Students in Northeast Fresno spending their summer having fun learning

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- It may be summer vacation, but the learning doesn't stop for students in Northeast Fresno.

The wheels are turning at Fresno State's Lyles Center in more ways than one.

"It's an incredible opportunity for kids over the summer to learn, to spend time learning those hands-on science and math concepts while their basically playing," said Laurie Zaninovich, Lyles Center Director of Outreach.

The Kid's Invent Summer Camp for 4th to 6th graders covers science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

"We build a lot of things. We find out a lot of things and we learn a lot of things," said Felicity Shen, 8-years-old.

Throughout the day students are given a challenge and basic supplies. How they complete the task at hand is up to them.

"We want them to explore, and the amazing thing that comes out of that is really incredible to see," said Zaninovich.

Throughout the course, students work on 36 hands on activities. They may be spending their summer vacation inside the classroom, but some of them are having so much fun they hardly notice.

"They don't realize they're learning. They're doing a lot of fun stuff like building cars and flying toys and you get to learn about gravity and all sorts of electricity and different things," said Zaninovich.

"We did a rocket one and you step on a bottle and the rocket shoots and mine went pretty far," said Christian Chacon, 9-years-old.

Students spent Friday problem solving in a hands-on way-- trial and error.

The project-based curriculum aligns with the California science and common core state standards.

Each week-long session covers a different theme-- robotics, design labs, and innovation workshops.