About
STEAM Camp
What can you expect?
Throughout this exciting week of STEAM Camp, students dive into hands-on learning experiences that spark curiosity and creativity while building foundational science, technology, engineering, arts, and math skills. Campers will explore concepts like numbers, forces such as gravity, sound and light waves, spatial relationships, and many more through playful investigations that include everyday objects. Across the week, students learn by doing; asking questions, testing ideas, and discovering how STEAM concepts connect to the world around them in engaging and meaningful ways.
TIME
9 am to 4 pm
After camp care will be available until 5 pm
DATES & LOCATIONS
See Below
Various locations and dates offered throughout July
AGE
5-7 year olds
Incoming Kindergarten to First graders
COST
$625
per week
Camp Offerings @ GIQ Redwood City
Location
2539 El Camino Real
Redwood City, CA 94061
Contact
650-502-2447
At Growing IQ, we believe that math is not a subject to be memorized—it’s a language to be explored, questioned, and understood. Our inquiry-based approach encourages students to think critically, ask questions, and discover solutions through hands-on experiences and guided discourse. Unlike programs that emphasize speed and rote repetition, we focus on developing deep conceptual understanding and reasoning from an early age. The younger a child begins this journey, the more naturally they build the logic, flexibility, and metacognitive skills that are essential for long-term academic growth.
What sets Growing IQ apart is our intentional use of a structured learning rubric that empowers teachers to meet each child where they are—while progressively challenging them to reach beyond. Our educators are trained to foster mathematical habits of mind: perseverance, collaboration, and the ability to justify one’s thinking. As a result, our students consistently demonstrate advanced thinking skills and outperform peers from traditional math programs. We’re not simply teaching children how to do math—we’re equipping them to think like mathematicians.
GIQ Approach
Program Highlights
Math, science, engineering, and art are intentionally woven together each day — explorers apply counting, comparison, patterns, forces, and design thinking within meaningful challenges.
True STEAM Integration
From day one, explorers plan, test, fail, redesign, and improve models daily, building authentic early engineering habits aligned with NGSS practices.
Engineering Design
Explorers look at forces, motion, sound, light, materials, and energy through hands-on investigations that emphasize curiosity and evidence.
Inquiry-Based Science
Counting, number writing, comparison, geometry, and patterns are learned through building, testing, measuring, and movement—not worksheets.
Math Embedded in Context
As a thinking tool, art is used to visualize ideas, model solutions, communicate thinking, and reinforce spatial reasoning
Creative Expression
In an age-appropriate manner, explorers learn to describe observations, explain outcomes, and justify choices using precise but accessible vocabulary.
Scientific Language
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the program, explorers will be able to:
Apply number sense in real situations.
Count accurately, recognize quantities, compare sets, and identify patterns.
Explain simple scientific phenomena.
Describe motion, forces, sound, light, and energy using observations.
Design and improve simple models.
Build, test, evaluate, and redesign structures and devices.
Use evidence to make decisions.
Explain why one solution works better than another. Recognize and classify shapes and patterns: Identify geometric shapes, repeating patterns, and spatial relationships.
Communicate ideas clearly.
Share observations, predictions, and conclusions verbally and visually
Key Dispositions We Develop
Curiosity & Questioning
Explorers are encouraged to ask “What if?” and “Why?” throughout the day.
Perseverance Through Failure
Designs are expected to fail initially—explorers learn that improvement comes through iteration.
Collaboration & Communication
Explorers work together, share observations, and explain ideas using clear language.
Joyful Ownership of Learning
Explorers leave feeling proud of what they built, tested, and discovered.
Confidence with Uncertainty
Explorers become comfortable not knowing the answer right away and exploring possibilities.
Precision & Attention to Detail
Counting carefully, comparing accurately, and observing closely are emphasized daily.
Critical Thinking is Built Into STEAM Explorers
This program is deliberately structured around thinking like a scientist and engineer, even at a young age.
Predict→Test→Observe→Improve Cycle:
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Each day includes opportunities to make predictions, test ideas, observe outcomes, and refine designs.
Cause-and-Effect Reasoning
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Explorers explore questions like: Why did this tower fall? Why did this object move farther? Why did this sound change?
Controlled Experimentation
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Campers learn that fair tests matter—changing one variable at a time to see what really makes a difference.
Material Comparison & Evaluation
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Explorers analyze which materials are best suited for a purpose (stronger, lighter, louder, brighter).
Decision Making With Evidence
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Rather than guessing, students justify choices based on what they observed and tested.
Mathematical & Scientific Dispositions Developed
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This camp intentionally builds how children think, not just what they know.
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Daily Schedule
This is what a typical STEAM Explorers camp day will look like.
Free Play | Drop Off
9:00 - 9:30 am
Circle Time
9:30 - 10:15 am
Math Foundations
10:15 - 11:30 am
Snack | Free Play
11:30 - 11:45 am
Science Experimentation
11:45 am - 12:45 pm
Lunch | Free Play
12:45 - 1:45 pm
Arts & Crafts
1:45 - 2:45 pm
Snack | Free Play
2:45 - 3:00 pm
Group Activities
3:00 - 3:45 pm
Free Play | Pick Up
3:45 - 4:00 pm
POM-POM GRAVITY LAUNCHERS
Pom-Pom Gravity Launchers
Age Range: 5-6 year olds
STEAM-Focus: Science & Engineering
In this activity, explorers design and decorate their own pom-pom launchers, then test to see how far they can launch their pom-poms. Through different experiments and a friendly tournament, explorers learn how gravity, force, and angles affect motion while practicing teamwork, critical thinking, and measurement skills. After this activity, explorers will walk away excited about science and proud of a design they improved through trial and error.