About STEM SPARK
Built by an educator. Built for builders.
Our philosophy
At least three disciplines, every time
Every project blends at least three STEAM disciplines. Take a bridge: science covers forces and materials, engineering covers structure, math covers scale and angles, and art covers aesthetics. One build, four ways of thinking.
Student innovators don't just learn about science and technology — they design, build, code, test, and then present or compete. They leave with their design sketches, a challenge result, and a story to tell at dinner.
Science
Engineering
Math
Art
Why educator-designed matters
The research behind every build
A STEAM camp can be entertainment with a science sticker, or it can be teaching. The difference is design — and the design choices at STEM SPARK come straight out of the learning sciences.
The window is now
Research consistently finds that most students decide whether STEM is "for them" before they leave middle school. Grades 2–6 isn't our niche by accident — it's the window where identity forms, and where one great build can change a trajectory.
Projects beat worksheets
Multi-year university studies of project-based learning find students in project-based classrooms outperform peers on science assessments — across income levels and reading abilities. Our camps are 100% project: design it, build it, test it, defend it.
Struggle is the lesson
The learning sciences call it productive struggle: the version that fails teaches more than the version that works on the first try. Our challenges are calibrated so version one almost never works — and version three almost always does.
This is what a doctorate in curriculum and instruction changes about a Saturday morning: written learning objectives behind every activity, scaffolding that keeps a first-timer and a fourth-timer both at their edge, and a showcase at the end because presenting your own work is where learning locks in. Fun is the delivery mechanism. It was never the whole product.
Meet the founder
Dr. Hayat Ileiwat, Ed.D.
Dr. Ileiwat has spent more than 30 years in education, 15 of them in school leadership at Universal Academy of Florida in Tampa, where she served as Head of Elementary School, Head of Middle School, and currently Academic Dean.
She holds a Doctor of Education in Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, a Master's in Secondary Education, and Harvard Graduate School of Education's Certificate in School Management and Leadership.
She founded STEM SPARK to give student innovators the kind of hands-on, project-based learning she has spent her career championing.
Safety & security
School-grade standards, every Saturday
We spent decades responsible for other people's children inside schools. Those standards came with us.
- Every adult on our team is Level 2 background screened. If they can't work at a school, they can't work with us.
- Fully insured, with a certificate of general liability available on request.
- 16:2 ratio — up to 16 student innovators with 1 lead teacher and 1 assistant.
- Sign-in and sign-out procedures with authorized pickup names on file.
- Allergy-aware snack list, collected at registration and checked before every camp.