STEAM Dream Camp is RAFT’s own summer camp, run by RAFT staff at host locations across the Bay Area. The host provides the site and the campers. RAFT brings the credentialed teachers, the camp counselors, the kits and the curriculum, and runs every session. Four weeks, ages 5 to 14, with themes that vary by location. Camper registration for summer 2026 is not open yet, so right now we are lining up the Bay Area schools, districts and community sites that want to host one.
Hosting a camp in the Bay Area? Email steamcamp@raft.net. Outside the Bay Area, RAFT does not travel to run camps, but you can run one yourself with STEAM Camp in a Box.
RAFT runs Dream Camp with credentialed teachers and trained camp counselors, at a 10 to 1 camper-to-teacher ratio, and we check whether it works. Campers answer the same concept questions at the start of a theme and again at the end, so what they learned is measured rather than assumed.
Average gain in concept knowledge from pre-test to post-test
Average correct after camp, up from 40% before
Students served since 2021
Of Dream Camp classrooms led by a credentialed teacher
Based on pre- and post-tests of camper concept knowledge across all camp themes.
Camps run four weeks, with full day and part day options. Dates, hours and themes are worked out with each host site, which is why the theme list varies by location.
Credentialed teachers and trained camp counselors, at a 10 to 1 camper-to-teacher ratio. Every staff member is background checked.
Each week campers do storytelling, hands-on STEAM exploration, STEAM games and team projects. The kits, materials, tools and curriculum all come from RAFT, and your staff do not have to teach or prepare a session.
Each theme builds to a showcase where campers present what they made to families and the community, and the gadgets, machines and puppets go home with them.
STEAM Dream Camp is the camp RAFT runs itself. A host site provides the rooms and the campers; RAFT provides the teachers, the counselors, the kits and the curriculum, and runs the camp from the first day to the showcase. It operates at schools, districts and community sites across the Bay Area.
Credentialed teachers and trained counselors at a 10 to 1 ratio, all background checked. Your team does not need a STEAM specialist, or any specialist.
No shopping list, no printing, no prep weekend. RAFT arrives with the kits, the materials and the tools, pre-sorted by activity and by camper.
Every session maps to NGSS and Common Core, with social-emotional learning and storytelling built into the engineering challenges.
Themes vary by site, and have included Cool Gadgets, Groovy Machines, Planet Protectors, STEAM puppet theater and Tech Unplugged.
The interest form takes a couple of minutes: who you are, where in the Bay Area you are, roughly how many campers and when you are thinking. That is enough for us to come back with themes, dates and what it would take to run a camp with you.
Dream Camp runs in the Bay Area only. Outside it, the option is STEAM Camp in a Box: RAFT ships you the kits, the materials, the printed journals and the facilitation guides, and your own staff run the sessions. RAFT does not send a camp team outside the Bay Area.
If you are interested in working at RAFT camp, please email camphiring@raft.net.
