STEM Camp challenges young innovators
Yorktown Secondary Campus (YSC) welcomed incoming 6th through 8th grade students, starting June 2, to its annual STEM Camp, a fourweek summer enrichment program focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The camp offered an engaging and immersive learning environment, averaging about ten enthusiastic campers each day.
Throughout the program, studentstackled a wide range of STEMbased missions that challenged their cre- ativity, collaboration, and critical thinking skills. Among the first tasks, students built model ecosystems— only to discover that a road would soon cut through their design. The challenge then became how to minimize environmental damage and protect wildlife, simulating real-world ecological dilemmas.
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In another mission, each student was assigned a location and a natural disaster scenario. Their task: to engineer a safe, portable power source suitable for a home in crisis. Campers also experimented with chemistry, creating secret birthday messages that could only be revealed through chemical reactions.
Campers applied principles of physics to design temporary delivery systems capable of transporting supplies across a simulated canyon, utilizing gravitational potential and kinetic energy. They also took on the unique challenge of designing a functional prosthetic leg for a whooping crane, with one student earning a Sonic gift card for crafting the most successful prototype.
Additional projects included designing a slingshot ride safety cage, building an insulated spacecraft bus to stabilize satellite temperatures in extreme conditions, and constructing paper towers capable of withstanding varying wind speeds while supporting a metal washer. Campers even explored fluid mechanics by engineering hydraulic bridges.
The camp concluded with a celebration of science and fun. Students participated in Mentos-and-Coke experiments and faced off against teachers in a lively wiggle ball game, bringing a festive close to a summer of innovation.
“Students were given a mission each day or every other day, and they had to design, build, test, and improve their prototypes to meet the challenge,” said YSC science teacher Tiffany Rogers. “Each mission had specific criteria, constraints, and materials. STEM Camp was about tapping into imagination, creativity, and knowledge to solve real-world problems— all while having fun with friends. Watching students persevere, learn from failure, and try again is incredibly rewarding.”
Yorktown’s STEM Camp continues to serve as a dynamic platform for young learners to explore science and engineering in an exciting, handson way, preparing the next generation of problem-solvers for challenges yet to come.
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