15 STEM Summer Programs in Arkansas for Middle School Students
- Stephen Turban
- 45 minutes ago
- 9 min read
Do you like science, computers, or building things, but feel like school moves too fast to spend real time on it? STEM summer programs give you that time.
These programs let middle school students work on hands-on projects that feel different from regular classes. You might try robotics, coding, engineering design, or science experiments that go deeper than what you normally do during the school year.
What STEM summer programs are available for middle schoolers in Arkansas?
Arkansas offers STEM summer programs through universities, science organizations, and education-focused nonprofits. You can find options in areas like robotics, coding, engineering design, environmental science, math enrichment, and general STEM exploration. Local programs are also more manageable as travel and housing will not be needed. That makes it easier to explore STEM without turning it into a major expense.
With that in mind, here are 15 STEM summer programs for middle school students in Arkansas!
You can also explore virtual STEM programs open to middle school students from Arkansas here!
15 STEM Summer Programs in Arkansas for Middle School Students
Location: Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR
Cost: Free, fully funded
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Application Deadline: May 2 (tentatively)
Dates: June 23 – 26
Eligibility: Arkansas students in grades 6–8 with exceptional ability or interest in STEM
Operation A.I.M.S. at Arkansas State University is a short residential program that introduces you to medical and health focused STEM in a way that feels hands-on instead of lecture heavy. Over four days, you rotate through activities connected to areas like nursing, engineering, and health professions. You spend time on basic lab style exercises and team challenges, then connect what you are doing to real health careers. The program also gives you early exposure to how different STEM fields support medicine, from diagnostics to technology systems used in hospitals.
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies; need-based financial aid is available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: 8 weeks; multiple cohorts run throughout the year
Application Deadline: Rolling deadlines; you can apply to the program here
Eligibility: Students in grades 6–8 with strong academic backgrounds
The Lumiere Junior Explorer Program is designed for middle school students who want to explore their academic interests through one-on-one mentorship and project work. The program was founded by a Harvard and Oxford PhD who met as undergraduates. You’ll work with PhD-level mentors from leading universities like Harvard, Yale, Duke, MIT, Stanford, and LSE to create an independent project based on your interests. You can choose from STEM, social sciences, business, and other fields, and design a project that fits your goals, such as a research paper or presentation. The program will help you develop skills in research, critical thinking, and independent learning, which can be useful for future research programs and academic competitions. You can find the application here!
Location: University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Application Deadline: May 15 (tentatively)
Dates: July 28 – August 1 (tentatively)
Eligibility: Current 7th and 8th-grade students interested in tech fields.
Girls Who Code offers a one-week, non-residential camp at UA Little Rock that introduces you to computer science, information systems, and basic web development. You take part in hands-on workshops, short lectures, and visits to local workplaces where women working in technology discuss their career paths and daily work. The program includes conversations about gender representation in tech and ways to work effectively and support others in technical settings. Over the course of the week, you practice coding, problem-solving, and collaborative project work. You also receive guidance on early academic planning, including how to begin preparing for college and technology-related fields.
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies; financial assistance is available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective; 5:1 student-to-mentor ratio
Dates: 25 hours over 10 weeks (on weekends) during the spring cohort and 25 hours over 2 weeks (on weekdays) during the summer cohort
Application Deadline: Rolling deadlines; you can apply to the program here
Eligibility: Students in grades 6–8
The AI Trailblazers program by Veritas AI is a virtual program for middle school students that introduces the basics of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Over 25 hours, you’ll learn Python fundamentals along with data analysis, image classification, regression, neural networks, and AI ethics. The program uses lectures and small-group sessions with a 5-to-1 student-to-mentor ratio and includes hands-on project work. Past projects have included creating a model to classify music genres and building an algorithm that generates custom lists of educational resources based on set criteria. You can find the application here.
Location: University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR
Cost: Fully funded
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Application Deadline: Not specified
Dates: July 14 – 18 (tentatively)
Eligibility: Arkansas students entering grades 7–9 with an interest in STEAM
The Summer STEAM Academy at the University of Central Arkansas introduces you to ecology alongside visual arts through hands-on work in local natural settings. You gather and record data on native trees, study birdsong with spectrogram tools, and examine freshwater crustaceans as part of guided scientific activities. Each science component is paired with an art-based task, such as creating pigments from leaves, experimenting with printmaking techniques, or developing sound-focused artwork. You work with other students to plan and assemble a visual STEAM project inspired by regional plants and animals.
Location: Online
Cost: Tuition-free
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Highly selective with cohorts of 12 students
Application Deadline: March 25
Dates: Summer course: July 6 – 24 ; Fall meetings: August 26 – December 9
Eligibility: Current grades 6–7, U.S. residents attending U.S. schools, low-income households (typically under $90,000)
SMSSP supports middle school students from low-income backgrounds as they prepare for more academically demanding high school environments through live, online instruction and structured academic planning. You start with a three-week summer session, followed by regular weekly classes during the fall that focus on skills such as academic writing, math practice, study strategies, and understanding different types of high schools. Courses are taught by instructors from Stanford Online High School with strong academic backgrounds. During sessions, you participate in live discussions with students from across the country and work on assignments in multiple subject areas.
