10 Engineering Camps for Middle School Students
- Stephen Turban
- 16 hours ago
- 7 min read
Enrolling in a summer camp is a great place to start for middle schoolers looking to upgrade their engineering knowledge to the next level. Participating in an established summer camp not only enhances your academic understanding of the field, but also lends you practical exposure to real-world problems and their possible engineering solutions.
In doing so, you will also find like-minded peers, mentors, and experts from the field, making it a fruitful way to spend your summer! Attending an engineering camp early on in school will also help you transition towards advanced engineering courses and programs during high school!
To make your task easier, we have picked the 10 best engineering camps for middle school students:
Acceptance Rate: Selective
Dates: Varies for different cohorts, with two Summer cohorts starting on June 2 & July 14.
Application Deadline: Varies for different cohorts, more details here.
Eligibility: Students in grades 6-8
Fee: $2,690 (Financial Aid Available)
Location: Virtual
The Junior Explorer Program (JEP) by Lumiere Education is a multi-disciplinary program for middle school students. Spanning 8 weeks, the online program also includes the choice to specialise in the field of engineering. During the first four weeks of the program, students explore varying disciplines or exploration tracks, ranging from physics & astrophysics to environmental studies. In weeks 5 and 6, you will be expected to identify your interest area and pick an exploration track of your choice.
Finally, in the last 2 weeks, you will develop a high-school-level project in the chosen field under the guidance of a PhD mentor from a top university! You will also get a chance to present the end product in the form of a research paper, a presentation, or a medium of your choice! Upon choosing the Engineering exploration track, you will identify a research question and resolve the same by coming up with an engineering solution to the problem!
Acceptance Rate: Highly selective.
Dates: June 23 - June 27
Application Deadline: March 3
Eligibility: Students entering grades 7-9 (students must attend school within a 60-mile radius of the university’s campus and at least have a B average)
Fee: $650 (Financial Aid available)
Location: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Penn GEMS is a prestigious week-long STEM camp for middle school students entering grades 7 to 9. Through hands-on engineering activities, students delve into subjects like nanotechnology, materials science, bioengineering, robotics, graphics, computing, and more!
Through a host of activities like Mechanical Engineering In Action, It’s A Robot, and Nanotech 101, you will learn to discover how engineers think and visualize yourself as one of them. By actually structuring your own vehicle, playing with your robot, and experimenting with nano-materials, you will be able to rein in your understanding of scientific theory in real-life situations!
Acceptance Rate: Selective
Dates: June 9 - June 20 (Cohort I) | July 14- July 25 (Cohort II)
Application Deadline: Varies according to the cohort; more details here.
Eligibility: Students in grades 6-8
Fee: $1,990 (Need-based financial aid is available)
Location: Virtual
AI Trailblazers by Veritas AI is a 2-week online program for middle school students interested in building their foundations in Python through real-world AI models. Over 25 hours of online instructions and activities, you will engage with subjects like neural networking, natural language processing, regression, image classification, deep learning, and more! The 5:1 mentor-to-student ratio ensures that your questions and queries don’t remain unattended.
Towards the end of the program, you will participate in a group activity to build a project using artificial intelligence or machine learning. The project must reflect your interest. For instance, students interested in the use of AI in healthcare can use neural networks to classify medical images! In the past, students have developed projects to enable malaria detection and CIFAR-10 recognition.
Acceptance Rate: Selective.
Dates: Varies according to the program, more details here.
Application Deadline: May 16
Eligibility: Students in grades 5-11
Fee: Varies according to the program.
Location: Multiple locations, more details here.
The catalogue of science and engineering programs at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth caters to students of all ages, including middle school students. Going beyond the school curricula with hands-on activities and experiments, the science and engineering courses cover multiple subfields in engineering.
The Physics of Engineering program focuses on subjects like mechanics, aerodynamics, electricity, orbital motion, and more! On the other hand, the Principles of Engineering Design course delves into the construction of modern vehicles in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The class size of less than 20 students also ensures optimal coordination between the instructor and the students!
Acceptance Rate: Selective, limited spots available.
Dates: August 4 - August 8
Application Deadline: TBD (Applications open)
Eligibility: Students in grades 6-8 (for students from Allston-Brighton schools)
Fee: Free
Location: Harvard Museum of Natural History, Cambridge, MA
Harvard Ed Portal’s Summer Explorations program caters to students from multiple age categories, including middle school students from Allston-Brighton schools. In the five-day program, hosted in partnership with Harvard Museum of Natural History, you will participate in 2.5-hour sessions on a daily basis.
