This free summer camp Summer STEM Camp provides a week of hands-on learning for rising seventh and eighth graders (currently in sixth and seventh grade) 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. June 10-14 at FSU Panama City. 

Students work in teams and rotate through the various learning experiences. Students are ultimately responsible for a final presentation that captures their learning and requires their use of technology as they present to a panel of STEM professionals who judge their presentations.

Camps are capped at 100 students, and students work in groups of 20 with the assistance of a certified educators.

The five content areas include:

• Electrical Engineering with content expert Ryan Todd, senior Electrical Engineering student at FSUPC: During this rotation group members will begin to understand electricity, electrical grids and circuits.  Everyone lost power during Hurricane Michael, so groups will tackle the challenges Michael presented for getting power restored.
• Coding with content expert Tasneem Salman, senior Electrical Engineering student at FSUPC: Coding has become a necessity for those seeking a STEM career.  Tasneem has taught Girls Who Code, and she will connect making weather predictions and weather maps to the coding skills necessary to do that.
• Civil Engineering with content expert Minnie Kinard, senior Civil Engineering student at FSU PC: Hurricane Michael exerted forces that many structures were unable to withstand, and exposed soils that were unstable.  By building bridges and working with structures students will design structures that are better able to withstand hurricanes.
• Chemistry with content experts Dan Flisek, Physicist NSWCPCD; Lois Walsh, chemistry teacher Mosley High School.  After a storm, getting clean water is one of the highest priorities.  Hurricanes blow in a lot of salt from the ocean and scatter trash into clean water reservoirs, contaminating them and making them undrinkable. Students, like scientists, must test water samples to find this contamination, and investigate to discover and remove its source. The chaos can also pollute the air and soil in a similar way.  Students will use chemical tests to measure water quality, uncover air pollution, and reveal soil contamination. Students will also build an antique weather prediction device, and examine how clouds are formed.
• Physics with content experts Rifat Fatema, Adjunct Physics professor FSUPC, Denise Newsome, Physics teacher Deane Bozeman School: Hurricane Michael ensured that everyone east of the Hathaway Bridge went several days/weeks without power.  To help understand why this happened, students will work with force, strength and alternative power sources. Students will  measure force to break a tree; they will build bridges with lighter material and determine the strength of it.  They will see how  mechanical work can generate electricity, and finally use solar power to drive a car.

Camp application