Explore STEM Summer Camps at CodeREV

Summer is coming fast!  My kids give me the countdown daily how many days are actually left until Summer vacation.  Today’s Summer camps are so different from when I was a child.  Yes, there are still Summer camps where you pack up your stuff and go to camp for a week or more.  

Yet I ended up going to a day Summer camp in the park where we played games, learned crafts, and ate snacks.  It was fun, but it seemed more like a babysitting camp then one where I learned a lot.

Being in technology, I am fascinated by today’s STEM Summer camps.  STEM refers to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.  Giving your kids a chance to explore these areas in a fun learning environment, I believe, is a real gift.  STEM Summer camps can open up a new world to your children, one they likely won’t see at school.

CodeREV Summer Camps

If you live in the Los Angeles/Orange County area, CodeREV offers children hands-on instruction in one of their 7 locations (from Encino down to Solana Beach/Del Mar).

Children love apps and video games – CodeREV gives them a chance to create new worlds, people or creatures, and new ways to play.  Employing tech teachers who have worked in the tech field and have a knack for explaining technology in a simple way, CodeRev uses a number of unique approaches to cater to kids’ interests.

Kids don’t just code all week.  They learn project management and creativity skills like story boarding on white boards and paper.  Kids draw out their ideas and present them to other campers.  As a Summer camp at CodeREV consists of one full week, children manage their time to conceptualize, story board, obtain feedback, learn how to code, code their ideas, and gain continuous feedback as pertinent to the product development process.

And kids do all of this in one week!  Talk about a jumpstart in understanding coding…and project management!  And the good news is that if a camper wants to take the class again, no two weeks are the same.  They can begin the new class at the same level they left off at and begin learning new concepts.  At the end of each week, campers can take their projects home with them.

STEM Camps Offered

There are four program tracks students can choose from, each with a variety of classes to choose from.  Tracks include Programming, Creative, Game Design, and Engineering.  Classes are offered for kids who are in first grade to 9th grade and for all experience levels.  The hard part is which class to choose(first)!

PROGRAMMING

CREATIVE

• Game Design – Grade: 3-5  – Level: Beg – Adv
• Modding in Minecraft Game Design – Grade: 4-5; 6-8 –  Level: Beg – Adv
• Video Game Development –  Grade: 5-8 –  Level: Beg – Adv
• Unity 3D Game Development –  Grade: 5-9 –  Level: Beg – Adv

   

ENGINEERING

• Minecraft Level Design & Engineering – Grade: 1-2; 3-5 – Level: Beg – Adv
• Rev Engineering – Grade: 5-8 – Level: Beg – Adv 
• REV Robotics – Grade: 2-4 – Beg – Adv

What’s Included?

Most courses are $549 plus some require a purchase of course materials.  What I love about these classes is the small student to teacher ratio.  There are 8 students to each instructor, never more.  There is also a Code REV Carpet showcase event at the end of the last day for parents to see the campers work and for the campers to receive their diploma.

Classes Include:

• 8:1 student-to-instructor ratio, guaranteed
• Flexible Free hours at check-in and pick-up
• Diploma with growth checkpoints and instructor feedback
• Final project to take home with software instructions
• Outdoor time, team-building & teamwork exercises
• Access to Gaming tournaments year round
• Pair and share – iterate daily
• Discounts on local, year-round after school classes and online learning

CodeREV allows for parent flexibility in the drop-off and pick-up times.  Parents can drop off anytime from 8:45am to 9:15am and pick up anywhere from 4:30pm to 4:45pm.  

But you know what else is unique about CodeREV?  Their classes actually include outdoor play!  CodeREV knows that kids need to burn off energy during the day, so each class has time to play outside for a recess.  

A Mom’s Perspective

Names as the Best Unique Summer Day Camps in LA by CBS Los Angeles, CodeREV Summer Camps are sure to be a hit with your inquisitive, game-playing, creative kid.  Kids can get personal attention and build project management and coding skills while focusing on things they really enjoy like games and robots.

Due to funding and pre-set curriculum, many public schools do not have a strong STEM program in their schools.  Educating your kids on STEM concepts helps produce critical thinking, promotes conceptual thinking and modeling, and builds their creative process in envisioning what’s possible…instead of just what is.

If your school is lacking in this important area of your child’s education, enroll them in classes like what CodeREV offers.  Because of the pervasive nature of technology, whatever occupation your child takes on, s/he will need a basic understanding of how tech works.

If your child doesn’t take flight on programming and robotics, no worries.  At the very least, you have exposed him/her to these fields and helped them gain an overview of how important coding is for video games, apps, computer programs, the Internet, and robotics.

Because classes have only 8 students to one instructor, classes fill up quickly.  Be sure to visit CodeREV’s website to sign up your child for Summer Camp soon before classes fill up.