It teaches problem-solving and collaboration in a manner that cannot be addressed during the conventional school year.

Northern Lehigh School District’s seventh annual STEAM summer camp is open to students of the district entering third through sixth grade in the 2025-2026 school year

Under the guidance and sponsorship of the Northern Lehigh Education Foundation and local businesses, the camp provides students with student-centered, project-based, and inquiry-driven STEAM opportunities to investigate careers, conduct experiments, and expand their understanding of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.

STEAM Summer Camp began last week and runs through Thursday, and was for students in third through sixth grades at Slatington Elementary School.

Sixty-five students took part in the program, said STEAM Camp director Dr. Jen Butz.

“This initiative reflects a growing national effort to provide students with hands-on experiences in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math,” Butz said. “Programs like ours are part of a broader movement to build creativity, problem-solving, and innovation skills that prepare students for the future.”

Hands-on activities this year included solar system models, egg drop challenge, stop motion filming, Lego animation, Sphero Battle Bots, coding, and neon activities.

The students also experimented with Newton’s 3rd law, applied the engineering process, designed a race car, learned about moon craters, built huts to withstand windstorms, learned about the different phases of the moon, worked with robotics, made solar ovens, and applied patterns when making bracelets.

Soon-to-be Slatington Elementary third-grader Viviane Baker offered a litany of reasons why she plans to sign up for STEAM Summer Camp each year.

“We learn new things and make new things, and you create this new stuff that you never learned before,” said Vivian, 7. “It’s really cool to be here; it’s awesome.”

Fellow soon-to-be third-grader Luke Gross, 8, was also stoked and said he enjoyed learning how to shape clay.

Elsewhere, Beau Eck, who is about to enter fifth grade, has already set his sights high through the projects afforded to him through STEAM Summer Camp.

“I want to be an engineer and a scientist,” said Beau, 10.

Moira Sander, who is about to enter fifth grade, perhaps summed up the experience best of all when she quipped “It’s awesome.”

Butz said the district is thankful for a $25,000 EITC Grant to the district’s Education Foundation from The Neffs National Bank.