STEM Camp: get sociable and enjoy with STEM

My STEM Camp Project was selected as winner of STEM Discovery Week 2019 by European Schoolnet. I was invited  to Brussels, Belgium for award ceremony on 14-15 June 2019. Also I participated 30th Science Project Workshops ain the Future Classroom Lab.

April 23 the National Sovereignty and Children’s Day was dedicated to all children of the world, by Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK, the founder of our country. Being conducted as a part of STEM Discovery Camp, the STEM Camp Project, therefore, was performed on this special day. 20 secondary school students, 12 are female and 8 are male, from 5 different schools of two cities of Turkey attended the camp. There were more vacancies for female students than male ones to avoid gender gap. The students were elected through some objective criterions applied in a Google form. The camp was held during two days (April 23-24). The students were provided accommodation at Golden Village Open Air Museum for one night. We consider this Project was an excellent experience for them.

Since we aim at fun and socialization for students, in addition to specific training with workshops, the motto of the Project was decided as “get sociable and enjoy with STEM”. Students, who were getting socialized thanks to games and culture trips for two days, felt sad when it came to say goodbye to each other in the end.

According to the camp program provided hereinafter, there were 10 different workshops, in 4 of them scientix resource was used. Thus, the theme of this year “best practices in using innovative STEM resource” was not missed out. Our trainers adopted their own individual innovative resources in the other workshops. The teachers who were responsible to carry out this event were Prof. Dr. Mehmet Yılmaz from the department of biology at Gazi University, Merve Adıgüzel, Sefa Merve Kılıçaslan, director of the Project and ICT teacher Selçuk Yusuf ARSLAN, Science Teacher Semih ESENDEMİR, Math Teacher Tolga AYGÜN ve ICT Teacher Merve ÖZER. All of them voluntarily supported this Project of STEM Camp. 14 high school students from Ataturk Vocational and Technical High School were also volunteers contributing to the event by participating in icebreaker games and assisting their teachers in workshops for two days. At the final ceremony, all participator students were awarded of Certificate of attendance and the other participants including students, teachers and supporters were given certificate of appreciation.

About Project: https://selcukyusufarslan.com/stemcamp/

From MoE web site: http://yegitek.meb.gov.tr/www/turk-ogretmenler-stem-kesif-haftasina-damga-vurdu/icerik/2778

For video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvlL5zIhk7M