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9 Summer Camps To Sign Up for if Your Kid is a Budding Scientist

By  Savannah Cox and Julia Bottles | February 23, 2017 5:19pm 

 Celebrating its 18th year at the Museum,
Celebrating its 18th year at the Museum, "The Butterfly Conservatory: Tropical Butterflies Alive in Winter" transforms winter into a tropical summer escape. Mingle with up to 500 fluttering, iridescent butterflies among blooming tropical flowers and lush green vegetation in 80-degree temperatures. At the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, Upper West Side.
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NEW YORK CITY — One of the best things about engaging kids with science isn't just that they learn the ins and outs of the world around them, but they also learn how to question things.

"STEM fields lend themselves to inquiry," i2 Camp co-founder Michael Zigman said. "That thought process — to question, to try things, to fail and come back and succeed — applies to everything in life."

Exploring STEM fields in a hands-on summer camp environment makes the cultivation of that thought process easier, Zigman said.

"It's important to have kids try this where they're not necessarily being graded," Zigman said. "If you strip away the negative consequences of failure and instill a positive sense of failure, you try and try and try."

DNAinfo New York has rounded up a handful of STEM field summer camps whose emphasis on hands-on, experiential learning is bound to have your child thinking critically throughout the summer:

i2 Camp at the United Nations International School

Where: 2450 FDR Drive, Murray Hill
When: June 19 to July 28
Days and hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Ages: 9 to 10 for junior program; 11 to 13 for senior program
Activities: Kinetic sculpture, robotics and electronics, digital game design, 3D printing and surgical techniques
Pricing: $950 per week, with discounts if you book more than one week

Beam Center Summer Day

Where: 60 Sackett St., Carroll Gardens
When: July 10 to Sept. 1
Days and hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Ages: 7 to 13
Activities: Each year campers focus on themes. This year's are technology, interactive environments, tools, character, plastics, wood, outfit and hot stuff.
Pricing: $625 per week, with discounts if you sign up for more than one week or enroll two children in the program

Architecture Camp at the Center for Architecture

Where: 536 LaGuardia Place, Greenwich Village
When: June 19 to Aug. 25
Days and hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Ages: Students who will attend grades 3 to 12 in the fall
​Activities: Past activities have included 3D computer modeling, site visits, scale drawings and scavenger hunts.
Pricing: $600 per week

Summer Media Camp at the Museum of the Moving Image

Where: 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria
When: July 17 to Aug. 25
Days and hours: Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Ages: 9 to 13
​Activities: Stop-motion animation, video game design, and video and puppetry for the screen
Pricing: $475 for one session, up to $2,400 for six sessions

► Camp Pixel at the Pixel Academy

Where: 163 Pacific St., Cobble Hill
When: July 3 to Sept. 1
Days and hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with flexible drop-off and pick up times
Ages: 7 to 14
Activities: Stop-motion animation, creating and remixing music samples, DJ performance, video game design and development, digital art and coding
Pricing: $935 a week or $815 a week if registered before March 15; there is a discount for signing up for multiple weeks

► Innovation Camps at the New York Hall of Science

Where: 47-01 111th St., Corona
When: July 11 to Aug. 11
Days and hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 
Ages: Grades K to 4
Activities: Science of sports and robotics
Pricing: $375 to $400, depending on grade and membership status

► Dazzling Discoveries STEM Summer Camp

Where: 971 Columbus Ave., Upper West Side
When: June 1 through September
Days and hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Ages: 5 to 12; apprentice programs are available for teens 13 to 17
Activities: 3D printer and design software classes, computer games, furniture design, engineering, natural science classes as well as hands-on experiments in chemistry, physics and biology
Pricing: $600 per child per week or $140 per child per day

► RoboFun Camp

Where: 2672 Broadway, Manhattan Valley
When: June 5 to Aug. 25
Days and hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (half days available as well)
Ages: Grades pre-K to 6
Activities: LEGO robotics, coding, game design and stop motion animation
Pricing: $850 a week or $425 a week for half-day classes

► Digital Universe: Flight School

Where: American Natural History Museum, Central Park West at 79th Street, Upper West Side
When: July 3 to 7 and Aug. 28 to Sept. 1
Days and hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Ages: Grades 6 to 8
Activities: Exploration of space using digital projection at the Rose Center's Hayden Planetarium
Pricing: $525 for members; $550 for non-members