10 Free Tech Camps for Middle School Students
- Stephen Turban
- 3 hours ago
- 8 min read
Free tech camps for middle school students are a great first step toward exploring STEM fields before deciding on your academic trajectory in high school. You can get a glimpse of advanced academics, and can carry out a trial-and-error process with subjects that you are unsure about for your AP levels/research projects. If you’re interested in tech, a summer camp is a great way to gain firsthand experience in skills like web development, coding, and artificial intelligence in a short and structured manner.
You will also gain practical insights from workshops led by guest speakers, and build meaningful connections to guide your academic and career journey, all without the high costs usually associated with conventional summer programs.
How are camps different from other programs in high school?
Free tech camps for middle school students deep dive into a single subject such as cybersecurity, robotics, or coding, enabling you to master the topic faster than undergoing an extensive high-school curriculum.
These camps typically last one week, unlike multi-week college pre-college programs, making them a time-efficient way for middle school students to acquire new skills quickly.
Pre-college programs are tied to universities designed to give you a complete academic experience inclusive of lectures and exams. Camps, however, are set up by communities, nonprofits, and specialized groups. STEM camps set up by tech companies are examples of such camps.
In this blog post, we have listed 10 free tech camps for middle school students to help you kickstart your tech journey.
Location: Virtual
Cost: $1,990, need-based financial aid is available
Dates: 25 hours over 10 weeks (on weekends) during the spring cohort and 25 hours over 2 weeks (on weekdays) during the summer cohort.
Application Deadline: April 27, Regular Admission 1; May 25, Regular Admission 2; June 22, Summer II. Deadline closed for spring cohort
Eligibility: Students in 6-8 grade
The AI Trailblazers program by Veritas AI focuses on teaching the fundamentals of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Taught by alumni of the prestigious Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia universities, you will learn python, data analysis, AI ethics, regression, neural networks, natural language processing, deep learning, sentiment analysis, and image classification. With a 5:1 student-to-mentor ratio, you will learn in a collaborative environment, and work on a group project in the fields of healthcare, automobiles, gaming, political science, crime detection, and sports. You will get the chance to participate in a group project of 3-5 students and present it at the end of 10 weeks.
Location: New York Institute of Technology campus, New York City and Long Island, NY
Cost: Free
Dates: July 29 to August 2
Application Deadline: Not currently being accepted
Eligibility: Middle school students (grade 6-8)
This camp is highly selective, accepting only 40 students each year. If selected, you will have the opportunity to build, design, and deliver a Clean Cargo Allocation Ready Truck (CCART) in line with UN Sustainability Goal #3, i.e., your vehicle should be capable of delivering products germ-free in a retail or commercial setting. You will work on skills such as 3D modeling, 3D printing, arduino programming, and laser cutting/engraving, along with intangible ones like teamwork and collaboration. On the final day, you will get to present your fully operational CCART. Along with the task of creating the primary vehicle, there will also be team-based mini-challenges to help you gain confidence and build your knowledge and skills.
3. DynaMIT Camp
Location: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Cost: Free
Dates: August 11- 15 (for grade 6-7 students); August 18- August 22 (for grade 8-9 students)
Application Deadline: Closed for this year, but you can fill out an interest form for the new session
Eligibility: Rising 6- 9 grade students, from low-income families ideally from the Boston area
DynaMIT provides students from low-income families or low STEM exposure, the opportunity to explore their passion for science and engineering. MIT graduate and undergraduate students act as mentors and guide you in hands-on activities in the fields of biology, mechanical engineering, computer science, earth and space, and chemistry. You will be involved in scientific experiments and activities such as bouncy bubbles, water balloon slingshots, bottle rockets, knot theory, folding up pretzel dough, Doctor Day, etc. You will also be taken on field trips such as visiting Novartis lab as part of Bio-day where they get to work with pipettes. This is also one of the free tech camps for middle school students that will help you develop soft skills such as critical thinking, teamwork, collaboration, and problem-solving.
4. NYU’S Science of Smart Cities (SoSC)
Location: Midwood, Brooklyn, I.S. 240 Andries Hudde Junior High School, NY
Cost: Free
Dates: July 7- August 1
Application Deadline: May 15
Eligibility: Rising 7-8 grade students, NYC residents only
The Science of Smart Cities (SoSC) program is a free tech camp for middle school students that deep dives into the fields of engineering, computer science, and technology specifically in the context of sustainable urban cities. It involves hands-on activities concerning electronics and circuit design and programming and sensor integration to tackle real-world challenges such as infrastructure, energy use, and transportation, making cities more efficient and livable. Along with learning to build sustainable cities, you will also get to participate in Irondale, a mandatory program that involves theater artists teaching you communication and public speaking skills using improv. Your final project will involve you presenting your innovative solution to a real-world problem.
