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Hello, I am a university professor, but I will be teaching a STEM summer camp for grades 9-12. The idea is to teach physics and chemistry through activities and discussion and games (like Jeopardy or Family Feud.)
I will not give out grades, but I want to have prizes for the winning teams. I have a $1000 budget from which I also need to buy materials for experiments and the like.
I thought I would put prizes in a grab bag and the winners could choose the prize they want
Does anyone have ideas? These will be urban students, so pretty sophisticated and up with new trends (Which I am decidedly not)
I don't think food is a good idea.
So, I was thinking water bottles, mugs, T-shirts. But--pretty lame.
Can you give me ideas?
Adolescents do not want mugs. That really is more appropriate for adults [who drink coffee]. Gift cards are a good idea.
T-shirts might work but, yeah, they’re kinda lame. Sweatshirts might be better. Water bottles are a good idea: they’re practical and innocuous.
That said, I agree that tech prizes will be popular for all grades but they are expensive. AirPods are hugely popular as are Crocs and Croc gems. An AirTag. Pencil and/or tech cases. A portable charger. An instant camera. A mini fridge. You could also have fidgets and slime, which seem to be popular no matter the age of the students.
I found on line something called element density cubes. They are elements from the periodic table in a perfect small cube, and the front has the atomic number , symbol and the density.
Each cube is 99.99% pure of the element. For example, the copper is orange, and the zinc silvery. I would love these cubes. Do you think teenagers would?
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tnff
Wow. What a budget. Everyone should get a tee shirt or water bottle from your university. Other than that, food gift cards, and gaming gift cards seem to go over well with high schoolers. ...
I suggest something personalized for the event. I still enjoy wearing our custom themed tshirts from our company sponsored science nights (30 yrs later...). They were really fun, my favorite is an Einstein/ Ben Franklin looking kid with frizzle hair, hanging onto a kite. Electrifying! Another... "Math around the world ", random equations and numbers, the universal language with pyramids, early explorers/ survey teams... Stuff related to math. Some were themed similar to Back-to-the-Future.
Visors, caps, bracelets, windshield screens, stickers, note cards... All can be very inexpensive custom designed and printed.
Keep it unique and memorable (good memories, good advertising, good incentive to pursue FUN studies and career in STEM.
As far as the gift cards, I'd stick with just a regular gift card they can use anywhere instead of just a certain store. Be careful not to do like we did once. We'd get the teen aged grand youngsters a $50 gift card. Once we got one that charges a fee every time they used the card so that $50 card worked out to about $30 they could spend.
so, awarding a prize for winning teams?
and food (pizza) is not a good idea?
well, here goes:
1. socks. crazy and colorful. the high schoolers around here enjoy them.
2. UV flashlights. our Scouts really got competitive to win one of these.
3. sunglasses. cheap, like the old song.
forget the winning/losing thing. They're there to learn not compete.
Have a pizza party after the last class.
Having run multiple STEM camps through the years, I 100% agree with this. Spend the money on hands on activities and a party celebration and/or T-shirts related to the camp for all.
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Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,694 posts, read 58,012,579 times
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Could hire a "mad professor" for a memorable crazy experiment. Leave an impression! (Science is fun).
We hired retired profs for week long field trips for our home school group. Some were crazy, all were very fun. Get outside academia, and let your hair down!
Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. Lots of ideas. To answer, maybe 15 or up to 20 students, and maybe half the budget. The idea of camp is to have students see science as interesting, accessible and maybe, best-case, awe inspiring. I don't want it to be 'education-y', on the other hand, I want them to learn!
Well, I will do my best.
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