By Siri Doddapaneni
Prairie STEM is a Nebraskan, non-profit organization that works to spread STEAM education to students around the state. Prairie STEM serves underrepresented communities to improve critical thinking and creativity through a hands-on approach using many of the technological gadgets they have. The organization holds annual spring and summer day camps. Camps take place at Prairie STEM's suite at the Mastercraft, and normally last from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. from Monday through Friday. Prairie STEM instructors also travel to institutions such as the YMCA, Completely Kids, and Eureka! to hold mini-camps.
The STEAM Lab camp is a favorite among students and includes coverage of science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Campers experience real-life experiments and activities all while learning lessons associated with each activity.
Prairie STEM has many technological assets, including VR goggles, Kamigami robots controlled by iPads, and OzoBots. Examples of activities include making scribble bots out of recycling to make art, programming on Scratch to make video games, and making rockets out of pool noodles. A popular activity that many camps share is making paper tube rockets to learn about forces, which occurs in the Science Lab camp, STEAM Lab camp, and the Launch Drones and Rockets! camp.
Other camps include tech camp (where green screens, robots, and coding are favorites), sustainable gardening camp (which enters the world of hydroponics and aquaponics gardening while using Prairie STEM’s live aquaponics tank), and School of Sorcery (a Harry Potter-themed chemistry camp).
More information about registering and volunteering for camps can be found here:
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