OHIO — Some summer camps in Ohio are turning STEM into STEAM.

Techie Camps are adding art to science, technology, engineering and math for elementary and middle school students. The camps are a project of Tech Corps and help expose kids with a wide range of interests to opportunities in STEM.

Fay Jalabi tried out the digital animation stop motion Techie Camp. His dad signed him up. 

“I got kind of excited, and like I was really hoping for it a week before,” he said.

The 12-year-old helped create an animated adventure. 

“About a dragon trying to help a king,” he said. 

Fay drew the characters and worked on a team with brothers Lucas and Carson Jameyson to bring the characters to life. 

It was a practice in patience. 

“This took us five days, and it’s a minute and like 30 seconds,” Carson said. 

They called on their creativity to make all their sets. 

“We have the lights up here, so it shines over here,” Fay said. “And this is where the hedgehog and dragon fight.”

They then took a series of photographs to make their movie move. 

“The movies, if you want it to look smooth, every second is six photos,” said Alisha Schnupp, camp instructor. “So, they’re doing that math in their head, but they really don’t think about it, cause they’re enjoying what they’re doing.”

Schnupp said she’s worked with several Techie Camps, and she’s excited to see students this engaged. 

“It makes me happy that we are doing what we need to be doing,” she said. “Reaching those kids exactly the way we wanted to.” 

Techie Camps include a variety of tech topics from robotics to coding in locations across the state. Most are free for students to attend. 

“Showing them that there’s more to engineering than just the computer component of it,” Schnupp said.