Soaring Stars 2.0: STEM Summer Camp for Middle School Students
Focus
The primary focus of our summer program is access to STEM academic enrichment through experiential activities for rural youth. All students are welcome, inclusive of diversity in language, learning, culture, gender, and ability.
As recently identified by the National Science Foundation and the US Congress Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering in their 2024 Report, "Making Visible the Invisible: STEM Talent of Rural America," rural youth are underserved and experience inequities and disparities in access to STEM programs compared to their urban and suburban peers. The report identifies providing access to experiential activities as one of the 6 strategies for K-12 STEM education in rural schools that will strengthen/enhance academic preparation for the STEM career trajectory and increase student participation in STEM fields. The report may be accessed at:
Curriculum 2025
Innovators for Earth: Engineering a Better Future
In this dynamic and inquiry-driven unit, students will discover how engineering plays a crucial role in solving real-world challenges for both people and the planet. Through hands-on exploration of the Engineering Design Cycle, they will see how this problem-solving framework applies across life science, physical science, and earth science.
Students will also reflect on their own identities as engineers and inventors, considering how their creativity and critical thinking can contribute to meaningful change. The culminating experience immerses students in an authentic design challenge: developing competing solutions to support biodiversity and ecosystem stability. Inspired by firsthand observations from a visit to Seneca Park Zoo, students will apply their learning to propose innovative redesigns of real-world habitats.
This unit not only deepens students' understanding of ecosystem dynamics but also fosters essential 21st-century skills—collaboration, problem-solving, and systems thinking—preparing them to tackle the challenges of the future.
FUNDERS
Soaring Stars 2.0 is made possible by grants from the , and the Ella Cline Shear School of Education, with support from ºÚÁÏÍø's Office of Sponsored Research, Grants Management, and Office of Strategic Initiatives.