Over the past few years, much more attention is being placed on providing quality STEM education and making it accessible to both boys and girls of all ages. This is a welcome change. It used to be so challenging to find programs that my daughter would like. Many of them were too simple, geared only to younger children, had unqualified teachers, were expensive, or were more of a boy-only environment. That is no longer the case. I recently heard about iD Tech and, wow, I so wish I knew about its programs sooner.
iD Tech for Quality STEM Summer Camps & Year-Round Programs
iD Tech addresses and meets all the challenges we faced when looking for STEM-related programs before. Not only that, but the company has a history of 20 years of quality STEM education with 350,000 alumni passing through its courses. Programs are held at 180 prestigious campuses across the nation, with 20 of those programs happening right here in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can find iD Tech STEM summer camps at San Francisco State, UC Berkeley, Stanford, and others. See why I’m so impressed by what iD Tech has to offer.
Age-Appropriate STEM & iD Tech Courses
When looking for STEM programs, I wanted my daughter to foster an interest in STEM, not to do 10-minute DIY experiments. But, it seemed many summer programs were geared to younger kids with very simple projects and a greater emphasis on playing than learning. Touching wires to a battery to light an LED bulb or putting Mentos candies in cola gets boring real fast and isn’t worth the course fee.
At iD Tech, among the list of available programs, students can choose from over 50 summer courses and year-round online private lessons. Students ages 7-17 can learn to code, design video games, mod Minecraft, create with Roblox, engineer robots, print 3D characters, work with AI, build laptops, design Fortnite-inspired games, learn about cybersecurity, and more. Man, even I want to attend some of those courses! See which STEM summer camps and year-round lessons seem exciting to your children, tweens, and teens at https://www.idtech.com/courses.
The courses do not rely on outdated and obsolete programs either. Been there, done that. iD Tech partners with major tech companies to provide the best tools for students to thrive. Surely, knowing how to use programs from Adobe, Android, Autodesk, Microsoft, and Unity will give kids the edge they need as they venture out into a career in technology.
Of course, it is not all work and no play. Summer is synonymous with fun and iD Tech builds a ton of that into their STEM summer camps. Students get to break up their learning sessions with dress-up days, raffles, outdoor activities, gaming tournaments, music video parodies, and Pie-Your-Instructor Fridays.
iD Tech Educators & Staff
Munchkin recounts one tech camp in which the instructors were clueless about the curriculum they were supposed to be teaching. It was as if the seasonal employees were learning on the fly and, at the same time, had no idea how to handle kids. That is not the case with iD Tech programs. The STEM summer camps staff consists of top talent from universities like Stanford, RIT, Caltech, and MIT and classes consist of only 5 to 10 students for personalized learning. They want your children to succeed and to fill those highly coveted jobs in tech.
Girls in STEM — iD Tech Female Outreach
I remember sitting in my AutoCAD ROP class as a teen and being the only female in the room. Even for my daughter, she often felt out of place in courses primarily made up of boys. It wasn’t just the boy to girl ratio thing that deterred her from attending. The curriculum often focused on either fighting, competition, or sports to pique interest. The alternatives were princess-y, garden or home scenes with horses and sparkling pastel pinks and purples. But what if our daughters aren’t drawn to one extreme or the other? It was slim pickings for us when it came to finding STEM summer camps for girls that appealed their wide range of interests.
Six years ago, only 12% of iD Tech campers were female. But, steps were taken to increase those numbers. Today, more than 50,000 girls have graduated from the co-ed programs. Plus, an all-girls program was launched in 2015, known as Alexa Cafe. Alexa Cafe is now the country’s largest tech camp for girls.
Program Pricing
Summer camp and supplementary private lessons can get expensive. For some, it’s a worthwhile expense and they are happy to invest in their child’s future. Yet, other parents aren’t in a position to afford such programs. About 7,000 seats at iD Tech are reserved for underprivileged students. By giving every student access to such high-quality STEM education, iD Tech aims to help bridge the digital divide. This allows all kids to have an equal opportunity to enter the tech world, regardless of their family’s financial situation.
iD Tech 2018 Summer Registration & Discount Code
See? What did I tell you? The STEM programs at iD Tech sound fantastic, right? Well, there’s still time to sign up for this year’s summer offerings. Since the courses, locations, and educators are so amazing, open slots sell out quickly. Visit www.idtech.com or call (888) 709-8324 for personalized course recommendations.
Readers of Cookies & Clogs can take advantage of an exclusive discount code. Just enter C&C2018 when you register to receive $75 off. This code is only valid before 8/31/2018. So, make sure you use this iD Tech discount code ASAP to get your kids into their desired courses and save some cash while you’re at it.
I was compensated to share this information with my readers. All opinions are my own.
