ABSTRACT Much of the work in STEM camps tends to be science‐driven with little attention given to mathematics. Guided by a mixed methods embedded research design using data from observations, questionnaires, and a group interview, we investigate if a camp that explicitly integrates mathematics had a positive impact on middle school students' STEM enjoyment, STEM career knowledge, and STEM career interest. Results of the descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon Matched‐Pairs Signed‐Rank test, and Sign test revealed statistically significant positive increases in all measures. Participants indicated that their enjoyment of STEM stemmed from the camp being fun, incorporating coding, and including a research component. Evidence of increased STEM career knowledge and interest primarily came from introducing participants to inventors in STEM and exposing them to the STEM invention process. The findings of this study suggest that STEM camps that intentionally include an integrated steM approach can improve students' utility value and interest value toward STEM while also engaging them in mathematics. Future research could explore the impact of integrated steM camps on students' mathematics identity (e.g., competence, interest, and recognition).
Kudaisi et al. (Wed,) studied this question.