2026 Summer | STEM Camp Through Lab on a Chip Engineering

The 2026 Summer Lab on a Chip experience gave students the opportunity to step into a hands-on STEM Camp environment at UC Irvine, where engineering became something they could design, build, test, troubleshoot, and present.

In collaboration with the UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering, the program introduced students to a university-style engineering setting through microfluidics, CAD design, Arduino electronics, fabrication, soldering, cleanroom exposure, calibration, poster presentation, and device showcase work. UC Irvine describes the Lab-on-a-Chip project as a hands-on experience where students design, build, and test a portable microfluidic device that detects fluorescein concentration, including PDMS microfluidic chip fabrication and calibration with known concentrations.

For students, this was not simply a summer science class. It was a project-based STEM Camp where a technical idea moved from concept to prototype, from prototype to testing, and from testing to presentation. Families interested in future program opportunities can learn more through Franklin Academy’s Lab on a Chip program, which introduces students to interdisciplinary engineering through biology, chemistry, materials science, and micro-scale systems in collaboration with UC Irvine.

A strong STEM Camp should give students more than exposure to science vocabulary. It should help them experience how engineers actually think.

That was the core of the Lab on a Chip program.

Students moved through a real engineering process: learning the background science, forming teams, designing components, working with CAD software, exploring microfluidic flow, fabricating a PDMS device, preparing fluorescein solutions, assembling electronics, calibrating a system, testing an unknown sample, and presenting the final result.

This kind of experience matters because modern engineering is interdisciplinary. A working Lab on a Chip device requires more than one skill. Students need chemistry to understand solutions and concentration. They need design thinking to create the chip holder and housing. They need electronics to support measurement. They need fabrication skills to turn digital ideas into physical parts. They need communication skills to explain what they built and why it matters.

By the end of the camp, students were not just learning about engineering. They were practicing it.

The first week began with arrival, check-in, a campus tour, and orientation. These early moments helped students understand the rhythm of the program and the expectations of working in a structured engineering environment.

The project quickly moved into team formation and OnShape training. Students began with introductory design exercises, including creating a pendant or die, before applying CAD thinking to more technical components later in the week.

This early design work helped students understand a key engineering lesson: before something can be built, it has to be imagined clearly, measured carefully, and modeled logically.

In a STEM Camp like this, design is not decoration. It is decision-making.

Every dimension matters. Every part has a purpose. Every shape affects how the final system may fit, function, and perform.

As students moved deeper into the project, they began learning the science behind Lab on a Chip technology.

Workshops introduced the basics of chemical analysis, chemical reactions, microfluidics, concentration, and dilution. These topics gave students the foundation they needed to understand why a small device can perform meaningful testing.

The idea of a Lab on a Chip may sound simple at first: shrink a laboratory function into a compact chip-based system. But students quickly saw that small-scale engineering requires careful thinking. Fluids behave differently at micro scales. Concentration changes must be controlled. Testing depends on precision.

Chemistry became more than a formula on paper. It became part of a device that students would eventually build and test.

That connection between science and application is what made the camp feel real.

The first week also introduced students to Arduino and electronics challenges.

For many students, this was where the project became more hands-on and more technical. They worked through Arduino challenges, explored electronics concepts, and began understanding how wiring and components could support a larger device system.

Later, students moved into electronics wiring and soldering training. These tasks required patience, steady hands, and careful attention to detail. A small connection error could affect the whole system. A loose wire or misplaced component could create a problem that students had to diagnose and fix.

This is one of the most valuable parts of a hands-on STEM Camp. Students learn that technical confidence does not come from getting everything right immediately. It comes from trying, checking, troubleshooting, and improving.

Each challenge helped students become more comfortable with the reality of engineering: things do not always work the first time, and that is part of the process.

The program gave students exposure to engineering spaces that helped them see what university-level STEM learning can look like.

Students toured the MakerSpace, observed demo printing and cutting, visited the Microfluidics Lab, explored Materials Science and Engineering spaces, joined a cleanroom tour, and experienced Chemical Engineering lab tours.

These spaces helped students understand that engineering is physical, collaborative, and experimental. It happens in labs, fabrication spaces, classrooms, research centers, and team environments.

For high school students, this kind of exposure can be powerful. A lab tour can turn a general interest in STEM into a clearer academic direction. Students may begin to imagine themselves studying engineering, conducting research, designing devices, or working in interdisciplinary fields.

The UC Irvine setting added another layer of motivation. Students were not only learning engineering concepts; they were seeing where those concepts live in a university environment.

By the middle of the first week, students began applying design skills to the actual Lab on a Chip system.

They practiced on-shape mask drawing, received PDMS training, worked on chip holder and housing design, reviewed electronics wiring, finalized component structures, and selected masks for channel design.

This stage required students to think like engineers rather than just learners.

A chip holder is not just something that holds a chip. It must support function, alignment, stability, access, and usability. Housing design must consider how components fit together. Mask selection affects channel design and microfluidic behavior.

Students learned that every design choice has consequences.

This is why iterative design became such an important theme. Students had to revise, adjust, and refine. They began to understand that a successful device depends on many small decisions made carefully over time.

The second week shifted the project from design preparation into deeper build work.

Students worked on PDMS device fabrication, made fluorescein solutions, completed electrical assembly, printed housing and chip holder components, and began prototype assembly and testing.

