Summer Camps for the Future
Learn how summer camps can help inspire careers. Summer camp is a time for fun, learning and making new friends. And for some, it’s also the chance to think abo
Ignite Curiosity and Potential
Invest in your child's future. Nurture their fundamental problem-solving and critical thinking with various after-school STEM programs across Orange County.
Editor's Picks
Breaking Barriers
Fairmont Preparatory Academy’s Role in Advancing Young Women in STEM. Network of organizations committed to informing and encouraging girls to pursue careers
CSI for STEM
Local schools find an innovative way to teach STEM through crime scene investigation and forensics programs…
Recent Articles
Summer Camps for the Future
Learn how summer camps can help inspire careers. Summer camp is a time for fun, learning and making new friends. And for some, it’s also the chance to think abo
Breaking Barriers
Fairmont Preparatory Academy’s Role in Advancing Young Women in STEM. Network of organizations committed to informing and encouraging girls to pursue careers
CSI for STEM
Local schools find an innovative way to teach STEM through crime scene investigation and forensics programs…
Sea Change
Students ready to board the Crystal Cove Conservancy Science Cruise out of Davey’s Locker. (Photo courtesy of Davey’s Locker Sportfishing) The Marine Protected Area Science Cruise offers underserved students hands-on science field trips. For some, it’s a chance to get out of class and do something different. For others, it’s a pivotal moment that opens doors to new opportunities and career choices. Either way, local students — many from Title 1 and underserved schools — are playing an important role in protecting the environment. All of this is happening through the Marine Protected Area Science Cruise, a program that’s been...
STEM Survival
(Photo Courtesy of Bionerds) How STEM programs survived and continue to thrive in public schools and throughout the county. The massive, nationwide experiment that was the 2020-2021 school year is now essentially over. Whether parents, teachers or students liked it or not, every student got a taste of being home schooled. The ability to adapt — either financially, technologically or logistically — was often the key to success. As an entire school year operated on a makeshift plan, some subjects fared better than others. So while it was not a great time to be a P.E. teacher, others were seemingly...
Science and Craft
Take this time at home to create these educational and fun science projects with the kids. With schools closed, the kids have been home for weeks now and you’re running out of ideas for them. Remote learning might be going well but in any case, children are antsy and looking for new activities. The best possible solution is to combine some real learning with novel fun. Kids aren’t in classes where science experiments can take place, but there are plenty of science-related activities you can conduct at home. Of course, there’s a little extra challenge to this, given the stay-at-home...
Amazing STEM Programs in Orange County
[caption id="attachment_34534" align="aligncenter" width="740"] Troy High School’s Science Olympiad team winning the 2019 National Tournament at Cornell University.[/caption] OC is home to some of the greatest science, tech and robotics teams in the country. Troy High School in Fullerton has created a monster. A bunch of whip-smart students has carefully and methodically built up a towering behemoth so fierce, it has dominated a nation for more than two decades. At least that’s one way of looking at Troy’s legacy at the Science Olympiad. When you want to point to one of Orange County’s stars of STEM, this one is pretty...
Integrating STEM Education into Local Private Schools
The concept of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) has opened up the floodgates of practical and creative classroom learning.
Summer Science Programs for Kids
[caption id="attachment_31917" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Photo courtesy of Bionerds Inc.[/caption] The ruddy duck is a diving bird. Its plump, cinnamon-colored body bobs on the surface of a pond at the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, supposedly catching its breath. Audubon naturalist Jay Miller points out the duck’s baby-blue beak, a beak so bright people have asked him if it was painted on. A collective gasp rises from the audience as it dips out of view. Another cry is heard: “Look! An osprey!” The giant bird, wings poised in a shallow V, sails across the sky. But it wasn’t Miller who identified it:...
Full STEAM Ahead to Camp and Afterschool Clubs
Learning about science used to involve dusty textbooks, the dissection of frogs and chalkboard benzene ring renderings. Judging by the experiments OC kids are up to at extracurricular school clubs and educational camps, science has become considerably cooler. These days, kids are learning about physics through bungee-diving Barbies, engineering through flying Legos and trigonometry through leaps from moving Ferris wheels. Indeed, educators and camp directors are finding innovative ways of engaging children as they strive to strengthen a passion for science, technology, math, art and engineering (STEAM) subjects. It’s an effort that’s being made on both local and federal levels....