During the global pandemic, self-isolation, and despair, Pakistan Science Club was determined to provide quality time to young ones and teens. Since Pakistan Science Club has been organizing multiple Summer Science camps for children every year during summer vacations but the previous year brought a lot more challenges. Online Summer Camp was the answer and to execute such hands-on activities remotely was not easy and the task couldn’t be completed with the cooperation of parents and guardians, so instead of involving just children, parents were also invited to join and this made the first-ever Family STEM Summer Camp.

It was not only fun learning and engaging experience for kids of different age groups but adults and guardians also enjoyed it with their children. Nine online camps from April 2020 to January 2021 were conducted, each with a duration of 15 days and 8 hands-on projects. Students of age group 8 to 14 were enrolled accompanied by their parents and guardians.

Five initial camps had no registration fees and were completely sponsored by ECO Science Foundation. For the first batch, material and basic tool lists of each project were provided to the participants prior to the start as due to strict restrictions couldn’t provide them kits, for the second batch after ease in lockdown, PSC also provided a material kit to participants as well. Each session was of 60-75 minutes and was conducted live from PSC studio on the PSC YouTube channel, this included basic theory, concept and step-by-step making of the project. The video later uploaded to the PSC channel and participant’s portal for those who missed and couldn’t complete it, online Q/A sessions were also conducted to discuss the queries.

Approximately 660 families (2000 participants) participated in the online camps from different parts of Pakistan and also from UAE. India and Saudi Arabia etc. The activities designed were helpful in explaining the fundamental concepts, laws, and applications of various scientific and engineering phenomenon. The participants also learned to develop 21st-century hands-on skills, team working and cooperation along with exploration. Families with great zeal and shared their work on PSC Facebook page and Online Community. The camps also got coverage from both national and international media BBC Urdu showing how the quarantine be used for skill-building and learning new things.

Since the COVID’19 continues to affect the children’s academics and extra-curricular, Pakistan Science Club is determined to present all-new exciting hands-on activities for the all-new Online Summer Camps that will not only help students to be engaged creatively to learn academic science in a better way but the young scientists will also explore various interesting phenomena with fun. Each camp will be of 2 weeks and will comprise of 7 sessions/projects via Zoom and PSC YouTube channel.

The camp is based on an awe-inspiring theme of “Electricity and Magnetism”, young makers will have interactive sessions on how to generate electricity, the relation between electricity and magnetism, and its wonderful applications. There will be step-by-step how-to-do guidance from our experts, conceptual explanation and participants can ask queries during it.  All participants’ project pictures will be shared to our social media and website. material box will be provided by PSC online shop Sciencestore.pk

Some amazing example projects are,

• Antigravity pencil
• Electric motor
• Automatic swing
• Tesla Tower
• Shake Generator
• Electric Telegraph / Morse Code
• Summer Special Project