Bay Area LEEDS Summer STEM Academies

Bay Area LEEDS Summer Academies offers Summer 2025 STEM learning for high school students through hands-on activities such as design-build experiences constructing both structures and moving parts using Arduino programming, learning about the science and technology involved in robotic systems, and engaging in a full production-line simulation of a model car assembly. Students become makers by completing multiple projects, conduct authentic laboratory experiments aligned with in-the-field studies, consider the benefits, disadvantages and effects of CRISPR on society including the ethics surrounding these topics, and develop a proposal to pitch to a team of investors (industry judges). Additional activities include creating a public service announcement to be shared with a panel of industry representatives, learning about robotic system concepts and integration, safety, human interfaces, building control systems and industrial applications, and programming and flying drones using block coding in an indoor obstacle course while discovering the industrial applications of drones.

• Ages: 14–18 years old
• Schedule: Multiple academies in June, July, and early August 2025, with most running 5 days from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and some two-week and residential 5-night/6-day options
• Price: Registration fees vary by academy and location, with fee waivers available for those in need; fees cover partial costs of facilities, curriculum, field visit transportation, and breakfast, lunch, and snacks daily

The 2025 academies include Engineering, Construction & Manufacturing; Discover Engineering!; Biotechnology; Environmental Engineering; Automation & Robotics; Girls Who Design+Construct with Solar Power & Renewable Resources; Green Energy: Drone Flight & Coding; and Manufacturing: Alternative Energy & Robotics. Discover Engineering! is a by-invitation-only residential program that blends lecture, laboratories, and career panels, and includes a week-long project that culminates in creation of a bridge structure and autonomous vehicle that are tested and analyzed, with results presented to industry at the conclusion of the program. Tri-Valley academies are made possible through a grant from the Tri-Valley Regional Occupational Program and are open free of charge to high school students from Livermore Valley Joint, Pleasanton, and Dublin unified school districts, with students from other districts accepted if space is available and with appropriate registration fees applied.

Bay Area LEEDS (Linking Education and Economic Development Strategies) is led by CEO April Treece and is a certified IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit charity. Its mission is to develop and support sustained collaboration among business, labor, government, K–12, and post-secondary education and training institutions to strengthen the regional economy. Bay Area LEEDS works closely with Cal State East Bay Construction Management and Engineering faculty and Project Lead The Way teachers to design, plan, and implement the Discover Engineering! experience, values Project Lead The Way middle and high school curricula and the Linked Learning approach, and uses a demand-driven industry-led model to build collaboration among partners. The academies offered in the Tri-Valley are supported by sponsors, and Bay Area LEEDS’ Summer STEM Series also offers an opportunity for teachers to increase their knowledge about curriculum integration, project-based learning, work readiness competencies, and career opportunities in the region.

Last updated March 13, 2026.