STEM Fun : High School

• Arrick Robotics: This the prettiest website in the world, but if you’re looking for robotics resources, this is the place to be. Includes lists of competitions and contests, groups and clubs, games and simulation.
• Codeacademy: Learn to code interactively (and for free). Codeacademy offers coding classes in major programming languages like Python, PHP, jQuery, JavaScript and Ruby.
• DiscoverE: Thinking about engineering? DiscoverE has a selection ofresources on careers, preparing for college and research schools. You might also want to check out their list of videos, trips, websites and hands-on activities.
• Mu Alpha Theta: Also known as the National High School and Two-Year College Mathematics Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta has over 100,000 student members. It organizes a national math convention, offers special awards and provides competitions.
• Student Science: A central spot for science news, blogs, resources and information about Intel competitions. Sample article titles include “Native ‘snot'” and “A library with no books.”
• TechRocket: Neat tool for exploring programming languages, 2D and 3D game design, and more. Use the promo code “MIDSFREE” to get a free first month!

STEM Games and Apps

• Algebra Touch App: Get a refresher on your algebra skills with this touch-based tool. Tap to simplify, drag to rearrange and draw lines to eliminate identical terms.
• The Elements App: If you geek out on the periodic table as much as I do, you’ll want this app. Check the current price of gold, find the half-life of plutonium or read up on helium-neon lasers.
• Interplanetary 3D Sun App: Sponsored by NASA, this tool pulls data from a fleet of NASA spacecraft. Watch solar flares, coronal mass ejections and geomagnetic storms moments after they happen.
• Muscle System Pro III App: Strip away the flesh to discover what lies beneath. Developed in collaboration with Stanford University School of Medicine, this interactive app allows you to explore the workings of human musculature, layer by layer.
• NASA App: A must-have for NASA fans. This monster app includes live streaming of NASA TV and over 13,000 images, as well as on-demand videos, news stories and International Space Station (ISS) sighting opportunities. It also happens to be free.
• National Geographic Apps: National Geographic has plenty to keep you entertained on a dull day. Top-rated apps include National Parks and the World Atlas.
• Pocket Universe App: Astronomy unbounded. Take a virtual visit to the surface of Mars. Animate the night sky. Play quiz games. Get pop-up notifications of astronomical highlights.
• Solar System for iPad: Explore the universe on your tablet with stunning visuals, 150-plus story pages, images from the Mars rover Curiosity and a 3-D orrery that lets you control the orbits of planets and their moons.
• Sparticl: The best science on the web! Engaging videos, articles, activities, and games for teens.
• Virtual Frog Dissection: All of the education with none of the guts. This app allows you to wield virtual dissection tools to uncover the mysteries of amphibian anatomy.

STEM Camps

• Alaska Summer Research Academy (ASRA) – High School: At ASRA, you’ll spend two weeks on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus, working in small teams and participating in project-based learning. Some modules will take you to remote areas of Alaska for fieldwork.
• Ambition Program: Brace yourself for a thrill ride. For six days, you’ll be immersed in an aviation-themed learning adventure at the National Flight Academy in Pensacola, Florida.
• Audubon Nature Camps: Audobon hosts a huge number of Nature Camps throughout the country. Beginning in April, they start taking applications for Wild Birds Unlimited Scholarships.
• Camp Euclid: A Mathematics Research Camp: Camp Euclid’s six-week virtual summer camps are held online. Collaborate with fellow students on tantalizingly difficult math problems.
• Camp KAOS: These flight and space adventure-themed camps take place at the Smithsonian-affiliated Kansas Cosmophere and Space Center (KAOS) in Hutchinson, Kansas.
• Digital Media Summer Camp for Teens: Get down and creative with game design and development, programming and apps, filmmaking and visual effects or 3-D modeling and animation. Digital Media’s award-winning summer camps are for teens age 12 to 17.
• Earth Camp: Explore global changes in climate, water and landscapes while you raft down the Green River’s Desolation Canyon in Central Utah. Run by the University of Arizona College of Science, Project WET, the Planetary Science Institute and the Arizona-Desert Museum.
• Engineering Summer Camps: Check out this state-by-state list of engineering camps for a summer camp near you.
• iD Game Design & Development Academy: These two-week summer camps offer an intensive submersion in game development, programming, design, 3-D modeling and animation. Choose from courses in Minecraft, Unreal® Engine, Maya®, iPhone® and more. For teens age 13 to 18.
• iD Programming Academy: Ideal for students with previous programming experience who want to take their coding skills to the next level. Camps are held at university campuses across the U.S. For teens age 13 to 18.
• iD Tech Camps for Teens: Choose your own adventure. iD’s week-long summer camps allow you to program a new app, produce a film, develop a website—practically anything tech-related. For teens age 13 to 17.
• Northern Illinois University STEM Camps: NIU offers multiple STEM summer camps for high school students, including STEM Career Explorations, Crisis on Mars!, and Eagle’s Nest STEAM Camp.
• Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP): Interested in science or math? Then you could intern for eight weeks at a Department of Navy (DoN) laboratory. Most labs require students to be 16 years of age (though 15-year-olds will sometimes be allowed).
• Summer Academy for Mathematics and Science (SAMS): Carnegie Mellon’s competitive summer program is for promising students entering their junior or senior year of high school and contemplating a STEM career. The course load is fairly heavy, but there’s no tuition, housing or dining fees if you’re selected.
• Youth Digital Summer Camps: Design 3-D models for Minecraft, create your own video game or even direct a 3-D animation! These digital technology-focused camps are held in various southern cities. For kids age 8 to 16.
• Youth Empowered Action (YEA): YEA is a week-long overnight camp for kids age 12 to 17 who want to change the world. Workshops include “Planetary Problem Puzzles” and “A Million Ways to Make a Difference.”

