Sacramento STEM Summer Camps

Video Transcript

Patty: Welcome back to Good Day. Okay, it is time for your kids to do a little summer campage. And Ryan Eldridge, one of our favorite Nerds on Call. As Patty Simcox, this is totally new for me, tech and STEM as a camp. Get out of here.

Ryan: Yeah. And the first thing she asked me was like, “These aren’t those virtual camps, right? I get to kick her out of the house?” Yeah, you can kick them out of the house.

Patty: Get out.

Ryan: It’s gonna cost you a little scratch but we will figure out how to do that.

So first thing is camp EDMO. This is a non-profit organization out of the Bay area. They have a couple of different camps here in town. The coolest part about this is, is if your kid is five or six years old, going into first or going into kindergarten, they can go to these camps as well as all the way up to eighth grade. So if they are in seventh and eighth grade, get them out of the house. Oh, my God. They are just going to destroy everything. So this is pretty cool. It ranges anywhere from about $279 to $309 a week. There’s coding, there’s engineering, animation.

Patty: Oh they love that.

Ryan: There’s optional lunch and also you can get extended days, but on the average, its about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. So normal school hours. And then it’s not too bad on the pocketbook there.

This is ID Tech camps. Now, this is huge. These guys have camps all over the world. And they have got some of the coolest ones. They have even got one, I don’t know if you’ve heard about the big nerd craze about “Fortnight,” the big video game?

Patty: I’ve heard of it. I know nothing of it, but I’ve heard of it.

Ryan: These guys have a “Fortnight” type camp that you can send your kids to. They’ll think you are the coolest mom on the planet. It starts at $829, so it’s a bit crazy.

Patty: Is that for one week?

Ryan: Yeah, four days. But, it’s a once in a lifetime experience for a lot of these kids, and it’s pretty cool. I know you’ll be fine, you’ll be okay.

Now if you’ve got a lot younger ones that are kind of into Legos, we’ve shown these guys on the show before. This is Playwell. They’ve got camps ranging from like Jedi, Lego camps, to robotics, to coding and all kinds of really cool stuff. Starts from about $110 to $170 a week, so really affordable. Also, you can see they have got, this is all the locations they have got. So they are all over the place. So if you are in Woodland or if you are down in Elk Grove or you are all the way up Rose Hill you got plenty of options you can take your kids to.

Now, Mad Science. If you want your kids to play with, like, putty and muck and grossness…

Patty: Slime.

Ryan: …this is where you wanna go. So they have all kinds of different camps. These are the camps they have this year. So they can build robots and things like that, they can check out dinosaurs. This is kind of cool. This is a castaway camp. So they pretend they are on a desert island and gonna try to survive. This is what I call Tuesday night at the Eldridge house. Okay. So, and they’ve also got all these camps, are all over the place. Plenty of things to chose from.

Patty: You have the city of Fairfield. Cool.

Ryan: Now, let’s say you want to go for the free route and they have to stay inside the house, right? So this is Maker Camp. These guys have all kinds of great little camps. Here they can build their own web shooter from Spiderman. They can do little projects for making a circuit board out of paper.

And last but not least, this is called jam.com. This is virtual camps and they got little instructors that will walk your kids through camps day by day and let them do projects at home. So if you can’t send them off, you just give them an iPad and this thing, ready to go.

Patty: I dig it. You got a lot of time [inaudible 00:03:14], we like that. Good stuff. Ryan with Nerds on Call. Thank you so much for coming in.

Ryan: You are welcome.

Patty: You can get all the information on our website. You can get more details under Show Info, gooddaysacramento.com. Guys back over to you.

Summer always sneaks up on me. It feels like I just make it through Spring Break and suddenly I have to figure out what to do with the kids when there aren’t 7 hours of school to keep them busy.

That means summer camp.

At least if you want to ensure that your child gets more out of the 8 weeks out of school than a greater proficiency in Mario Kart.

Today’s options are varied and fabulous: from traditional sleep-away camps in the wilderness to water sports, gyms, and parks and rec offerings, our kids have loads of options to keep busy.

But if you have a kiddo that prefers exercising their mind over body, we’ve hand-picked some great local summer camps guaranteed to instill a love of science, technology, and engineering.

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Camp EDMO

Camp EDMO offers STEM-focused day camps in Rocklin, Folsom, and Elk Grove.

Kids as young as entering Kindergarten and through those entering 8th grad can choose from a variety of week-long camps built around such popular topics as:

Minecraft
Robotics
Coding
Roblox
Game Design
And more

Each location offers a different roster of camp options.

Normal camp hours are from 9 am to 3 pm, but, extended days are available. You can have the kiddos cared for from 8 am to 6 pm, and many locations include the option to provide lunch.

The camp costs $279-$310/week depending on topic and age group.

There are scholarships available for low-income families.

ID Tech Camp

ID tech camp offers a variety of week-long coding, game design and robotics camps for kids aged 7 to 17.

The camp runs on the Sacramento State campus and is co-ed.

There are day camps that run until 5 pm, or week-long overnight camps for older kids.

Weeklong programs start at $829.

Play Well Technologies

If Camp Edmo and ID Tech Camp have you thinking that STEM camps are out of the budget, make sure to check out Play Well’s ½ day camps.

Suited for children between ages 5 and 12, Play Well camp is hosted at community centers and schools throughout the Sacramento area.

These LEGO and robotics camps offer such cool courses as:

Jedi Master Engineering with LEGO
Minecraft Engineering with LEGO
Intro to STEM
Robotics Using LEGO

The camp costs between $110 and $170/week, depending on location.

There is typically one session offered in the morning (9am-12pm) and another in the evening (1pm-4pm), and some locations allow you to enroll your child in both the morning and afternoon sessions for a full day of camp.

Mad Science

Mad Science Summer Camps offer a healthy balance of science and engineering based day camps for children as young as 4, up to 12.

There are two programs: preschool camp (ages 4-5) and elementary camp (ages 6-12).

A snapshot of the curriculum shows a wide variety of topics. Everything from chemistry, dinosaurs, robots, space… even gardening is covered.

The camp runs 3-hour day classes and costs about $160+/week, and some locations offer a full-day option.

Classes are hosted at community centers and schools throughout Sacramento and at the Mad Science facility.

FREE Maker Camps

Maker camp believes in embracing innovation, creativity, and learning for a better tomorrow.

The Maker Movement champions that every one us is a “maker” and works to instill that spirit in children from a young age. The camp is meant for children between the ages of 8 and 12.

Your child can participate through the Sacramento public library (check your local branch), or they can join a virtual (online) camp. Both options are totally FREE.

After joining, your child will complete a guided themed project. There are a variety of “project paths” offered each year.

Examples of last year’s project paths include deconstructing (and putting them back together) household devices to see how they work, and something called “light it up” in which kids built a circuit on paper using conductive tape, LEDs, and coin cell batteries.