SIU offers a wide array of academic, athletic, outdoor, art and music summer camps providing fun, educational and enriching experience for all ages, interests and abilities. Photos by Amihere Benson, Russell Bailey and SIU Carbondale.
March 18, 2026
Find fun, learning and adventure at SIU’s 2026 summer camps
CARBONDALE, Ill. — An amazing myriad of experiences awaits participants in the 2026 summer camps at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Youths can hone their skills, learn, explore new horizons and much more at dozens of enriching, educational and fun summer camps. The eclectic and diverse camp lineup offers something for all ages, abilities and interests – from academic enrichment to athletics, from creative pursuits to adventure.
SIU’s Events and Outreach, Touch of Nature Outdoor Education Center and Saluki Athletics are coordinating the camps giving children and youths the chance to enhance their athletic skills, make music, create works of art, build, explore the great outdoors, use the Student Recreation Center amenities, soar through the skies, learn all manner of new things and broaden their perspectives and horizons in countless ways. Campers can also check out various options for future careers.
In addition, adults can take advantage of many varied personal and professional development opportunities through hundreds of online continuing education courses.
New and back by popular demand
The eclectic summer camp lineup means participants can pick their passion, explore new possibilities, learn and grow. The 2026 camp schedule features assorted academic, athletic, art, music, outdoor and nature camps for children from first grade through high school. Organizers note that SIU camps are unique and special for many reasons, including the large variety of academic and other camps. In addition, they are led by true professionals in the fields – professors, coaches and experts – assisted by SIU student leaders of tomorrow.
New this year is the SIU Percussion Workshop, set for June 15-18. Elementary, middle and high school students are welcome with separate tracks for various ages and experience levels to provide all participants with instruction appropriate for their skills and to help them develop musically. Via interactive instruction, engaging musical activities and ensemble play, participants will enhance their musicianship as well as their musicianship and fundamental skills. They will explore the gamut of percussion play, including snare drums, keyboard, concert and world percussion, drug set and drumline techniques. While previous music experience is preferred, all students are eligible to participate.
The R.E.C. Sports Kids Camps debuted last year, courtesy of Recreational Sports and Services, and these popular, action-packed weeks are returning for 2026. Sessions for ages 6-10 are set for June 1-4 and June 8-11. Participants can enjoy all that SIU’s superb Student Recreation Center and nearby areas have to offer – swimming, boating, hiking, disc golf, field games, climbing and more – during these dynamic sports camps.
Also, back for the second time are STEAM for All Girls, STEAM for All Boys and Sensory Engineering in the Field (STEM). The STEAM for All camps are grant-funded science, technology, engineering, art and math camps for middle school/junior high students in grades 6-8 from the Carbondale, Cobden and Murphysboro school districts who meet specific income qualifications. Campers will enjoy interactive workshops and projects using the latest technology, including 3D printing, biomedical engineering, electronic circuit exploration, working with modern vehicles and automotive technology, creating with AI and much more. STEAM for All: Girls camp is July 6-10 and STEAM for All: Boys camp is July 20-24.
High school age students won’t want to miss the STEM Research Academy, a four-week researchers’ camp that includes remote activities the first and fourth week and hands-on learning at SIU June 7-18. Participants can select from 17 intriguing research projects to work on with expert SIU faculty and staff or perhaps create their own project. Options include studying light pollution in the region, white light solar flares, white-tailed deer fawn, reverse engineering of language, intelligent online machine learning and a wide array of other options.
So many choices
If you can imagine it, you can likely find a way to do it during SIU’s summer camps. If sports are your thing, check out the variety of baseball, soccer track and field camps and clinics. For the budding artist, the Student Center Craft Shop is offering camps focusing on wearable art, creating a board game, sewing sculptures, art exploration and crafting dishware with clay. Participants can play great tunes at the various band camps for high school, junior high and marching percussion musicians or for drum majors and color guard.
The always popular Lego camps, including Lego MindStorm, Lego Engineering and WeDo Robotics Lego camps return, with a variety of sessions for grades 1-5. The Challenge to Excellence camp, a longtime favorite that blends drama, biology, math, art, psychology and other interests to promote higher-level thinking skills and creativity, is back with sessions for grades 7-8 and 9-12. For those who are more attuned to Mother Nature and exploring the great outdoors, Touch of Nature, SIU’s scenic experiential learning center located alongside the Shawnee National Forest, is offering three sessions of its acclaimed EDVenture Camps for ages 5-12 this summer. Each has a different theme and features special hands-on learning activities, outdoor exploration and experiences in keeping with the themes. The sessions include: Nature Detectives, Survival 101 and Forest Explorers Week. Young naturalists will experience the lovely forests and discover the flora and fauna that call the area home enjoying engaging activities, interactive lessons, free play and adventures aplenty. Note that two of the camps are 4-day experiences due to the Juneteenth and Independence Day holidays. There’s also a Counselor-in-Training Week for youths age 13-17 who are interested in becoming camp counselors.
Career exploration
For those who want to see what their future may look like, several camps provide unique opportunities to explore career options. During the Nursing Career Camp, June 24-26, and the Pathways to Saluki Medicine Camp, May 31-June 5, older high school students can see for themselves what it would be like to enjoy a life-saving career.
SIU’s innovative career development initiative for minority high school students, the Saluki Opportunities Awareness Residency (SOAR) program is July 19-25 with the goal of boosting the enrollment of underrepresented student groups attending college and majoring in accounting. High school and community college students can enhance their skills writing prose and poetry under the tutelage of practiced, published authors during the Young Writers’ Conference, set for June 16-18.
Participants can check into the aviation field through Junior Aviator Careers camps or explore, code and create during the Sensory Engineering in the Field camp. They can also sharpen their leadership skills while learning about the world of agricultural education in the Ag Education Camp and unearth the past during the Explore SIU: Unearthing History Archaeology Camp. With sessions for middle school and high school students, Gamification Camps give insight into the cutting-edge fields of artificial intelligence and virtual and augmented reality as participants investigate careers using these technologies.
Sign up now
Find all of the summer camp options and register online now at camps.siu.edu. Additional camps and more details are continually being added to the lineup, but registration is on a first-come, first-served basis and some fill up very quickly.
John A. Logan College, located in nearby Carterville, offers a complementary summer camp lineup. Find more information and registration details on the college’s frequently updated community education page.
Inspiring a tradition of lifelong learning
At SIU, learning never ends, and regardless of your age there are also intriguing educational opportunities for adults. Learn more about the numerous continuing education online courses, become a community listener, or discover a variety of other in-person and continuing education and professional development programs.
For additional information about any of the Events and Outreach adult programming, visit the website, call 618-536-7751 or email conferenceservices@siu.edu.