Science and Technology Contests

• AbilityOne Design Challenge: A challenge with a purpose. You’ll research, design and engineer technologies that empower people with disabilities to secure a new job or become more productive in the workplace.
• Air Force Association (AFA) CyberPatriot Competition: Tackle real-life cybersecurity situations in a virtual environment. Early rounds take place online during weekends in the fall, winter and spring; top teams are invited to Washington, D.C. to take part in the National Finals Competition.
• Envirothon: Compete for awards and scholarships by demonstrating your knowledge of environmental science and natural resource management. Teams advance through local Envirothon competitions to the week-long summer finals in July or August.
• FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC): Build, program and compete with a robot of your own design. Learn sophisticated hardware, work with professional engineers and qualify for student scholarships.
• FIRST® Tech Challenge (FTC): A close cousin of FRC, FTC challenges you to create a robot that you can use to compete in an alliance format against other teams. You’ll get hands-on programming and rapid prototyping experience.
• Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF): The Godzilla of science fairs. Around 1,800 innovators are invited to participate in a week-long celebration of science, technology, engineering and math. More than $5 million in awards and scholarships is up for grabs.
• Intel Science Talent Search (STS): Intel STS bills itself as the nation’s oldest and most prestigious pre-college science competition. Forty finalists compete for $630,000 in awards and a $100,000 first-place prize. It’s a big deal: eight alumni have won the Nobel Prize.
• NASA Asteroid Grand Challenge Series: Become a real-life asteroid hunter. In a series of topcoder challenges, you’ll be challenged to develop a significantly improved algorithm to identify asteroids in images from ground-based telescopes.
• NASA Capillary Effects on Liquids Exploratory Research Experiments (CELERE): Developed by NASA and Portland State University (PSU), CELERE is open to student teams in grades nine through 12 and multi-grade teams from grades five through 12. Each team creates an experiment testing the effects of microgravity on capillary action; PSU conducts the tests at their Dryden Drop Tower.
• NASA Dropping In a Microgravity Environment (DIME): DIME is open to student teams interested in designing and building a science experiment that can be operated in a microgravity environment. Finalists travel to the Glenn Research Center to perform their experiments in NASA’s drop tower.
• National Stem League (NSL): Formerly known as the Ten80 Student Racing Challenge, NSL offers four different contests for middle school and high school students. You can engineer a fast, efficient and stable racing car in the Racing Challenge, teach a robot to navigate a course in the Rover Challenge, transition to renewables in the Energy Challenge or do something completely new in the Innovation Challenge
• NSBE Jr. Explorer Technical Innovation Competition: Go head-to-head with other student scientists at the NSBE Annual Convention. Middle school and high school students are eligible. You must be a paid NSBE Jr. member to participate.
• Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC): Design, build and launch your own rocket. Developed by the Aerospace Industries Association, this is the only aerospace-specific STEM competition in the country. Students compete in teams of three to 10; the winning team took home $10,500 in 2014.
• Zero Robotics High School Tournament: Tackle a problem of interest to DARPA, NASA and MIT. If you make it past the controlled simulations to the finals, you’ll see your code run in SPHERES satellites aboard the International Space Station with live transmission from space.

