2021 Summer Camp Offerings
In our online computer programming camps, students create and share their own custom video games and animations during a week-long coding class. Experienced teachers host daily small group classes live for 7-16 year olds Monday-Friday, arranged by age group and driven by personalized attention for each student’s original projects. Kids find our camps fun and supportive — and they love seeing and socializing with other kids as they develop their own creations!
For Summer 2021, we are excited to announce that we are offering 5 different types of camp!
1. Beginner Scratch (ages 7-12; will be grouped by age) – New to Coding? Beginner Scratch is the place to start! We’ll walk your student through creating their first game using the MIT developed Scratch programming language. Students will exercise their creativity and hone their coding skills while making their own games.
2. Advanced Scratch (level 3 or higher in our system, or equivalent experience) – Students will take their coding skills to the next level in Advanced Scratch working with our experienced teachers.
3. Minecraft Campout (Ages 7-10) Gather ’round, kids, ready your tools and prepare for adventure! Sometimes just having fun is its own reward. Minecraft Campout is a supervised, safe, multiplayer playground. Our teachers will stimulate fun and social interaction in the Minecraft world. (This is not a modding class)
4. Godot Game Engine (ages 12+) – Advanced Coders can gain experience using an open-source, professional game engine that will open up new challenges and possibilities.
5. JavaScript (ages 11-15) – Create games using JavaScript and HTML5. All you need is a web browser, a text editor, and a curious brain!
PRICING
- • Godot/JavaScript – $399
- • Beginner Scratch – $349
- • Advanced Scratch – $349
- • Minecraft Campout – $299
Camps meet Monday-Friday for one week. They last two hours. We have 2 different start time options–Morning or Afternoon–so you can let us know what will work best for you.
- High speed internet connection (cable, dsl, or LTE hotspot)
- Windows or Mac computer.
- Chromebooks work in a pinch, but have limited Zoom functionality.
- Speakers and a microphone (most laptops have these built in)
- Webcam (most laptops have these built in.)
- If you don’t have a built in webcam, you can join the meeting a second time with a smartphone or tablet, and prop it up to use as the camera. We need to see each other’s faces to teach effectively, so we use Zoom. Click here for detailed technical requirements.
- (Minecraft Builders Only) – Minecraft Java Edition
If you have any questions at all, e-mail parentsupport@creativecoding.
- Fun! The most important thing is to make sure the kids are having fun, and fully engaged with their own creative project. We celebrate successes and mistakes. It’s all a part of their coding adventure. If they’re having fun as they create, we literally cannot stop them from learning!
- Creativity. Every class confronts your child with the question “What do you want to make?” Then we help them do it! Nothing is more exciting than your child’s own ideas. Every session is a non-sequential learning experience driven by their own project.
- Teaching Kids to Teach Themselves. Our teachers engage with students over video chat, and are trained to see non-verbal signs of frustration. They aren’t there to give answers, but to lead your child through the process of finding answers. By jumping in at the right time with effective questions, your child will discover and create their own solutions for bugs or new features. We are teaching them to teach themselves.
- Persistence. Coding is hard. Your child will fail a million times before they succeed – but it feels incredible when they face adversity and emerge victorious with a solution they discovered on their own! Our teachers give students guidance during this emotional cycle and help them navigate barriers. After taking our class, your kids will get excited about facing a tough problem because they’ve developed a taste for success. They’ll think, “Wow this is really hard… and it’ll feel GREAT when I succeed!”