Fuel Your Passion for STEM This Summer!
Join us this summer at MCEC’s Summer Camps, where middle and high school students dive into hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math experiences. Through exciting projects, team challenges, and real-world problem-solving, campers will explore the possibilities of STEM in a fun and engaging environment. Whether you’re building, coding, experimenting, or designing—this is where future innovators begin!
The Maine Summer Transportation Institute (MSTI)
About: The Maine (National) Summer Transportation Institute (MSTI) is a fun, interactive, FREE program held on the beautiful University of Maine Orono campus. Students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades enrolled at Maine’s public and private schools are encouraged to apply!
AMC Robotics Camp & Workshop
About: Future innovators can join the Advanced Manufacturing Center’s hands-on B.O.T. Loft summer camp to explore robotics, build skills, meet experts, and earn a Universal Robots Credential in Educational Robotics Training – Core (ERT-C) by applying before the May 31st deadline for one of the 36 limited spots across three sessions.
Semiconductor Camp
About: Rising high school juniors and seniors curious about modern technology can gain hands-on experience in electronics, from basic concepts to building semiconductor systems, including a tour of Texas Instruments, at the University of Maine’s 5-day Semiconductor Camp.
The Chip Moody Consider Engineering Program
About: The Chip Moody Consider Engineering Program is a challenging and rewarding four-day overnight summer program for high school juniors to get a taste of college life and what it takes to be an engineer.
3D Design and Printing Camp
About: Explore the entire fabrication process using 3D printing technology in our 3D Printing & Design camp. Campers start the camp by assembling their own 3D printer while learning about the components and functions of the machine. Campers also explore the world of 3D design by using 3D modeling programs such as SketchUp, TinkerCAD, or others (depending on the instructor), as well as learning how to optimize these designs for printing.
Lego Robotics Camp
About: This camp is for beginner & intermediate LEGO Roboteers! Explore robotics concepts using the LEGO Robotics platform. Campers use “Scratch”-style block coding to guide their LEGO robots through various missions, while learning how to use sensors to help their robots navigate challenges and obstacles. Through building and modifying their robots to complete missions, campers learn problem-solving skills that help them become independent STEAM-thinkers!
Sustainable Engineering Leaders of the Future (SELF) Residential Summer Institute for High School Students
The SELF Institute is a week-long, no-cost program that connects Maine high school students to STEM career pathways. Students will explore cutting-edge research at the University of Maine by participating in demonstrations, hands-on projects and field trips. Participants will also have recreational activities at the New Balance Student Recreation Center.
Build Your Own Computer Camp
Have you ever wondered what all the parts of a desktop computer do? How a computer is put together, configured, and setup to run? This camp is for youth who want to build and test their own computer. We will be posting the specs of the computer by the end of May. We will be checking with prices early in spring to maximize performance for your build (within our budget). Each camper will use surplus and new parts that will be provided in order to build a fully functional personal computer. Included in the computer will be: – Case and power supply (min 500 watt) – MATX Motherboard – AMD CPU – DDR4 RAM – Solid state drive – Keyboard and mouse – Monitor – WiFi adapter The typical finished computer is a solid, mid-range build with basic peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse). While not a $2,000+ high-end gaming machine, campers will leave with a great first PC, and also leave with the knowledge of how to upgrade it in the future (if they choose to do so). However, it will play most games at a reasonable frame rate and at a reasonable resolution. This program is an excellent opportunity for the youth to learn about computer architecture and to understand how all the different parts of a computer fit together, both physically and electronically. Each camper will get to take the computer home when they are finished! Open to ages 12 to 16. Want to learn more about our camps? Check out our website here: https://usm.maine.edu/stem-outreach/stem-camps/
LEGO Builders Camp
Build, think, learn, and play! This camp will explore simple machines and focus on science we can’t see – like forces, motion, and physical interactions. LEGO Builders is a camp for 7, 8, & 9-year old STEM explorers to get hands-on experience by building LEGO creations that demonstrate physical science & engineering concepts. Campers work in groups to solve engineering challenges, tapping into their creativity while collaborating to build their own unique solutions. Please note – this is not our LEGO Robotics camp! This camp will not include the same level of robotics & programming. Instead, campers will tackle challenges and build their own creations using LEGO bricks & pieces – mostly unplugged! This camp is great for developing creative problem-solving skills while having fun building with LEGOS. For ages 7-9, no experience required. This camp runs 9:00am to 3:30pm, Monday through Friday. Want to learn more about our camps? Check out our website here: https://usm.maine.edu/stem-outreach/stem-camps/
Programming in Minecraft Camp
With over 173,000,000 active users, and over 5,000 servers running at any one time in the world, Minecraft has become and stayed as one of the world’s top games, and certainly the top creative game. It is also one of the most popular game-based learning environments, finding its way in hundreds of classrooms to teach concepts such as math, history, language arts, and digital citizenship. There are over 3,000,000 people playing Minecraft at any moment! You probably know lots of people who spend time creating houses, roads, towns, mines, as well as gather experience points by battling monsters (mobs). What if you could start learning how to change what you are doing, not just playing with what the game comes with? Programming in Minecraft introduces coding concepts through in-game block-based coding, in which campers use a version of the Lua language to interact with the in-game world. Campers use the knowledge they learn throughout the camp to design and code their own “mods” – custom content and modifications in the game that work with their at-home (PC) versions of the game. Time is set aside to “just play the game”, but the camp focuses on learning new skills and becoming more familiar with programming and problem solving. You do not need to have a Minecraft account, but you should bring your login information with you if you have an account so you can play as yourself. Open to ages 10 to 14 Want to learn more about our camps?
