Gateway Engineering Summer Camp

The Gateway Engineering Summer Camp is a hands-on, project-based camp designed to introduce incoming 7th and 8th grade middle school students to the fundamentals of STEM and Project Lead the Way (PLTW) engineering courses within Plano ISD. Certified PLTW instructors provide expert instruction in a fun, exciting environment using leading-edge technologies to sample engineering related activities and projects and get a taste of how fun it can be to be an engineer.  The critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and collaboration skills that campers learn during the Gateway Engineering Summer Camp will benefit them for a lifetime.

Each day begins with a fun team-building exercise like building a desert shelter or creating the tallest tower from limited supplies.  Campers then go on to work both separately and together on projects such as building and racing a car that runs entirely on solar energy or knocking down objects with a catapult.  Throughout the session, campers use the latest technology to solve big challenges, such as making a remote-controlled robot and programming it to navigate a maze in a race against the clock or designing and building a bridge from craft sticks that can possibly hold a person.  Camp sessions are fun and exciting as the activities and projects change from year to year.