, or periscope up!
• Board/ Card Game Design – Go old school and create your own board game or card game. Learn about the basics of game design and apply your knowledge. If you have any that are really stellar, you can even try to submit them for mass creation at Gamewright.
• Nano Camp – an in-depth look at all things tiny!
• That’s Ancient History! A look at ancient civilizations through structures, contraptions and more. Try these
• Marvelous Magnets – Who doesn’t love magnets? Get hands-on with these magnet stations or magnet racers.
• Breakerspace or Take – Apart – LAB – Collect old electronics and appliances (that are safe) and disassemble them, learning about the parts as you go, and how to use the right tools for the right job.
• Electronics Lab! Use snap circuits, little bits, breadboards, etc. to learn the basics of circuitry and electronics. Create an AM/FM radio, a clock, or a doorbell.
• Brain Games – Optical illusions, perception, memory, and how we make decisions. Do a baseline memory test at the start and then use various skills to improve memory and re-test at the end of the week.

Print These Ideas for Later

If you would like a printable list of these ideas, you can download them here.

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