As parents, we’re always searching for creative and often hidden ways to enhance our child’s learning. And with summer vacation in the not-so-distant future, the need is even greater to keep their minds active and engaged. According to the National Summer Learning Association, kids lose roughly two months of math computation skills and often score lower on standardized tests by the end of the summer.

To counter these declines, science and technology camps across the country offer enrichment programs to help strengthen and support skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Educators agree that developing and nurturing these skills early on through what they call STEM programs, and applying them beyond the classroom, is an effective way to infuse summer learning with activities that are fresh, exciting and full of imaginative fun.

“For an elementary school child, science is everywhere. It’s their whole world. It defines the sun coming up in the morning and the water coming out of the faucet,” says Kathy Heraghty, program director of Destination Science, a STEM-based summer camp with multiple locations throughout Long Island. “There isn’t anything in our everyday life that doesn’t have a science component to it.”

Letting Their Imaginations Soar

An early foundation in STEM allows children to develop skills in team-building, critical thinking and active problem-solving. These subject areas also tap into a child’s budding imagination. At Destination Science, children are introduced to roughly 20 hands-on science activities each week, all designed around week-long themes that transform kids into roller coaster scientists, robot-turned-dragon engineers, crime-scene science detectives and astronauts on a mission to Mars.

At Mad Science of Long Island, kids become junior scientists as they experiment and explore a range of topics and age-appropriate, week-long themes including aerodynamics, science in motion and robotics, and take home daily projects to complete. And at Camp Invention, a program of Invent Now, Inc., children navigate to the faraway island of Magnetropolis, design inventions and explore connections between science, technology, engineering and innovation.

MaryAnne Pizzitola, sales manager at Mad Science of Long Island, says sparking curiosity at a young age is an essential starting point. “Kids sometimes aren’t interested because they think these subjects sound like school, especially in the summer,” she says. “But they’ll find that science, for example, is really hands-on. Kids still get to play and participate in fun activities, but they’re also learning. And that’s something they won’t even realize because they’re learning in such a fun, stimulating environment.”

The best part about a STEM-enriched education, Pizzitola adds, is the ability to make mistakes—and to learn from them. “Science is a growing, learning process,” she says. “Experiments aren’t always going to work out perfectly. But that’s why we have hypotheses and that’s why we make predictions. Science teaches kids it’s okay to make mistakes.”

“We’re taking something that’s a passion and a hobby, and showing kids that they can do so much more with it,” Safran says. “And a lot of times, these kids will go back to school and integrate what they’ve learned into their extracurricular activities or even into their school assignments.”

And for parents, she says, there’s nothing more rewarding than giving our children the gift of knowledge that extends well beyond their summer vacation.

Leslie Fazin is an assistant editor of Long Island Parent magazine.