Camp aims to get more kids excited about STEM

More than 250 high school students came to Rice this summer for the Say STEM Camps, which, are designed to help them learn math and science concepts and develop effective communication skills through oral presentation and graphic design.

The six-day, overnight residential summer camps focus on math, physics, computer science, engineering and biology and host students from Texas and all over the world, including countries such as China, England and the United Arab Emirates. The program’s goal is for students to be equipped to explain a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) idea to their parents at the conclusion of their week on campus. The camp is organized by the Tapia Center for Excellence and Equity at Rice University.

“STEM high school education is so important, because getting people excited about STEM early makes them more likely to pursue the fields,” said Paul Hand, director of the Say STEM Camps and an adjunct assistant professor of computational and applied mathematics at Rice. “STEM fields require extensive math and science classes, which students need to take in high school in order to be ready for collegeSTEM majors.”

Initially designed as a calculus camp for 40 participants in 2015, the Say STEM program has evolved and now places equal emphasis on STEM and communication. The program is organized by Rice’s Tapia Center for Excellence and Equity.

“(The program) offers an opportunity to encourage young, underrepresented minority youth to consider careers in STEM areas by demonstrating to them how interesting and exciting these careers can be,” said Richard Tapia, University Professor, the Maxfield-Oshman Chair in Engineering and director of the Tapia Center.

According to Hand, the majority of camper fees are paid for by the students’ school districts via federal funds, gifted and talented funds or a grant.

Throughout the week, students complete two STEM projects. At the end of the week, students present one project through a short oral presentation and the other by a one-page, hand-drawn graphic. They also create 30-second video postcards of themselves explaining STEM ideas, hear presentations from Rice professors and take a field trip to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

The Ice Cube Engineering Challenge, an exciting camp highlight, employs teams of four to build a device that causes an ice cube to melt the fastest using only $5 worth of materials. After an hour of building , the groups test their devices.

“Figuring out the best way to put together the structure was the greatest challenge,” said a high school student from Texas who wants to be a geneticist. “No one knows how to use the penny we were provided.”

Reginald DesRoches, dean of Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering, served as a guest judge for the challenge and gave a few words of encouragement before the ice cubes were melted.
“Engineers can do anything, whether you want to be an engineer or not,” DesRoches said. “The problem-solving and critical-thinking skills will open endless worlds for you. Stick with it. We’re facing a lot of severe problems today and we need students like you who can solve problems. While doing well in your math and science classes is important, don’t ignore your English classes. You won’t be successful if you can’t communicate your math and science learnings.”

The camp concluded with an award ceremony honoring the best graphic, best presentation and best problem-solver.

Vice President for Enrollment Yvonne Romero da Silva spoke at the ceremony.
“You are the young men and women who fuel my life and what I do every day,” Romero da Silva said. “I’m inspired by all of you. You took a week out of your life to exercise a skill and passion. This is a skill set that will fuel you for the rest of your life.”

The students’ oral presentations featured a broad range of topics, including steganography, plastic waste and the law of heat transfer. They used communication techniques such as analogies, examples and personalization to grab the audience’s attention.

Tapia delivered a commencement address to conclude the ceremony.

“You should realize by now that your life consists of a sequence of tests from elementary school to career,” Tapia said. “Each one becomes much less structured, which requires more freedom and creativity, but each step becomes an opportunity to make a broader impact. Success is rarely the consequence of one giant step, but more often many little steps.”

In addition to Say STEM Camps, the Tapia Center will train more than 140 K-12 teachers in professional development in project-based learning this summer and seeks to offer more programs at Rice and around the country.