Why buy curriculum?
Finding STEM activities to do with kids is not difficult -- you can find them all over the internet. A great place to start is our website, ExperimentExchange.com, which has a free database of hands-on STEM activities with printable science facts and supply lists.
But once you’ve gathered the “low-hanging fruit” from the web – activities such as erupting volcanoes and making slime – it gets a LOT harder to create hour after hour of engaging STEM programming. Also, remember that when you create your own curriculum, it will be untested. You should be prepared to revise, revise, revise once you see what works with the kids, and what doesn’t.
You will need to:
- research and plan out the activities,
- gather the related science background information,
- cataloge the required materials,
- identify or create any videos or handouts, and
- do a trial run of the activities, then go back and revise the lesson plans.
You'll also need to think through the setup of each activity carefully, and make sure everything is timed well so that the students don’t have much down-time. (Lots of waiting inevitably leads to boredom.)
Based on our experience, it takes at least 8 hours to develop each hour of high-quality programming. Doing the math, at $15/hour:
- a 15 hour camp will cost you at least $1800 to develop,
- a 3 hour camp will cost you at least $360 to develop, and
- a 10 week class will cost you at least $1200 to develop.