Location: Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, Hot Springs, AR
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Application Deadline: Late April (tentative)
Dates: Typically in June
Eligibility: Arkansas students who are current 8th- and 9th-graders, or 7th-graders who are participants in ASMSA-TIP
ASMSA Summer Camps offer several residential options that allow you to explore different academic areas through focused instruction and mentorship. You may choose a program centered on world languages and cultures, chamber music performance, or computer science topics such as coding, physical computing, and game design. Other options include environmental science and biotechnology, which involves field studies in Hot Springs National Park along with laboratory work, or an engineering camp focused on circuits, soldering, and design-based problem solving. Ignite Camp combines science, arts, and literature in an interdisciplinary setting.
Location: University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Application Deadline: May 15 (tentatively)
Dates: June 15 – June 21 (tentatively)
Eligibility: Current 8th-11th graders interested in engineering.
The UA Little Rock Engineering Scholars Program is a one-week residential program that introduces you to engineering through project-based learning and laboratory activities. You explore areas such as robotics while working on structured, hands-on assignments. The program includes visits to local industrial sites, where you meet practicing engineers and see how engineering concepts are used in professional settings. You also take part in advising and counseling sessions that focus on college preparation and selecting high school courses related to engineering. Together, these components help you understand what studying engineering involves and how it connects to future academic and career choices.
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Unspecified
Application Deadline: No deadline
Dates: Self paced, available year-round
Eligibility: All female middle school students are eligible
Girls Who Code Python activities introduce you to programming using Python, a widely used text-based language. You complete guided exercises that show how code can be used for tasks like building a simple chatbot, working with datasets, and creating visual representations of data. The lessons walk you through making and interpreting graphs such as line, bar, pie, histogram, and scatter plots. One unit uses publicly available Kickstarter data to show how real-world information can be organized and analyzed. As you progress, you practice key data skills including cleaning datasets, recognizing patterns, and forming conclusions based on the results. You also work on explaining your findings clearly and tailoring your explanations for different audiences, such as teachers, researchers, or project partners.
Location: University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR
Cost: $350; need-based scholarships are available up to 100%
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Application Deadline: June 2
Dates: July 6 – 17
Eligibility: Students who have completed grades K-6 and are academically and/or creatively advanced for their age.
The Summer Laureate University for Youth (SLUFY) provides an opportunity for you to engage in in-person learning designed for academically advanced students. Held on the UA Little Rock campus, the program offers courses in STEM, the arts, and the humanities, led by graduate students in gifted education, certified teachers, and subject-matter experts. You participate in hands-on activities, creative projects, and problem-solving exercises that help you build skills and explore new concepts. Throughout the program, you receive guidance and mentorship from instructors, supporting your growth and allowing you to explore interests in a focused, interactive environment.
Location: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
Cost: $350 (scholarships available)
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Unspecified
Application Deadline: Unspecified
Dates: June 1 – 5; July 6 – 10; July 27 – 31
Eligibility: Students entering 8th or 9th grade
Explore Engineering introduces middle school students to engineering disciplines through themed hands-on challenges at the University of Arkansas. You take on roles as inventors and detectives in the Mystery Mansion theme. You solve STEM challenges across engineering fields offered by the university. Teamwork and critical thinking help unlock puzzles involving hidden technologies. You engage in hands-on exploration of real-world problems. Creativity guides your approach to each activity. The program covers major engineering disciplines through immersive tasks.
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective, less than 5%
Application Deadline: May 21 (tentatively)
Dates: June 22 – July 27 (tentatively)
Eligibility: Female students in grades 6–11 interested in STEM.
The WASH Summer Research Institute offers an online program where you explore STEM through research-focused learning. You choose from three tracks , Number Theory, Computational Neuroscience, or Deep Learning , and work through lessons, coding exercises, and projects based on real scientific problems. Depending on your track, you might use math to encode messages, simulate neural activity in Python, or train an AI model to identify images. Each week, you meet virtually with instructors and other students to discuss concepts and apply them through guided exercises.
Location: Lewis Science Center, Conway, AR
Cost: $175
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Unspecified (few spots remaining noted for prior year)
Application Deadline: Unspecified
Dates: July 7 – 10 (tentatively)
Eligibility: Students entering 4th, 5th, or 6th grade
UCA Challenge is an in person summer program for students entering grades 4 to 6. It runs through three daily classes, each built around hands-on science activities. You work with materials provided by the program and move through structured tasks that focus on curiosity and problem solving. It is not framed as a selective program, but it can still be a good local option if you want a serious science based day program.
Location: UCA STEM Institute (Old Main building), Conway, AR
Cost: $100
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Unspecified
Application Deadline: Unspecified
Dates: July 21 – 24
Eligibility: Students entering 5th, 6th, or 7th grade
Data Detectives focuses on data collection and analysis through product testing experiments at the University of Central Arkansas. You conduct experiments to test everyday product performance. You collect real data and create mathematical models to predict durability and effectiveness. Statistical analysis helps turn findings into consumer recommendations. You examine factors that determine product quality. Activities connect science, mathematics, and practical applications.
Location: Online (among other locations like Stanford University, UCLA)
Cost: $1,095 (Day Camp online)
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Unspecified
Application Deadline: Unspecified
Dates: July 20 – 24
Eligibility: Grades 6–8
Genetics 6–8 teaches middle school students genetics fundamentals, heritable diseases, and inheritance mechanisms through interactive and hands-on methods. You study the Central Dogma of Biology from DNA to protein. You examine molecular and organismal inheritance plus genomic studies. Hands-on tasks include building models with candy, extracting strawberry DNA, and using student-built microscopes. You conduct lab demos on inheritance aspects. You research a heritable disease and present at the EU Genetics Conference. You explore genetics careers in professional contexts.
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a graduate of Harvard College, where he earned an A.B. in Statistics. 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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