Children are natural-born scientists.
It’s our job to create the experiences to help them explore this talent.
Our Mission: To inspire our next generation of scientists to remain perpetually curious and to acquire the skills necessary to excel as leaders and effective problem solvers.
Stem And Steam Camp Summer Dates
Plainview Location
Ages 5-15 Campers 5-111, 12-15 year olds can be considered CITs and come to camp at a reduced rate in exchange for assistance with materials and help with the younger campers.
16 year olds who have worked as CITs are eligible for assistantship postions starting at $15./hour
Monday-Thursday 9:30-1:30
$60/day or $200/week
Ages 12-15 year olds CITs $25/day
Classes make full use of a town of Oyster Bay park in walking distance. Each day includes a stem project, games and activities, nature exploration and playground time. Bathing suits are recommended for sprinker/splash pool time on very hot days.
Call or text message 646-283-4192 to reserve your space
Daily Schedule
9:20-10:00 As campers arrive they participate in a collaborative building project, involving paper, clay, legos and up-cycled materials
10-11:00 Campers begin their independent take home project of the day(campers can choose the daily project or one from previous days they may have missed).
11:00 Snack and bathroom break, sunscreen applied
11:15-12:15 Outdoor time, this may include; rocket launches, nature exploration, playground time, scavenger hunts and cooperative games or time in our splash pool
12:15 Indoor games or science activity
12:45 Pack up
Collaborative Building
Each week we have a different collaborative design project. Ages 5-12 work together to build one aspect of a village. During week 1, we built bridges. One of our older students attempted to make hers a drawbridge while another proceeded to teach us about Humbolt Squid, which he drew beautifully in the water, while others chose to build roads connecting to the bridges and lego cars to travel along them. Collaborative building is entirely camper led with instructor support for materials and ideas. Each child is encouraged to become engaged in one aspect of the process.
June 30th-July 3rd
Red, White and Glue!
BEgin each day by following the paint splatter to our colorful room and add to our collaborative mural.
Monday
We’ll make a rainbow in a bowl and make a firework launcher. We’ll look at the science behind rainbows and take home a pair of light difracting glasses to watch the fireworks.
Tuesday
Light up the night! We’ll make light up firefilies and a light up lava lamp. We’ll also mix a glow in the dark concotion.
Wednesday
Black Light Party! Wear some white and we’ll watch it glow and make a colory changing potion. We’ll also make fairy gardens and gnome homes with glowing rocks to light up your gardens at night!
Thursday: We’ll make a kaleidoscope and a color wheel and watch how colors reflect and shine in the changing light.
July 7th-10th
Creative Chemistry
Monday Elephant Toothpaste and Oobleck!
Just like on Nickelodeon, it’s time to get slimed!
We’ll make a slimy mixure of oobleck in our wading pool and have some fun sliming one another. Oobleck is made from cornstrch and water and washes off clothng and hair easily (however participants can choose to opt out of being slimed :).
Indoors we’ll make a bubbly beverage and mix up a batch of elephant toothhpaste, then watch as it oozes out of our bottled containers from a frothy mess!
Tuesday:
We’ll make stretchy slime today add a host of ingredients and experiement to see which we like best. We’ll also make a bubbly potion in our cauldrons.
Outdoors: We’ll try out the Gazillion Bubble Show’s recipe for the most resilient bubbles and watch them soar.
Wednesday: We’ll blow up balloons using the power of chemistry and make our own sour dough starter. We’ll make our own bread and watch it rise!
Thursday: We’ll observe sinking and floating phenomenom as we make our own lava lamps, and experiement with a cartesian diver inside a soda bottle.
July 14th-July 17th
Dinosaurs Roar!
Each morning will begin with cooperative additions ot our Jurassic Park as we add volcanoes, trees, giant insects and more of what our imaginations dictate.
Monday: We begin our journey by resurrecting some ancient dinosaurs. We’ll preserve a fly in amber, then learn about DNA as we extract it from a strawberry and envision how Jurassic Park was conceived. We’ll also set up a decomposition experiment using apple cores in soil, sand rocks do determine rates of decompostion.
Tuesday: We’ll make a mud flat and bury our dinosaurs inside, then let it harden in the sun. When we return from our outdoor playtime, we’ll use excavation tools to unearth them.
Wednesday: We’ll begin to build our own hybirdized dinosuars based on common characteristics of dinos we know. For example our dino might walk on two legs but have Stegasarus sails or an Ankylosaurus club tail. We’ll use boxes and duct tape to build our dinos.
Since volcanoes are closely associated with the Jurassic period, we’ll build two types of volcanoes and make some awesome flowing lava flumes.
Thursday: We’ll unearth our decomposing apple cores, explode our volcanoes again and complete our Jurassic Park scene.
July 21st-July 24th
Space Week
Monday: We begin our journey on Earth and build a variety of rockets to launch us out of the Earth’s atmosphere. We’ll learn the parts of rockets and how they work, we’ll launch a water rocket as well as alka seltzer rockets to get us to the ISS
Tuesday: We’ll arrive aboard the ISS,. prepare a dehydrated space snack, use lots of velcro and experience a bit of what life is like for astronauts living aboard the ISS. We’’ll build space probes and launch them using our alka seltzer rockets
Wednesday: We’ll begin our solar system models as we continue to explore outward into space. We’ll design each planet then attach them to our model.
Thursday: We’ll add details to our solar system models, then with a short burst of air, we’ll make our way back to earth.
July 28th-July 31st
Our Dynamic Planet -
This will be our most delicious camp week as we’ll be eating our way through the rock cycle and ending with an edible earth
Monday: We’ll build volcanoes today and explode them while observign and learning about igneous rocks
Tuesday: We’ll observe and make some crystals inside egg shells. Using a starburst we’ll demonstrate the process of ingneous rocks transforming into both metamorphic and sedimentary rocks in this yummy experiment.
Wednesday: We’ll observe and make a conglomoerate rock using melted chocolate and adding Metamorphic(jelly beans), and sedimentary(graham crackers), to our creations
Thursday: We’ll make an edible earth today as we wrap up our week.
Undersea Adventures
August 4th-7th
Each day will begin with some time to add to our undersea mural depicting the layers of the ocean as wel head deeper and deeper
Monday: Taking advantage of the low tide, we’ll also do some crab hunting today, as it will be low tide as well as some beach combing. Then build a coral reef terrarium using colorful clay and gravel as well as our beach findings.
Tuesday: We’ll dscover sharks and map out the shortest to the larget. We’ll dig for shark teeth and make a model of a megalodon tooth! Then we’ll dive deeper to make an angler fish model complete with a cricuit to light it up.
Wednesday: We’ll make a hydrothermal vent community in our terrariums and explode our underwater volcanoes.
Thursday: We’ll design a tool to explore the ocean bottom while at the surface and test it out at Roosevelt Beach. We’ll design different methods for powering boats using balloon powered motors, paddles and sails.