Innovation Hive: STEM Summer Camp for Kids in Destin, Florida

Families searching for summer camps in Destin, Florida are often looking for more than supervised activity. Innovation Hive at The Barrett School is a STEM-focused summer camp for children ages 4 to 11, built around six weekly themes including Tech Explorers, Lego Masters, and Space Discovery. They want a programme that keeps their child genuinely engaged, builds something across the week rather than just filling hours, and is run by educators who know how to work with young children rather than simply manage them. This guide covers what the programme includes, how each week is structured, and what families need to know before registering for the 2026 season.

What Innovation Hive is

Innovation Hive is a structured, theme-based STEM summer camp programme at The Barrett School in Destin, Florida, designed for children ages 4 to 11. The programme runs from June 8 through July 17, 2026, across six consecutive weekly sessions. Each week is built around a different theme that drives the hands-on projects, creative activities, science experiments, and outdoor exploration for that session. Children who attend multiple weeks experience a genuinely different programme each time rather than a repeated format with different decoration.

The programme is staffed by Barrett educators who work with students during the regular academic year. That continuity matters. Teachers who understand child development and instructional design approach camp activities differently than counsellors hired seasonally. The environment is structured without being rigid, active without being chaotic, and grounded in the same educational philosophy that runs through Barrett's academic year programme.

2026 weekly themes and dates

Each week of Innovation Hive has a specific theme that shapes the full five-day experience including projects, science activities, creative work, and outdoor sessions.

Week 1, June 8 to 12: Around the World. Students explore cultures, geography, food, and traditions from different parts of the world through hands-on projects and creative activities.

Week 2, June 15 to 19: Tech Explorers. Students engage with coding concepts, simple machines, and technology challenges appropriate to their age group.

Week 3, June 22 to 26: Lego Masters. Students design and build structures, vehicles, and mechanical systems using Lego engineering platforms with team challenges and solo builds.

Week 4, June 29 to July 2: Arts Collective. Students work across multiple creative mediums including visual art, performance, and design thinking.

Week 5, July 7 to 10: Space Discovery. Students explore astronomy, physics concepts, and space science through projects, experiments, and imaginative challenges.

Week 6, July 13 to 17: Creatures Land and Sea. Students investigate biology, ecology, and the natural world through science experiments and outdoor exploration.

Programme details and daily schedule

Standard day hours are 8:00 to 8:30 AM drop-off and 2:30 to 3:00 PM pickup. Extended day care is available until 4:00 PM at an additional cost of $10 per day. Tuition is $380 per week per camper.

Families provide a packed lunch, a morning snack, sunscreen applied before arrival, and a water bottle. Comfortable clothing suitable for both indoor and outdoor activity is recommended. Campers should be toilet-independent before enrolling.

The camp is held at The Barrett School campus at 4405 Commons Drive East, Destin, FL 32541.

Why STEM-based summer camps produce different outcomes

A summer camp built around STEM themes is not simply a change of subject matter. The approach changes how children experience the week. STEM-based activities require children to make decisions, test ideas, encounter results they did not expect, and try again with new information. That cycle of design, test, and iteration builds a relationship to difficulty that passive or purely recreational activities do not.

A child who spends a week building a robot that does not move correctly, figuring out why, and fixing it leaves that week with more than a project. They leave with evidence that problems are solvable and that persistence produces results. That is a durable outcome that shows up in how a child approaches academic work in the following school year, not just in how they remember their summer.

Innovation Hive delivers this through themes that make STEM content genuinely compelling for children ages 4 to 11. A 5-year-old building a Lego vehicle and a 10-year-old coding a simple machine are engaged with the same underlying thinking process at age-appropriate levels of complexity. The multi-age structure is designed to make both experiences meaningful simultaneously.

How Innovation Hive connects to Barrett's academic programme

Innovation Hive is not a separate entity from The Barrett School. It runs on the same campus, is staffed by the same educators, and reflects the same hands-on, project-based approach that runs through our full academic programme from Pre-K4 through 12th grade.

For families who are considering Barrett for the upcoming school year, attending Innovation Hive is one of the most practical ways to experience the school environment before committing to enrollment. Children engage with the campus, meet the staff, and experience the instructional style in a lower-stakes summer setting. Many families who enroll in Innovation Hive go on to apply for the academic year programme, and those children arrive in September already familiar and comfortable with the school.

Full programme details, weekly themes, and registration information are available on our summer camp page.

Registration and availability

Spots across all six weeks fill on a first-registered basis. Weeks with the most popular themes, particularly Lego Masters and Space Discovery, tend to fill first. Families who want specific weeks should register early rather than waiting until the weeks are at capacity.

Registration for Innovation Hive is available through Barrett's events page. Families with questions about the programme, age eligibility, or extended day availability can contact the school directly at (850) 353-2153 or info@thebarrettschool.org.

For families using Innovation Hive as an introduction to Barrett ahead of the 2026-2027 school year, the admissions overview covers how the academic year enrollment process works. For questions about annual tuition and scholarship eligibility, the tuition and financial aid page has a complete breakdown.

Schedule a campus visit to see the school in person alongside your Innovation Hive registration if you are evaluating Barrett for full-year enrollment.