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One hundred students from the West Philadelphia Promise Zone will once again participate in Drexel's Summer STEAM Camp, created by a partnership with The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation.
Now in its fourth year, the Young Dragons Summer STEAM program will feature six weeks of education activities focused on the creative intersections of science, technology, engineering arts, athletics and mathematics. The free day camp, offered through a partnership between The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation and Drexel University’s ExCITe Center and Lindy Center for Civic Engagement, is annually attended by 100 middle school students in the West Philadelphia Promise Zone neighborhood.
The program is an expression of The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation’s mission to bring positive change in the lives of youth through innovative opportunities and resources.
“This will be a great opportunity for campers to experience a lot of amazing program offerings, while also leveraging experts, undergraduate and graduate students at Drexel, providing them opportunities to gain teaching experience through the development and implementation of STEAM curriculum,” said Gwendolyn V. Jenkins, president & CEO of The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation. “We have many fun learning activities planned throughout the six-week camp, including field trips to places like NovaCare Center, NBCUniversal, Franklin Institute, Fabric Workshop and Museum and more, to gain first-hand experience on the various areas of STEAM education and activities they are learning.”
Since its inception in 2015, the camp has steadily increased the amount of custom-developed STEAM content its presents each year. The curriculum strives to make the subjects of science, technology, engineering, math and the arts, resonate with students from a young age, so they are awakened to the power and relevance of these subjects in their day-to-day lives. Unlike any other summer camp in the nation, the program combines the latest technology and learning science research through novel activities including music production, visual arts and virtual reality and sports science.
New activities for this summer will illustrate the engineering principles behind the design of popular sneakers and will introduce themes of astrophysics, astroengineering and astrobiology in a week focused on STEAM and space.
“For 2019, we are incredibly excited to offer the camp we’ve envisioned for years. The program is entirely custom and integrated activities that transcend the boundaries of technology, science and education. This camp is everything we believe learning should be—exciting, creative and fun—and is not available anywhere else at any price. We’re honored to offer this experience to students in the West Philly Promise Neighborhood,” said Youngmoo Kim, PhD, a professor in the College of Engineering and director of the ExCITe Center.
The Young Dragons Summer STEAM program has been developed specifically to meet the needs of children living in close proximity to Drexel in the federal Promise Zone neighborhood. The 2019 summer session will start on Monday, June 17 and continue through Thursday, July 25. It is offered at no cost to middle school residents, entering fifth through eighth grades.
For more information, contact Ashley Kole (ashley@excitecenter.org) or visit http://drexel.edu/excite