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K-12 Student Outreach Program

The K-12 Student Outreach Program offers various science, mathematics, and technology-content-based courses for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Registration will open February 24th!

Summer 2025 Camps

Academies for Young Minds

The Acadamies for Young Minds camps are designed to encourage children to be innovative and use creative problem-solving by engaging them in fun, hands-on activities.

*Grade level listed is the grade your child will be entering in Fall of 2025*

It's Electric [Grades K, 1, 2] June 23-26

When: June 23-26, 2025 (Monday – Thursday) • 9:00am – 12:00pm

Where: Colorado School of Mines campus • Golden, Colorado

Maximum students: 20

Fee: $260.00

Instructor: Brian Hostetler

Use engineering principles to solve problems, get electric with electrostatics and current electricity, move objects with electricity, create power with your food, power your own light bulbs, and more in this interactive and exciting camp.

Charged Up! [Grades 3, 4, 5] June 23-26

When: June 23-26, 2025 (Monday – Thursday) • 1:00pm – 4:00pm

Where: Colorado School of Mines campus • Golden, Colorado

Maximum students: 20

Fee: $260.00

Instructor: Brian Hostetler

Use your engineering knowledge to create complex circuits and energy from renewable and non-renewable sources, power motors, and more. Build solar panels, play with electrostatics, and light up the room…off the grid of course!

Light it Up: Exploration into the World of Light! [Grades 1, 2, 3] July 7-11

When: July 7-11, 2025 (Monday – Friday) • 9:00am – 12:00pm

Where: Colorado School of Mines campus • Golden, Colorado

Maximum students: 20

Fee: $325.00

Instructor: Sara Russo 

Instructor: Lauren Cisneros

Explore how light illuminates the world around us. You’ll create and learn about things that glow in the dark, things that generate power from light, and things that can move light around in interesting ways!

Light it Up: Exploration into the World of Light! [Grades 4, 5, 6] July 7-11

When: July 7-11, 2025 (Monday – Friday) • 9:00am – 12:00pm

Where: Colorado School of Mines campus • Golden, Colorado

Maximum students: 20

Fee: $325.00

Instructor: Brandon Reynolds 

Instructor: Brody Sevart

Instructor: Akshat Swaroop

Explore how light illuminates the world around us. You’ll create and learn about things that glow in the dark, things that generate power from light, and things that can move light around in interesting ways!

**The above two “Light It Up” camps are the same camp, but offered to different grade levels. **

Building Basics [Grades K, 1, 2] July 14-17

When: July 14-17, 2025 (Monday – Thursday) • 9:00am – 12:00pm

Where: Colorado School of Mines campus • Golden, Colorado

Maximum students: 20

Fee: $260.00

Instructor: Brian Hostetler 

You have probably built things with blocks from the time you were very young, but have you ever thought about the forces at work? In this camp build with a variety of materials to learn more about them and how you can create buildings to stand up to those forces!

Build It! [Grades 3, 4, 5] July 14-17

When: July 14-17, 2025 (Monday – Thursday) • 1:00pm – 4:00pm

Where: Colorado School of Mines campus • Golden, Colorado

Maximum students: 20

Fee: $260.00

Instructor: Brian Hostetler

Use your design principles to create structures that are higher, stronger, and cooler looking than the rest. Create a building that can handle an earthquake, a hurricane, or an attack using materials like candy, newspaper, sticks, and more. Make and test airplanes, racecars, and zip lines because building can mean so many things!

Engineering Design Summer Camps

The Engineering Design Summer Camp, offered through the K-12 Student Outreach Program at Colorado School of Mines, provides an opportunity for high school students, grades 10-12, to attend a 5-day summer camp on the Mines campus in Golden, Colorado. The objective of the camp is to guide participants through a fun and rewarding hands-on experience of authentic engineering design practices.

*Grade level listed is the grade your child will be entering in Fall of 2025*

Session I* [Grades 10, 11, 12] July 7-11

When: July 7-11, 2025 :: (Monday-Friday) • 9:00am – 4:00pm

Where: Colorado School of Mines campus • Golden, Colorado

Maximum students: 25

Fee: $625.00

Instructor: Dedi Sadagori

Session II* [Grades 10, 11, 12] July 14-18

When: July 14-18, 2025 :: (Monday-Friday) • 9:00am – 4:00pm

Where: Colorado School of Mines campus • Golden, Colorado

Maximum students: 25

Fee: $625.00

Instructor: Dedi Sadagori

Session III* [Grades 10, 11, 12] July 21-25

When: July 21-25, 2025 :: (Monday-Friday) • 9:00am – 4:00pm

Where: Colorado School of Mines campus • Golden, Colorado

Maximum students: 25

Fee: $625.00

Instructor: Dedi Sadagori

Session IV* [Grades 10, 11, 12] July 28 - August 1

When: July 28-August 1, 2025 :: (Monday-Friday) • 9:00am – 4:00pm

Where: Colorado School of Mines campus • Golden, Colorado

Maximum students: 25

Fee: $625.00

Instructor: Dedi Sadagori

* Sessions I, II, III and IV are the same camp, but offered multiple weeks.

