Discover STEAM Inc.
Camps & In-House Field Trips
Please contact us for a full list of offerings and tailoring options.
Also contact us to hear about our Scientist in Residence Program.
Introduction to Programming and Robotics
Elementary School
Day 1: Learn color coding to control a robotic car with a color sensor
Day 2: Learn block coding to alter the color code for the robotic car
Day 3: Learn drive mode and draw coding to control a sphere shaped robot
Day 4: Use block coding to make animations in the display panel of the sphere shaped robot
Day 5: Use block coding to control the movements of a sphere shaped robot and race them with fellow learners
Junior Genetic Engineer
Middle & High School
Learn how to work with bacteria. Take a foreign gene that produces color and ‘express’ it in bacteria. Identify ‘transformed’ bacteria that are now the color produced by that gene. Students will use a combination of Molecular and Cellular laboratory techniques to insert the cloned gene into the bacteria.
Day 1: Introduction to Bacteria & Sterile Technique
Day 2: Concepts in Cloning and DNA Recombination
Day 3: Transform Bacteria with a Foreign Gene
Day 4: Detect Expression of the Foreign Gene
Day 5: Results and Discuss GMOs
Outer Space in a Test Tube
Elementary School
In this 50 minute workshop we explore the effects of vastly reduced air pressure on common items (balloon, marshmallow, liquid, etc). Students will learn through demonstration and participation about the nature of gas, volume and pressure. Prepare to be amazed as we will boil water without using any heat source!
Forensics
Middle & High School
​
You are a trainee in the Montgomery County Forensic Lab. You are given details about a case at the local high school involving a poisoning event that sent a student to the hospital.
Day 1: You read police reports and examine soil evidence.
Day 2: You receive another police report about the ongoing investigation and examine hair and fiber samples, using a compound microscope.
Day 3: You compare the fingerprints from suspects and the victim to lifted prints from the crime scene. You also examine spectrophotometry data to try to identify the source of the poison.
Day 4: Pool the information, complete any unfinished lab tests and determine if you have solved the case!
Fun with Electrostatics
Elementary School
In this 50 minute workshop, we use a plasma globe (designed to excite noble gases thus creating a glow) and various light bulbs, we will discuss 'electric light' and the difference between a fluorescent bulb and an incandescent bulb. We will also discuss naturally occurring electric currents and light up a fluorescent bulb and an 'energy tube' through circuits that include our bodies, and even through the 'air'.
Fun with Chemistry
Middle School
Choose from several chemistry series. Each typically runs for 6 weeks in 50 minute weekly sessions.
Topics include:
Exploring Chemical reactions
*What are atoms, electrons, molecules and compounds?
*Forces of Nature: fun with osmosis, gas laws and pressure
*Engineering using chemistry: siphons, desalination, reactive paper
*Food Forensics
Microscopy
Elementary, Middle & High School
Choose from several microscopy topics and various durations (one 75 minute workshop or upto 8, 50 min sessions, meeting weekly or daily)
Topics include:
*Intro to the stage or compound microscope
*Intro to the 'foldscope' microscope
*Look at local microscopic aquatic life
*Meet mosquito larvae
*Cells and Tissues
*DNA and You
*Fiber and Hair Analysis
*What's under your finger nail?