STEAM Camps Sweep College of Charleston

An Art Attack camper at work!

The College of Charleston recently hosted two camps that focused on inspiring interest in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) fields among young students.

The first, Camp Art Attack, took place from June 22-25, 2015, and involved creative storytelling, engineering and design, visual arts, script writing, theatre and dance. The camp emphasized a principle called “art infusion” in the hopes that the rising kindergarten-through-fifth-grade students would be able to better incorporate the arts into their classroom learning experiences.

“Art infusion weaves the visual and performing arts into the fibers of the curriculum taking the engagement of hands-on learning from the arts and making connections to other content areas,” Assistant Professor of Teacher Education and Camp Director, Tracey Hunter-Doniger said.

Campers at the Geek Squad Academy’s Junior Girls Day Out workshop.

The second camp, a two-day intensive workshop called Geek Squad Academy, was hosted at the College in late June 2015 and directed by Best Buy’s nonprofit organization of the same name. The camp connects Geek Squad professionals with girls age 10 to 17 to learn about technology.

“The purpose of the camp is to help girls feel more comfortable with technology and to eliminate the ‘I can’t do that, I don’t know how’ attitude that many young girls have when it comes to computing,” Christine Moore, senior instructor of computer science, said.

One class the participants of Geek Squad Academy took, called Digital Citizenship, deals with etiquette and safety practices for children and young adults, while another instructs on 3-D printing.