Engineering Summer Camps Aims to Enlighten Students
Parents looking to boost their childs interest in math and science have help. This Project SYNCERE (Supporting Youths Needs with Core Engineering Research Experiments), a local community organization is hosting two 6-week engineering camps. One camp will be geared towards middle school students and will be held at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The other camp designed for high school students will be held at Kenwood Academy in conjunction with the After School Matters program.
Middle school students will learn new aspects of engineering while high school students will work on projects and developing marketing plans for products they create.
Jason Coleman, Project SYNCERE co-founder and executive director recently discussed the details about the two camps with Chicago Citizen.
Each week, (middle school) students focus on a different area of engineering while completing a particular task, Coleman said. Students will participate in several projects such as robotics, air and flight, electrical circuit design and bridge design. The high school students will participate in project such as robotics and renewable energy. They will also work to design a new product to solve an issue in their community and come up with a marketing plan to introduce the product to the market.
Coleman said most of Project SYNCEREs programs are free and the organization tries to accommodate as many students as possible. Coleman also said that getting students involved in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields at an early age gives them a head start in a successful STEM career.
The camp at Kenwood Academy is free, however, the middle school program is fee based.
We didn't have the funding to run the middle school program for free, so instead of not doing one, we opted to offer a quality STEM program to students whose parents could afford to pay for the program, Coleman said.
Project SYNCERE officially began in 2009 and has served more than 3,200 students throughout the Chicago area. It was founded by three African American males who have successful careers in the STEM fields.
We have successfully been able to implement our program in more than 25 schools throughout the city and continue to grow, said Coleman. Our goal is to expand our programming to other urban cities to help transform the minds of the youth throughout the nation and show them how rewarding a career in STEM can be.
To learn more about Project SYNCERE or to register for summer camp, please visit www.projectsyncere.org
Project SYNCERE Middle School Summer Engineering CampLocation: University of Illinois at ChicagoDates: Monday-Friday from July 9 - August 17, 2012Times: 9:00-3:00 p.m.Extended Hours: 3:00-4:30 p.m.Cost: $275/weekProject SYNCERE / After School Matters High School Summer Engineering CampLocation: Kenwood Academy (5015 S. Blackstone Ave)Dates: Monday-Thursday from June 25 - August 2, 2012Times: 9:00-1:00 p.m.By Thelma Sardin
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