HomeSUMMER WORKSHOPS

2026 Summer Workshops

(Quicklink: https://nescitech.org/summer)

SCI-TECH SUMMER MAKERS 2026

New England Sci-Tech Summer Makers are young inventors, coders, builders, and super scientists who love any kind of science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEM or STEAM).

For children entering grades 4 through 9 in the fall.

THEME WEEKS are for enrichment; they supplement, not replace, the regular weekly activities.

This five-day program runs Monday–Friday, 9:00-12:00 and 12:00-3:00. Certain weeks may be shorter because of a holiday or conflict.

Rate: 5 days, 3 hours AM or 3 hours PM, total 15 hours a week for $315. (members $275) (4-day week $252, members $220) Payment of $50 due on registration, balance due 50% at 60 days and remainder at 30 days before session. Cancellation fee $30.

In addition to registering for this workshop, please fill out the Student Permissions Form.

SCI-TECH SUMMER TIPS

Bookmark for future reference: https://nescitech.org/summer.

Early drop-off and late pickup can be arranged. Contact us to discuss.

Students who attend an AM and PM workshop on the same day may stay through the lunch time for no extra charge. NE SciTech offers snacks and lunch items for purchase (most are $1 or $1.50 each) or students may bring their own food. There is a refrigerator.

Students should bring a small backpack for personal items such as a water bottle with their NAME on it, a snack, lunch if staying through noon, summer reading book, etc.

Please put your child's NAME on ALL PERSONAL ITEMS.
Please, no chewing gum, candy, popcorn, messy foods.

WEEK 1: Mon-Fri, Jun 15-19, 2026 – AM 9:00-12:00 (this week is AM only)

ELECTRONIC GADGETS WEEK: Build an awesome electronics gadget or invent your own! Learn to use soldering irons to connect electronic circuits. Make a potato battery, electromagnet, and Morse Code oscillator. Learn how wireless communications works with the electromagnetic spectrum. Experiment with a Tesla coil and Van de Graff generator. Make a long-distance contact using ham radio.

WEEK 2: Mon-Fri, Jun 22-26, 2026 – AM 9:00-12:00; PM 12:00-3:00

BACK TO THE MOON WEEK: Moon missions, rovers, space stations. Explore planetary and Lunar geology, and examine rocks from the Moon and other meteorites. Learn about the Artemis Mission to return to the Moon and how radio can track the spacecraft on its journey. Learn how we can communicate with the astronauts aboard the space station. Join our nightly public telescope viewing to see the First Quarter Moon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, 8:00-9:00 PM. Join us at the week's end with an awesome communications event on Saturday called Radio Field Day.

WEEK 3: Mon-THUR, June 29-July 2 (4-days) – AM 9:00-12:00; PM 12:00-3:00
(Note: short week ends Thursday.) Extra Friday sessions: AM 9-12; PM 9-12

CHEMISTRY OF FIREWORKS WEEK: Explore the science of pyrotechnics and the spectra of the elements! Capture some photons and examine the nature of color, wave energy, and particle physics. We will heat up various chemicals from the Periodic Table of the Elements and observe them through spectroscopes to see why they glow in different colors. Learn how the electrons in the elements determine the colors as they make quantum leaps between their atomic orbitals. Watch a video about the pyrotechnics of professional fire works displays. Enjoy the July 4th shows.

WEEK 4: Mon-Fri, July 6-10, 2026 – AM 9:00-12:00; PM 12:00-3:00

INTERSTELLAR WEEK: What is holding the universe together? Exploring the “glue” and the wave energy that make life, the universe, and everything. While watching clips of the movie Interstellar, we will explore Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, time dilation, and the twins paradox. We will build a "gravity well" and experiment with the warping of space. We will watch a planetarium show about black holes and dark matter.

WEEK 5: Mon-Fri, July 13-17, 2026 – AM 9:00-12:00; PM 12:00-3:00

COLLISIONS AND PERCUSSIONS WEEK: Make a Mars Lander with an egg passenger, drop it from three stories high, and make it survive! Learn about potential vs. kinetic energy and how to dissipate energy before the egg cracks. Learn how NASA lands heavy rovers on Mars. Use this principle to make the egg survive a "sudden deceleration" in "crash test eggs" experiments. Apply your new understanding to the science of billiards on the pool table, to candle pins in a bowling alley, to percussion instruments, and to making music by physical vibrations of a needle on vinyl - a record player!

WEEK 6: Mon-Fri, July 20-24, 2026 – AM 9:00-12:00; PM 12:00-3:00

OCCUPY MARS WEEK: Explore the science of living in space, on the Moon, or on Mars. We will examine meteorites from space, from the moon, and from Mars. We will try to grow potatoes in hydroponics and in Martian simulant soil. While watching clips from the movie The Martian, we will learn to calculate how long it takes to communicate between planets. We will also learn about the origins of the names of planets and their moons through Greek mythology. On Monday, July 20, celebrate the day in 1969 that Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. The week includes public telescope nights to see the First Quarter Moon, Tue-Sat, 8:00-9:00 PM.

