Summer Camp 2012

We ran a two-week summer camp in August 2012 for 7 kids from the Buckman SUN School. The kids were going into 4th-6th grade and completed a modified version of the Build Program. They also participated in painting a mural and embellishing it with used parts from around the building. The following is a collection of notes about how the camp went.

A typical schedule

• 9:00-9:15 Campers arrive, welcome/get organized in classroom
• 9:15-10:15: Class (see class list below) in the classroom
• 10:15-10:30: snack break in the meeting room
• 10:30-11:45: Prebuild (first week)/Build (second week)
• 11:45-1:00: Walk to Ladd's Circle for lunch & games
• 1-1:45: Prebuild/Build
• 1:45-3:45: 3 stations:
  • Work on mural in parking lot
  • Games in the meeting room (with snack)
  • Games in the small office (camp room)
• 3:45 Wrap-up in the meeting room
• 4:00 Parents pick up

Class list and notes

Week 1:

• Monday: Tour/expectations/nametags (Sarah)

Made a "hand contract" together, and it was good to set up clear expectations. We made nametags out of floppy disks, which worked well. It was also nice having the tour on a Monday when no one was around.

• Tuesday: Hardware ID (shortened) (Nate)

Worked well as a series of mini-lectures followed by show-and-tell at the tables. Having 2-3 helpers along with a main teacher is ideal.

• Wednesday: Linux Playground (Ben)

Ben set up a bunch of laptops each with a different distro and had a "treasure hunt" for them to do on each. Worked pretty well, but a little more structure would be good. Once games/web browsers were discovered it was hard to keep them focused.

• Thursday: Intro to Ubuntu (Daisy)

Went very well as a do-what-I-do class. They loved customizing desktop appearances.

• Friday: Intro to Python (Steve Holden)

Wrote a short program that helped calculate how many bricks were required to make a building of certain dimensions in Minecraft. 2 hours was too long for them to focus. The older kids got it and did some good work, but the younger kids just saw it as tedious typing.

Week 2:

• Monday: GIMP project (Sarah)

We did a project in which they used intelligent scissors to cut out a picture of themselves and insert it into a cool background (outer space, under the sea, etc.). Worked pretty well for the older kids, but required a lot of one-on-one attention (and I was the only one able to do that). Having a couple of teaching assistants who know GIMP would make this work better.

• Tuesday: Free Games (Rob)

Just showed them a few cool (and appropriate) games and let them download and play. They loved it (predictably), but we had a little trouble getting the laptops to be able to download (check this out beforehand).

• Wednesday: Being Safe Online (Darren)

Focused on protecting identity, who/what to trust, and setting safe passwords. Worked very well because Darren did a great job keeping them engaged with question and answer time. Didn't open the laptops at all, and this was very refreshing (much easier to keep them focused without the temptation of games).

• Thursday: HTML/CSS (Daisy

Created and modified a simple Minecraft website. Worked well for the older kids, but the younger ones had trouble understanding/staying focused. Ran out of time before the flashier CSS stuff (maybe a little longer than an hour would be better, or just cut out some of the HTML?)

• Friday: Downloading programs & customizing take-home computers (Sarah/Cynthia/Rob)

Made sure everything worked and then pretty much let them do what they wanted. Turned into Minecraft time.

What went well

• Classes in the morning--they are much more focused
• Lunch and run-around games in the park (when it was too hot, we went to the park for morning snack instead)
• Cheese and crackers (or apples or carrots) for snack in case they didn't pack their own (most did)
• Jeopardy to review what we'd learned and a root beer float party on the last day
• Structured activities that last ~1 hour or less
• Pairing up younger/older kids when dividing into groups
• Playing semi-active group games when they get antsy or there is a hole in the schedule
• For the first day in SysEval/Build, having enough helpers (interns and staff) for almost 1-to-1 attention was good

What we should change for next year

• Keep the age limit to 6th grade (and up?)
• Have the day be one hour shorter (9-3)
• Have two instructors at all times (for a group of 9) (we had volunteers for much of the day, but they weren't very active with the kids)
• Have a home base that we can "take over", like the classroom or meeting room. It was annoying to have to move between the classroom, meeting room, and small office depending on what was available.