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MILTON — The Santa Rosa County School Board March 15 approved nearly $50,000 in school board funding for summer science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) camps at county elementary schools.
Bill Emerson, assistant superintendent, provided the board with a cost estimate of implementing the summer camp program for fifth and eighth grade students. The total estimated cost for four camps is $49,380.
The camps would serve 150 students. They would take place at Woodlawn Beach Middle School and King Middle School to cover the south and north ends of the county respectively.
According to the memorandum, the camp would last for one week from 8 a.m. until noon each day, with a snack served in the middle of the day.
“The camps pose a dynamic problem for students to solve in teams and would allow them to make a hypothesis, conduct scientific testing, record and analyze data and then draw and summarize their conclusions each day,” Emerson said in the memorandum. “The camps would utilize existing kits of small microcontrollers called arduinos that provide students with the opportunity to test a variety of environmental characteristics such as acceleration, luminosity and temperature with real-time analysis of feedback data.”
The camps would be free for students to attend and participants would receive a certificate and a T-shirt to commemorate the week.
“The experiences will be designed to foster excitement in STEAM-related fields of study,” Emerson said.
Existing instructional personnel will staff the camps and Santa Rosa County School District Math and Science Coordinator Jeff Baugus will supervise the events.
The costs for two fifth-grade and two eighth-grade camps are as follows:
- One lead teacher per camp for 36 hours at $35 per hour: $1,260
- Six teachers per camp for 31 hours at $35 per hour: $6,510
- T-shirts for 150 students per camp at $10 each: $1,500
- Snacks for 150 students at $3 each for 5 days: $2,250
- Certificates for 150 students at 50 cents each: $75
- Miscellaneous materials for 150 students at $5 each: $750
- Custodial/food services: ask for donated services
- Total: $12,345
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: School Board approves funding for summer STEAM camps