Through the Island Hopping program, students will use microscopes to study microstructures that enable life in the ocean and design their own islands with varying ecosystems! Towards the end, through the usage of evolutionary game design, you will also create a board game to model their own islands!
Acceptance Rate: Open enrollment
Program Dates: Varies for different cohorts, more details here.
Application Deadline: Varies for different cohorts.
Eligibility: Students in grades 7-9
Fee: $1,465 (Financial Aid available)
Location: UC Berkeley, CA
UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science offers summer teen research programs for middle school students, with multiple programs focused on engineering subjects. Through typically 8-hour sessions from Monday to Friday, the week-long programs combine research-based learning and practical training to expose students to real-world applications of science and engineering.
In the Coding and Engineering Nano-Satellites for Space Exploration program, you will delve into block-based coding and learn how to resolve engineering problems encountered while modelling satellites. Similarly, in the Electrical Engineering with Solar Energy program, you will learn more about electrical circuitry and the iterative design process while being guided by engineering experts!
Students also get a chance to present their final projects!
7. dynaMIT
Acceptance Rate: Selective.
Dates: August 11 - August 15 (for students in grades 6-7)August 18 - August 22 (for students in grades 8-9)
Application Deadline: March 3
Eligibility: Students in grades 6-9
Fee: Free
Location: MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA
Hosted by mentors who study at MIT, dynaMIT is a free STEM program that primarily caters to economically disadvantaged middle school students. Through an introduction to science and engineering concepts, the course design will encourage you to use your critical thinking and design skills to engage in activities and challenges!
Your typical day will involve a range of activities, including ice-breaker sessions and practical training. For your capstone project, you will be guided by a mentor each day in performing basic coding and programming tasks. You will also get an opportunity to present your project to your peers and family on the final day!
Acceptance Rate: Not Selective
Program Dates: Multiple programs in and between June & July, more details here.
Application Deadline: Varies according to different programs.
Eligibility: Students in grades 6-8
Fee: $400-$650, depending on the program. (Scholarships available)
Location: Georgia Tech Atlanta Campus, Atlanta, GA
Georgia Institute of Technology’s CEISMC Summer P.E.A.K.S program caters to middle school students with varying summer programs, including those focused on engineering. Through daily sessions between 9 AM and 3 PM for five days, you will delve into subjects in science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics!
In Engineering the Future, you will delve into subjects in chemical engineering through hands-on and interactive activities. Students also rein in their academic understanding to approach real-world problems like water purification and waste-to-energy systems through a practical lens. The Code The Beat program, on the other hand, explores the linkages between computer engineering and music production through practical training!
Acceptance Rate: Selective.
Dates: July 7 - August 1
Application Deadline: May 15
Eligibility: Students in grades 7-8 (who are residents of New York City)
Fee: Free
Location: Multiple locations, more details here.
The Science of Smart Cities (SoSC) is a 4-week program that caters to middle school students interested in STEM. Through a focus on subjects like programming & sensor integration, coding, environmental & urban science, and other disciplines, you will encounter real-world issues in the urban world and be encouraged to resolve them through sustainable solutions.
In the process, you will also learn more about the basics of electronics & circuitry, and microcontroller programming! Recognising the importance of inter-personal skills and team-based activities, the program also features improv-based workshops, public speaking, and more!
Acceptance Rate: Selective; more details on the review process are available here.
Dates:June 16 - June 27 (Session I) | July 7 - July 18 (Session II)
Application Deadline: March 20
Eligibility: Students in grades 8-11
Fee: $3080, not including $65 registration fee and other course-specific costs. (Financial Aid available)
Location: Virtual
Through its pre-collegiate summer programs, Stanford offers a variety of online summer programs, including engineering programs. Typically, every program consists of 2 to 3 hour sessions on a daily basis for 2 weeks, with a couple of additional hours expected to be allotted for homework and assignments.
In the Introduction to Engineering course, you will explore multiple fields like biomedical engineering, civil engineering, computer engineering, and environmental engineering with a view to developing design principles while keeping ethical issues and other obstacles in mind. The Introduction to Java Programming course introduces students to Object-Oriented programming using Java and focuses on fundamental subjects like basic syntax, data structures, algorithms, and more!
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a PhD student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.
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