Great opportunities for true learning are hard to come by, said someone who has never been to Texas A&M university. Here at our university the learning seems to be in the air. Every time I open my email there is something new going on, an invite to participate in a study about a thing that I didn’t even know existed let alone being studied. Or a notification about an international field trip to some faraway place whose name made me bring out the old family atlas. Yes, I still have a paper atlas, it is think and bulky and heavy, but it is just amazing to flip through the pages and to discover something new. Getting back to the point, learning in the air, well for someone like me who didn’t have many friends growing up in Pakistan and who spent his idle time watching episodes of NOVA and Cosmos on the public television channel (the only channel available) free opportunities for learning are gift and when those opportunities become paid ones, well then they are a gift from God.

This summer I was fortunate enough to participate in not one but two paid opportunities to learn. They were jobs where I was supposed to teach but to me ‘teach’ is just a fancy way of saying ‘learn’. I was blessed to be part of two camps at Texas A&M university this summer. The STEM camp organized by the Aggie STEM center and the SMaRT camp at the Department of Mathematics.

Both camps were great opportunities for the students to engage and learn. But more importantly they allowed the participating students to explore. Readers can find details about the camps and what went on in both camps online but here I wanted to share my experience within the context of both camps not just as an instructor and counselor but as a student as well. So, here are my takeaways neatly organized in a tabular form.

	Summer STEM Camp	SMaRT Camp
Name	Summer Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Camp	Summer Mathematics Research Training High School Camp
Focus of camp	Introduction to the objects, language, and people in STEM fields	Proof writing in mathematics
Mode of instruction	Guided and free exploration	Direct instruction, guided and individual practice
Learning outcomes	Familiarity with STEM objects and sense of ease about application of science and mathematics in real life	Familiarity and easiness with mathematical proof writing
Support structure	University faculty, instructors, licensed teachers, and camp counselors	University faculty, and grad/undergrad counselors

 
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Aamir Fidai
Aamir is a Ph.D. student in the College of Education and Human Development