Vision

To give every child an opportunity to be curious and excited about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Mission

To spark, cultivate, and promote children’s interest in science.

Eight Overarching Goals that Support Our Mission and Vision

Promote children’s interest in STEM. For all the reasons listed on our Why a Science Camp? page—that is, to attract more students to math and science, improve their performance in those subjects, increase college enrollment in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields and, ultimately, prepare students for careers in STEM fields—we are passionately committed to this endeavor.

Reinforce classroom learning. Statistics show that in the summer students forget up to 80 percent of what they learned during the school year. This program is designed to reinforce classroom learning and promote retention through fun, hands-on science projects and math games.

Demystify complex science topics by using our inside-out approach. Our approach engages campers in creative projects and experiments. As they watch their efforts come to life and are “wowed” by their accomplishments, we begin teaching the science behind their achievement. This approach has been proven extremely effective in sustaining interest in science.

Expose children to career options in science. We invite scientists in various fields to speak about their jobs and how they were attracted to them. This is designed to help students understand that the astronauts, meteorologists, engineers, doctors, and other scientists they hear about started out just like they are. We are developing an online database where users can list STEM jobs. Children can pick a job from the database, read about it, post it to our map of “What I Would Like to Do When I Grow Up,” and print a keepsake certificate with their selected job title.

Improve the health and wellbeing of children. Breaks, play activities, lunch recommendations and targeted science lessons are designed to promote physical activity, health and wellbeing.

Explore the intersection of art and science. This intersection creates a real opportunity for engaging children’s interest in science. Many children who are afraid of science do not realize the immense interconnectedness between art and science. One way to demystify science for such learners is to build on the relationshipo between science and the arts.

Teach money-management skills. We teach the value of saving and building wealth (e.g., personal finance, banking, investment, and tips for starting and running a business) as part of our curricula. Effective money-management skills help our campers as they strive to succeed as students and scientists.

Teach proper etiquette and character. Today, it’s common for kids (and some grownups) to text in the middle of a job interview, eat with both hands at social events, etc. Bullying and other types of harassment and abuse are on the increase. The purpose of our etiquette and character-development lessons is to prepare children to confidently and successfully navigate any social setting. Campers learn to develop confidence in themselves and cultivate the belief that they can achieve whatever they set their minds to. This mind-set will help them enter and succeed in science fields.

Take fun, educational field trips. We all look forward to having fun in the summer. That’s why we have built eight thrilling trips, one each week, into our summer camp program. Our past destinations include the Liberty Science Center, Statue of Liberty, The Franklin Institute, Battleship New Jersey, The Hershey Factory, Northlandz, Crayola Factory, Camden Children’s Garden, Insectropolis, and the Seashell Museum.