MaST Community Charter School’s Summer Camp has ‘STREAM’ focus

The latest city schools budget fight is threatening many STEM programs. Quietly others have gone about their work.

This summer, students took to MaST Community Charter School‘s HD video studio to become meteorologists and report on an ongoing hurricane.

It was just one of the activities that the 80 student participants of MaST’s inaugural two-week STREAM Summer Camp could choose. Watch a video of the forecast below (it has some pretty great effects).

MaST, which stands for Mathematics, Science and Technology, is a K-12 school located in the Somerton section of the Northeast and has a heavy focus on what it calls STREAM, or science, technology, robotics, engineering, arts and math, said CEO John Swoyer. (Consider that another alteration to STEM, as you’ve also likely seen STEAM, which adds ‘arts’ to the mix.)

It offers a 3D printing and modeling class, gives iPads to each of its high school students and has more than 1,200 computers. Philadelphia Magazine gave it a nod in 2011 as one of Philly’s best schools, emphasizing its technology bent. Its waiting list jumped from more than 1,800 to more than 5,600 students in the last two years, Swoyer said.

The summer camp, geared toward students in kindergarten to seventh grade, aimed to sample MaST’s STREAM curriculum, with activities like building and testing LEGO robots, playing virtual soccer or baseball and bridge building.

An average day at the camp, Swoyer said, might involve “using the iPad to learn about geography using Google Earth, competing against other students to see who could build the tallest skyscraper using books and completing science experiments like drilling into the center of a layered cupcake to understand what the Earth’s core is made of.”

The camp, which cost $50 for a half day and $100 for a whole day, was open to MaST students this time around but hopes to expand attendance to other students next summer, Swoyer said.