Chem Camp and BioChem Camp, summer chemistry camps for youth ages 9-14, were designed and facilitated on a college campus by a team of five chemistry faculty the last two years. The inception and structure of the camp programs will be described, including the design to encourage broad participation of girls and others from populations that are underrepresented in STEM fields and help them thrive in their camp experience. The process and challenges will be discussed of developing age-appropriate pre-labs, experiments, and activities, relating concepts to chemistry in everyday life, dealing with lab safety issues, and designing experiences for the campers to communicate their science work to peers and family. Informed by outcomes the first iteration of camps, design changes were made the second year to include experiments that require more analytical tools and thinking for older campers. This experience provides an important model for others interested in designing science camps for youths.

The challenges and sucesses of designing experiments for CHEM CAMP and BIOCAMP, summer programs for youths 9-14

255th National Meeting (2018)

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