Location: University of New Hampshire, Durham campus, NH
Cost: Sponsored programs are free, non-sponsored programs are paid ($700 for day students and $1,350 for residential students)
Dates: July 7-25
Application Deadline: Rolling applications, May 1
Eligibility: Students from grade 5-12
This tech camp introduces students of diverse backgrounds to the world of STEM through collaborative, hands-on, and project-based learning in the fields of forensic science, computer coding, environmental science, engineering design, leadership, and entrepreneurship. You will get access to the university’s state-of-the-art facilities, advanced technology, and award-winning teaching staff. You will also have the opportunity to earn high school credits as the university has collaborated with the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School (VLACS) to provide a credit in conjunction with the camp.This Tech Camp also has no-cost programs named the Dinah Whipple STEAM Academy and the Manchester Tech Camp.
Location: Stanford University, CA
Cost: Free
Dates: May 17
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: High school and middle school students from the Bay Area
As far as free tech camps for middle school students go, the duration of the Stanford seeME program is shorter than most. It conducts a one-day-long event to introduce middle and high school students with little to no engineering background, to the various aspects of an engineer’s life. Taught by graduate students, you will gain a hands-on understanding of data science, industrial engineering, wind energy, driverless cars, and predicting the spread of diseases and fire. The small batch size of 50-60 will provide you networking opportunities with Stanford graduates. As part of the program, you may be asked to take part in a design competition or present your findings.
Location: Virtual and in-person camps at Chicago, Dallas, Washington D.C., London, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and St. Louis
Cost: Free
Dates: June 2- June 13; July 7- July 18; July 21-August 1; August 4-August 15
Application Deadline: March 31
Eligibility: Women and gender expansive teens between the ages of 13-18
Kode With Klossy offers a series of two-week, free, coding intensive camps for traditionally underrepresented genders within the field of STEM. This is one of those free tech camps for middle school students which will help you gain in-depth knowledge about one of the following four topics:
Web development
Mobile app creation
The foundation of artificial intelligence/machine learning including algorithms, data sets, and training a chatbot using python
Examining data with the help of SQL, python and data visualisation tools
You will also be part of ‘Culture of Tech’ sessions where you will learn about workplace gender disparities and the past, present and future roles of women in technology. They have also collaborated with prominent brands such as Estee Lauder in the past which included challenges to redesign their website and mobile apps for students.
Location: The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Cost: Free
Dates: July 7-11
Application Deadline: March 30
Eligibility: Rising 7-9 grade students
This five-day summer camp is hosted by the Translational Data Analytics Institute. It is one of those free tech camps for middle school students that will teach you to extract knowledge from data using scientific methods in fields ranging from business, biology, healthcare, and education to urban planning and city services. With a focus on collaboration, you will also get the chance to learn from scientists, and data professionals and discuss biases in data with them, enabling you to develop analytical and problem-solving skills.
Location: UC Riverside, Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering, CA
Cost: Free
Dates: Tentatively July 8-12
Application Deadline: Tentatively March
Eligibility: Middle and high school students
It focuses on helping you build foundations in AI and data science if you are looking to make a career in STEM. You will learn python programming basics, data extraction, visualization, understanding, and the real-world applications of these concepts via hands-on laboratory exercises. This camp enables you to develop technical and problem-solving skills and broadens your knowledge of the far-reaching impact of science and engineering before entering high school!
10. Northrop Grumman Summer Engineering Camp at USC
Location: USC Viterbi School of Engineering, CA
Cost: Free
Dates: July 14- July 25 (Monday to Friday)
Application Deadline: May 5
Eligibility: Currently enrolled in grades 5-7 and rising students 6-8 grade from California who have at least a B average in math and science classes.
This free summer camp is part of the K-12 outreach programs at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. In this program, you will be introduced to diverse engineering fields such as aerospace, electrical, civil, environmental, and mechanical through practical hands-on activities such as building robots, circuits, rockets, and bridges. If you are interested in computer science, you will learn to code and write apps. This is also one of those free tech camps for middle school students that also prioritizes representation of underrepresented groups in STEM such as female, Hispanic, and Latin American students. The camp has been running successfully for 15 years and is only exclusive to 32 students yearly.
One more option—The Lumiere Junior Explorer Program
The Lumiere Junior Explorer Program is a program for middle school students to work one-on-one with a mentor to explore their academic interests and build a project they are passionate about. Our mentors are scholars from top research universities such as Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale, Duke, and LSE.
The program was founded by a Harvard & Oxford PhD who met as undergraduates at Harvard. The program is rigorous and fully virtual. We offer need-based financial aid for students who qualify. You can find the application in the brochure! To learn more, you can reach out to our Head of Partnerships, Maya, at maya.novak-herzog@lumiere.education or go to our website.
Multiple rolling deadlines for JEP cohorts across the year, you can apply using this application link! If you'd like to take a look at the upcoming cohorts + deadlines, you can refer to this page!
Image Source - Stanford University Logo
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a Ph.D. student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.