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Explore! Investigate! Create!
Camps for aspiring coders, gamers, scientists, engineers and creatives.
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Gain 21st Century Skills.
Learning that translates from fun now to future success.
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Put down the textbooks. Pick up the fun.
Hands-on learning in science, technology, engineering, art and math.
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Ages 7-18
Camps designed for beginners to pros.
Day Camps
Single and multi-day camps from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Residential Camps
Overnight camps running Sunday-Friday.
An experience they'll remember.

A week on a college campus can be a life-changing experience for a young person. It offers a chance to build friendships. To engage in intellectual development and career exploration. To gain confidence in social and academic realms that sets the stage for future success.

Our campers return year after year because of connections they create with peers who share their interests and passions and with faculty and staff who nurture their creativity. This may be the first time a camper develops their own robot, film or video game or conducts an experiment of their own design. But it likely won’t be the last.

Featured Learning Topics

Our camps are led by a passionate, well-trained team who love to teach, laugh, and have fun. Join us for an epic summer adventure in a wide range of areas, such as:

Coding
Try your hand at coding through robotics, video games, Arduinos, or web applications. Sessions at several age levels and utilizing a variety of coding languages will challenge you to think beyond the books.
Careers
STEM Careers sessions introduce campers to professionals and provide them with experiences in several related career fields each week.
Creative
While creativity is celebrated in all our sessions, you can get a full dose of the arts in some. Whether you want to write fiction, shoot films, create kinetic sculptures or manipulate your photos digitally, we have a session for you.
Gaming
Whether you’re into the latest board game, augmented reality or the fastest video game, we have a session for you. Play and learn what goes into developing your own game.
Making
Get your hands on some tools and learn new making skills in several of the sessions. You’ll experience soldering, woodworking, electronics, coding languages, 3D printing, laser cutting and more.
Nature
One week of our middle school camp is immersed in the natural setting of Lorado Taft Field Campus along the Rock River. Here we have the space to fly drones, set up a pool for water robotics and explore the great outdoors.
Science
Ask questions, design your own experiments, live the process of science. Whether you’re investigating colors and sounds in a day camp or touring the human anatomy lab in a careers camp, you’ll discover science in your world.
Space
Explore the final frontier. Investigate what it took to put people on the Moon and what we’ll need to overcome to get people to Mars.
Robotics
There’s more to robotics than coding. Explore what it takes to build machines to solve challenges, even underwater. Learn how to design and build robots to solve specific tasks.
Making STEM fun and accessible.

NIU STEAM Camps are designed for students to explore and develop their interests and passions, regardless of past academic performance. You will find no request for grades and no entrance exam. We ask only that campers come open to the prospect of learning and enjoying their experience.

We strive to bring together a diverse group of campers and leaders who are curious or passionate about the topics they choose to investigate for the week.

Discover Our Camps

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About Us
NIU STEAM Outreach offers a continuum of high-quality, research-based STEAM programming that can be differentiated to meet the individual needs of schools and communities.
Camps
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Contact Us
NIU STEAM
Lowden Hall 307
DeKalb, IL 60115
STEMCamps@niu.edu
815-753-1272