This camp will introduce a tool to build and make parametric models of parts and assemblies. Learn with a computer-based tool, through a software program called SolidWorks™ by Dassault Systems, which allows for creative modelling and visualization. SolidWorks™ is an integral part of engineering design and/or problem solving. Students who are interested in science, technology, engineering, and math will enjoy this course, because it will guide them to support and improve their 3D design skills and make their conceptual ideas come to life. The software is very versatile and fun to use, you will be excited by the challenges you are given. The opportunity to become a Certified SolidWorks™ Associate (CSWA) will be given on the final day, this is an industry known certification.

Meet Our Instructors

Brian has more than 20 years experience leading camps and other science based programs at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the St. Louis Science Center and the University of Missouri Before and After School Programs. He has been a guest many times on local news outlets teaching anchors about some of the wonderful and weird things science can show you every day. He is currently teaching S.T.E.M. at Canyon Creek Elementary School for primary grades K-2. He holds a B.S. in Elementary Education and a M.Ed. in Science Education from the University of Missouri. He’s crazy excited to learn and explore with your kiddos this summer!

Brandon Reynolds is a 3rd year PhD student in the Chemical Engineering program at Colorado School of Mines. He works on quantum device fabrication techniques that use light to maneuver and manipulate individual particles that are a fraction of the width of human hair. He has taught classes at the college level and has taught science classes to 6th and 7th graders in the Denver area about viscosity, flow, and pressure. He has also tutored at Colorado School of Mines for five years. He demonstrated a laser interference lab for Mitchell Elementary during their Math & Science night.

Brodrick Sevart is a 1st year PhD student in the Advanced Energy Systems at Colorado School of Mines and NREL. His work is focused around creating low energy computing devices which mimic how the brain’s neurons communicate using photovoltaic materials. His work at Mines focuses on manufacturing techniques and electrical characterization of devices, while at NREL he works on making thin layers of materials which will absorb light. He has taught many elementary students at different STEM events and has been a TA for global sustainability classes.

Akshat Swaroop is a first year PhD student in the Crane lab. He completed his Bachelor of Technology in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee. After graduation he worked in the optical fiber industry where his interest in micro, nanosystems and optics grew. To gain some research experience He joined center of nano science at IIT Kanpur to gain experience in micro and nanofabrication. 

Sara Russo is a 3rd year PhD student in the Chemical and Biological Engineering program at Colorado School of Mines. She studies how nanoparticles can use light to drive chemistry at the nanoscale. At NREL, she works with a transient absorption spectrometer that uses light to see reactions occur at ultrafast time scales. She has always been fascinated by the physics of light. She has been a TA at Mines for Mass and Energy Balances as well as the General Biology Lab.

Lauren Cisneros is a 1st year PhD student in the Chemical Engineering program at Colorado School of Mines. Her current work revolves around using photothermal heterodyne imaging to investigate quantum devices and thin films with high spatial and temporal resolution. To do so she works with lasers both computationally and physically to image and investigate these systems. She has tutored middle and high school students in math and chemistry, both informally and as her own business. She has also been a TA for college introductory Biology where she led the laboratory section.

Dedi Sadagori has an academic background in engineering, finance, and economics. He was an adjunct faculty member at the Colorado School of Mines from 2006 to 2017 teaching Computer Aided Design (CAD) with SolidWorks™ in the Design EPICS program. In 2015-2017 he was also responsible for SolidWorks™ field session in the Mechanical Engineering Department. More than 4,000 students have been certified in SolidWorks™ (at the associate and professional levels) under his instruction. Mr. Sadagori is passionate about teaching students at all levels.

General Information for Summer Camps

Academies for Young Minds Camps

Pick-up and Lunch

Camp participants must be picked up no later than 15 minutes after the end of the last session for which they are enrolled on each day of the camp. Late pickups will result in a charge of $20.00 for each occurrence.

For campers attending a morning and afternoon ½ day camp during the week, there will be a supervised lunch each day. Campers will need to bring a sack lunch.

Prerequisites and Restrictions

To participate in the summer 2025 camps, students must be entering the grades indicated for each camp in the fall of 2025.

Lodging and accommodations

On-campus lodging is not available. Click here for a list of accommodations in the area.

Engineering Design Summer Camps

Prerequisites

To participate in the summer 2025 camps, students must be entering the grades indicated for each camp in the fall of 2025.

Lodging and accommodations

On-campus lodging is not available. Click here for a list of accommodations in the area.

Cancellation Policy

If you cancel your enrollment prior to May 15, 2025, your registration fee minus $50 for each camp canceled will be refunded. If you cancel your enrollment after May 15, 2025 but at least two weeks (fourteen days) prior to the start of each camp, your registration fee minus $100 for each camp canceled will be refunded. No refund will be given for cancellations within two weeks prior to the start of each camp.

No partial refunds will be given because of absences, no-shows, or other reasons for not attending the complete camp session.

More information

For more information about Engineering Design Camp activities and expectations, please contact:

Teacher Enhancement Program
Colorado School of Mines
Email: te@mines.edu

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