UNH summer camps open kids’ eyes to engineering

DURHAM – Think about summer camp and you think about cabins, lakes, canoes and archery.

The University of New Hampshire has another way to think about summer camp – engineering, robotics, computer science and animation.

UNH and its College of Engineering and Physical Sciences are about to enter another summer of camps specifically engineered, if you will, for the next generation of scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians, the STEM disciplines.

“Our engineering camps now span all the way from elementary through middle school to grade 10,” said Nicole MacMillan, the college’s career development and internship counselor.

MacMillan is in charge of the camps, which have grown since the Tech Camp concept started in 2008.

Here’s a brief rundown of this summer’s offerings:

KEEPERS (Kids Eager for Engineering Program with Elementary Research-based Science): There are separate one-week, half-day programs for students in grades 2 to 8 and K-8 teachers from July 6-10, July 13-17, and July 20-24. The students’ program says the activities “develop inquiry and design skills through engineering challenges.”

Engineeristas: For girls in grades 6 and 7, it’s a one-week camp, July 13-17, that “features explorations into environmental engineering, ocean marine engineering, computer science, animation and mechanical engineering, and material science presented by female professionals.”

Techsplorers: For boys and girls in grades 6 to 8, this is a two-week camp July 20-31 that “explores electrical, mechanical, civil, environmental engineering along with robotics, animation and computer technology.”

Techventures: For boys and girls in grades 9 and 10, this is a two-week camp, July 20-31, that’s an advanced version of the Techsplorers projects.

EPIC (Elementary Program Introducing Computing): For students entering grades 3 to 6, this camp on July 6-10 and July 13-17 “is designed to inspire the next generation of computing innovators by giving elementary students exposure to computational thinking and programming.”

MacMillan said she became involved in these programs in 2013 for two reasons: “Because I saw a need for undergrad and graduate students to apply more skill sets and a need to pay it forward.”

College of Engineering and Physical Science students are involved in each of the summer camps, as well as related events at UNH involving robotics competitions.

As a career counselor at the college, she watches out for the future development and employment of the students. She said the engineering students are in class and study constantly, and it’s good for them to extend themselves to the school children at these programs.

“For them to pay it forward through activities that happen here are invaluable for them,” MacMillan said. “It’s about inspiring younger students to consider a future in technology.”

The young students get the benefit of the college students’ expertise, and the college students get the benefit of learning to share their skills.

“It’s even helping with their networking as well,” said MacMillan, noting that the college students often get the chance to interact with manufacturers and company personnel who judge the robotics competitions.

MacMillan sees a pent-up demand for the kind of STEM outreach that UNH is offering.

“We’ve been getting more requests from local schools to send a student over for enrichment programs,” MacMillan said.

According to MacMillan, the college recently offered a one-hour class to elementary students on coding that was sold out. The coding class was followed by a robotics demonstration that captured everyone’s attention, she said, because it was the coding that made the robots work.

She said UNH is doing what it can to satisfy the demand, but whether there might be expanded summer tech camp offerings in the future depends on space and funding.

“UNH has done a great job in opening its doors and getting the word out,” MacMillan said.