This was one of the most exciting transitions of the camp.

The design work from Week 1 started becoming physical. Students could see parts take shape. They could connect technical decisions from earlier workshops to the device in front of them.

Fabrication required accuracy. Fluorescein solution preparation required care. Assembly required coordination. Testing required patience.

At this stage, students learned that engineering is not a collection of separate tasks. It is a system. Design affects fabrication. Fabrication affects assembly. Assembly affects testing. Testing reveals what still needs to be improved.

That system-level thinking is one of the strongest outcomes of a project-based STEM Camp.

As the project developed, students moved into calibration and unknown solution testing.

Calibration helped students understand the importance of measurement. A device is not complete just because it is assembled. It must be tested against known values. It must produce results that can be interpreted. It must be checked before it can be trusted.

Students worked on calibrating the system, then moved toward testing an unknown fluorescein solution. This step added a sense of challenge and purpose to the project.

The device now had to do something meaningful.

Students were no longer only practicing skills in isolation. They were using the full system to answer a testing question. That shift helped them understand the engineering goal behind the entire experience: build a device, test it carefully, and communicate the result.

This is where Lab on a Chip engineering became most memorable. Students experienced the full arc from idea to application.

The camp also included professional development experiences that helped students connect STEM learning to college and career pathways.

Students participated in a project management and resume workshop, a faculty seminar on engineering career paths and research, a workshop on applying to UC, an undergraduate panel on college life, a presentation skills and poster session, and an industry speaker session.

These sessions mattered because engineering success is not only technical.

Students also need to know how to manage a project, communicate their work, present their experience, think about college pathways, and understand what engineering life can look like beyond high school.

The undergraduate panel helped students hear directly about college life. The UC application workshop connected the camp experience to future admissions planning. The engineering career seminar gave students a broader picture of where STEM interests can lead.

For students considering engineering, biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, materials science, electrical engineering, or applied research, these moments helped connect the camp project to real academic futures.

For boarding students, the experience extended beyond the regular weekday camp schedule.

The residential schedule included airport pickup, house check-in, resident orientation, icebreaker games, group shopping, bookstore time, debate activities, college application seminars, reflection circles, AI workshops, outdoor hiking, sports games, board games, movie nights, packing, and checkout.

These activities gave boarding students a fuller summer experience. The lab remained central, but evenings and weekends helped students build independence, friendships, communication skills, and community.

A residential STEM Camp is not only about technical learning. It also asks students to manage time, live responsibly, participate in group activities, and balance academic intensity with social connection.

The weekend and evening schedule helped make the program more complete. Students did not only build devices. They built confidence, routines, friendships, and a stronger sense of belonging.

By the final days, students moved into presentation mode.

They worked on their project posters, practiced poster presentations, completed unknown solution testing, cleaned up their workspace, and prepared for final presentations and device showcases.

This stage required students to tell the story of their engineering process.

They had to explain the problem, the design, the fabrication steps, the testing process, the calibration method, the device outcome, and what they learned along the way. A final presentation is not just a performance. It is a form of technical communication.

Students had to make their work understandable to others.

This is an important part of STEM education because engineers must communicate. A strong idea becomes more powerful when students can explain the reasoning behind it, defend design choices, and present results clearly.

The device showcase allowed students to demonstrate both the product and the process behind it.

The 2026 Lab on a Chip experience gave students a strong introduction to interdisciplinary engineering.

Students gained technical exposure to CAD modeling, Arduino, electronics, soldering, microfluidics, PDMS fabrication, fluorescein solutions, calibration, unknown solution testing, poster design, and final presentation skills.

They also gained personal and academic skills. They practiced teamwork, project ownership, time management, problem-solving, design iteration, technical communication, and resilience when something did not work as expected.

Most importantly, students learned that engineering is not a straight line.

It is a cycle of asking questions, designing carefully, building with precision, testing honestly, and improving through feedback.

That mindset is one of the most valuable outcomes of a high-quality STEM Camp.

The Lab on a Chip project matters because it introduces students to engineering at the intersection of multiple fields.

Students saw how chemistry, materials science, microfluidics, electronics, fabrication, CAD, and data interpretation can come together inside one compact device system. They also saw how microfluidic devices can connect to biomedical and diagnostic applications.

For students interested in biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, materials science, electrical engineering, or applied research, the camp offered a meaningful early glimpse into future academic pathways.

But the deeper value was not only the topic. It was the way students learned.

They learned by doing.
They learned by building.
They learned by testing.
They learned by revising.
They learned by explaining.

That kind of learning helps students understand what engineering really feels like: creative, technical, challenging, collaborative, and rewarding.

The 2026 Summer Lab on a Chip experience gave students a rare opportunity to participate in a university-affiliated engineering program connected to UC Irvine.

Across two weeks, students moved from orientation and campus tours into microfluidics, CAD design, Arduino electronics, soldering, MakerSpace fabrication, PDMS device fabrication, cleanroom exposure, fluorescein solution testing, calibration, poster preparation, and final presentations.

They did not only learn engineering vocabulary. They practiced the engineering process.

For many students, the experience helped make STEM feel more concrete. Engineering was no longer only something they might study someday. It became something they had already touched, tested, built, and explained.

Families interested in future program opportunities can learn more about Franklin Academy’s Lab on a Chip STEM Camp and the UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering Franklin STEM Camps collaboration.