Rose State College Gives Students A Steam-y Summer Published June 21, 2018

Provides free summer camp for middle and high-school students

Rose State College will help students in the 6-10 grades have a steamy summer with a free STEAM. June 25-28. Eligible students will engage in hands-on activities in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. Campers can expect to learn in a design-based learning environment while participating in mixed media visual arts activities.

While many people are familiar with STEM learning, incorporating the arts into traditional STEM learning is becoming more popular. The US Department of Education reports that the number of STEM/STEAM jobs in the United States will grow by 14% from 2010 to 2020. Consequently, growth in STEM-related degree fields is growing at around 1%. Incorporating the Arts in to traditional STEM learning makes the lessons more engaging, ultimately improving the information retention of students.

Teaching the camp again this year will be Rose State professors, Michael Garrison, adjunct in Engineering and Science, and Suzanne Thomas, full-time professor of Art. “We hope to expose these students to the ideal of taking their love of the arts to the next level as Art collides head on with Technology and Engineering,” said Garrison.

Rose State College Dean of Engineering & Science, Dr. Wayne Jones, and Dean of Humanities, Claudia Buckmaster, collaborated to develop activities that keep students engaged educationally during the summer months to help avoid summer learning loss. They also wanted to see young students get excited about STEAM concepts. With the help of Northrup Grumman Aerospace & Defense Co., this years camp looks to be the best yet. “This camp should be a fun way of showing young people some of the connections - and they are certainly there – between the visual arts, math, and science. We also hope it may help some of them lose their fear of math and science or their ideas about not being able to create their own works of art,” said Dean Buckmaster.

Camp Eligibility: This award honors students in 6-10 grades who are residents of Oklahoma and enrolled in an Oklahoma public, private, or home school. 

Rose State College’s 2018 STEAM camp will be held June 25-28 from 1pm-4pm on the Rose State campus. For more information, please contact contact Michael Garrison at 405-733-7489 or mgarrison@rose.edu. To apply, please visit: https://rose.formstack.com/forms/2018steamcampstemcenterrsc. Those who qualify for the camp will be notified by phone after submission of the application.