WEEK 7: Mon-Fri, Jul 27-31, 2026 – AM 9:00-12:00; PM 12:00-3:00

THERMOPOLIUM WEEK: From ancient Greco-Roman culture, a thermopolium was a shop for ready-to-eat hot food, like our fast-food places today. We will learn to make things from common kitchen ingredients, some edible, some not, some using thermodynamics, some not. We will try our hand at making bread, chocolates, popcorn, potato chips, sorbet or ice cream, Oobleck, and slime. We will also examine and even taste a few culturally important foods from ancient Roman times, some exotic and some not so, and learn how we know about them 2,000 years later. We also celebrate this hottest week of the summer starting with National Thermal Engineering Day, July 24th, typically the hottest day of the year.

WEEK 8: Mon-Fri, Aug 3-7, 2026 – AM 9:00-12:00; PM 12:00-3:00

CRYOGENICS WEEK: Conductors and insulators, semiconductors, and SUPER Conductors – what are they? How are they changing the world? We will have Liquid Nitrogen available to do experiments - freezing flowers, freezing air, freezing water vapor, even freezing Nitrogen itself to make the surface of Pluto! We will examine the coldest places on the Moon, other planets, and the universe. Then, we introduce the LN2 Hero's Engine challenge where we make ping-pong balls hover in mid-air!

WEEK 9: Mon-THUR, Aug 10-13, (4 days) AM 9:00-12:00; PM 12:00-3:00

(Note: short week ends Thursday.)

WIRELESS WORLD WEEK: Experiment with wireless communications technologies and build an FM radio receiver. Learn about Morse Code and the Titanic, cell phones and autonomous cars, satellites, the internet, and the history of radio. The week ends with a ham radio communication convention in Marlborough, called HamXposition. Join us on Saturday, Aug 15, for a huge electronics flea market, educational talks, and a Youth Forum. Celebrate National Radio Day on Thu, Aug 20.

WEEK 10: Mon-Fri, Aug 17-21, 2026 – AM 9:00-12:00; PM 12:00-3:00

SPACE SCIENCE WEEK: Explore the evolving boundary between Science and Science Fiction. Build air-powered and engine powered rockets, experiment with Newton's Laws of Motion and the Bernoulli effect, learn about future Moon and Mars missions, how a Tesla roadster got into space… While watching excerpts of 2001 A Space Odyssey, we will chronicle the advances in 60 years of space technology.

WEEKLY THEMES vs. GENERAL ACTIVITIES

WEEKLY THEMES provide enrichment lessons; they supplement, not replace, regular weekly activities. Within time and staffing constraints, we try to give students a variety of activity choices.

GENERAL ACTIVITIES may include Battlin’ Bots, LASER cutting and engraving, Woodworking Projects, Model Rocketry, Planetarium Shows, Bridge Building Contests, Egg Drop Contests, Oobleck, Arts and Crafts, Electronic Kits Soldering, Shortwave & Ham Radio, RangerBot coding, Making Kites, Chess / Board Games, Pinewood Derby Racing, Chess or Billiards tournaments, MIDI keyboard music.

One average size project kit per week is built into the price of the workshop. Projects that consume more than average material will be billed at cost with your permission, such as additional electronics kits or over-size 3D print objects.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Check us out before signing up! See our facilities, and meet our staff. Come to one of our regular OPEN HOUSES. Or call to schedule an appointment.

We want you and your child to be comfortable with our facility and program, and we prefer that you do not sign up until after you have toured the facility and met us.

We recommend that a child not attend too many weeks in a row because they will find certain activities tend to repeat regularly.

The THEME content of AM+PM sessions will REPEAT each day, although there are other activities available for children who stay for both sessions. Some children love to repeat activities, some do not. Which does your child prefer? Please book sessions with that in mind.

COMFORT ZONE

Although workshops are structured instructional time, we recognize that some students need frequent breaks or change of pace, so students are welcome to switch in and out of structured activities as they wish. Those arriving earlier or staying later will have unstructured time to socialize, work on projects, play games, watch educational science videos, or just chill out.

Students may bring in their own science or educational items at their own risk, labeled with their name, in an appropriate container, box, or backpack. These items may include their own laptop computers if doing computer activities, although we have computers for general use. They may bring Magic cards, inexpensive musical instruments, sketchpads, a summer reading book, small electronic devices, small robots, or licensed amateur radios. If you have questions about what is acceptable to bring, please call.