Dallas area students with a passion for science, technology, engineering, and math are spending the month of June exploring fundamentals of robotics, forensics, and other topics. 

Dallas ISD’s STEM Department is hosting 40 camps for students in grades first through eighth at no cost for parents. Held at school locations across the district, the programs range from 3D printing to crime scene investigation. One camp is even designed to develop and hone students’ invention skills. Students will be studying the foundations of each subject area and creating their own projects.

The Dallas Morning News reported on a recent visit to the Vex Robotics Workshop. Though during this particular class, students were surrounded by unlikely faces: uniformed West Point cadets. 

The cadets walked the room, offering their support and direction to students building a robot to help save a fictional island in distress from a hurricane, the Morning News reported. The robots were to be equipped to carry important supplies to the island’s inhabitants and travel to places that even cadets could not. 

“The reason we cadets come down is so they can see us,” Cadet James Grays told the Morning News. “If they just saw Dr. [Sam] Ivy [of West Point], he’d just be another teacher. But they see us and, especially because they’re all in the LCC, [Leadership Cadet Corps] they see people who have gone up the ranks just like they can, and who have culminated at West Point.”

Executive Director of STEM at Dallas ISD, Oswaldo Alvarenga, told the newspaper he believes Dallas students can learn from role models like the cadets. He hopes appearances by leaders will aid in the advancement of student’s learning.

Other summer camps focus on subjects such as space, mechanical engineering, and video game programming. 

Though free, the district is asking parents to reach out to campus coordinators to verify availability in the camps. 

Here’s a full list of options here. 

Dallas Innovates, every day