Math Contests

• The American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME): High-scoring AMC 10 and AMC 12 entrants (see below) may be invited to take AMAA’s 15-question, three-hour examination. Top scorers in this test go on to the USAMO (see below).
• AMC 10/12: Every year, AMAA offers 25-question, 75-minute multiple choice exams in high school mathematics. It’s the first step on the journey toward the International Mathematical Olympiad (see below).
• American Regions Mathematics League (ARML) Power Contest: Into teamwork? ARML’s Power Contest will provide you and your mates with two problem sets, one in the fall and one in late winter, each of which must be solved within 45 minutes. Trophies are awarded to the top 10 teams.
• The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO): If you’ve made it through the AMC 10/12, the AIME, the USAMO and the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (MOSP), you’ll be invited to compete for the U.S. against peers from over 90 nations in this two-day exam.
• Moody’s Mega Math (M3) Challenge: During the M3, you and a small team of fellow juniors and/or seniors have 14 hours to solve an open-ended applied math-modeling problem focused on a real-world issue. You can work from any location. Scholarship prizes are awarded to the winners.
• NSBE Jr. Try-Math-A-Lon: The National Society of Black Engineers developed this contest to tutor high school students in SAT-level mathematics, science and African-American history. Winners of locals and regionals head to the NSBE National Convention.
• Purple Comet! Math Meet: The name is hokey but the contest’s reputation is strong. In this free, online and international math competition, your team will be presented with 25 problems to solve in 90 minutes.
• Rocket City Math League (RCML): Sponsored by Mu Alpha Theta, RCML is a year-long, four-round math competition. Trophies are mailed to top-ranked middle school and high school students at the end of the year.
• U.S.A. Junior Mathematical Olympiad (USAJMO): Only top AIME/AMC 10 scorers are invited to take this two-day exam. This includes six questions and nine hours of essay/proof examinations. The top scorers advance to the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (MASP).
• U.S.A. Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO): Only top AIME/AMC 12 scorers are invited to take this two-day exam. This includes six questions and nine hours of essay/proof examinations. Top scorers advance to the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (MASP).
• U.S.A. Mathematical Talent Search (USAMTS): Pit your problem-solving skills against some of the toughest conundrums out there. Because of the difficulty level, USAMTS allows students a full month or more to work out solutions.
• Who Wants to Be a Mathematician?: Battle for cash and prizes by answering multiple choice math questions. Qualifying tests are taken online; semifinals and finals take place at the Joint Mathematics Meetings.

STEM Grants and Opportunities

• InvenTeam: InventTeams are made up of students, teachers and mentors who receive grants of up to $10,000 to devise technological solutions to real-world problems (you can choose your own problem).
• iSTEM Scholars Program: Live in California and looking at a STEM-related profession? You might want to consider this after-school and summer program. You’ll go on field trips, receive individual tutoring and be prepped for national tests.
• Planet Connect Student Grants: Have a passion for protecting wildlife and native habitats? Planet Connect offers high school students grants of $1,000 to implement local projects and participate in wildlife or natural resource internships.

STEM Career Resources

• Career Aisle: High School: You’ll find a truckload of exploratory videos on Career Aisle’s website, as well as links to wage information and career prep resources.
• Career Cornerstone Center: It won’t win any prizes for beauty, but Career Cornerstone Center has a lot of helpful resources on STEM careers. Explore over 185 degree fields, dip into interviews or learn more about education requirements, typical salaries and networking.
• CareerOneStop: Learn all you need to know about STEM careers, including typical occupations, internships and education options. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.
• Get Biotech Smart: Curious about biotechnology research? Have a look at these video podcasts, e-learning courses and resources.
• IEEE Try Computing: A good resource if you’re just starting to look into computing. You can explore career options and majors, search for accredited programs and tinker with the visual career cloud tool.
• IEEE Try Engineering: This website includes a university search, info on engineering majors and a long list of links to camps, internships, scholarships, contests and more. You’ll also find insights from experts and virtual engineering games.
• IEEE Try Nano: IEEE gets around. In the third of their career sites (see above), they look at jobs in nanoscience and nanotechnology: technical fields that focus on matter at the nanoscale.
• iON Future: If web surfing isn’t your style, you can always play the free STEM career exploration game. It’s geared toward middle school and early high school students.
• Take IT & Go Anywhere: Your source for all things IT. Check out their list of degree programs, upcoming IT events, internships, student programs, advice on paying for college, career fairs, websites and the like.