Description
Check out one of the many lab activities
Full-Time Camp
Work the Mind 🧠 & Body 💪
Get the best of both worlds 🌍 In the morning (8am-12pm), your student moves their body at Guilderland’s amazing Tawasentha Recreational Camp. Then, in the afternoon (12pm-4pm) they hop on the bus 🚌 and get dropped off at STEAMwhiz Lab HQ, eat lunch, and have their minds 🧠 kicked into overdrive. Our SciTech BootCamp is no babysitting 🍼, intense hands-on, project-based STEM curriculum where they will learn more in summer than the entire school year!
How it works: Full-Time Camp
- Read our Week-by-Week Project-Based Curricula below
- Sign up for our AFTERNOON weekly sessions (Full 6-week saves $50)
- Click here to sign up for Guilderland’s Tawasentha Recreation Summer Camp (only offered in the mornings)
SciTech Camp Learning by Week
If you are new to Minecraft, check out this great article by Dr J about why Minecraft is such a great instrument for learning!
Week A | June 25 – 28 | Choose 1, 2, 3 or All 4 Days
Science + Engineering I – Castle & Catapult Crafters: Minecraft Mastery & Real World Engineering
- Tues, June 25 – Castle Research with the Engineering Design Process
- Wed, June 26 – Castle Model: Real-World vs Minecraft
- Thurs, June 27 – Castle Defenses with TNT Launchers
- Fri, June 28 – Laser cut Catapults and Testing
- Pre-requisites: basic keyboard + mouse skills, ability to focus for extended periods of time
Week 1 | July 1 – 5
Maker I – Minecraft Forge: 3D Printing Adventure- Design & Prototype Tools and Gear
- *Camp will run on July 4th*
- Challenge: Can you design and fabricate a 3D Printed Minecraft tool?
- Projects Include: The Science + Tech of 3D Printing, Designing with Math, Design Process
- Pre-requisites: basic keyboard + mouse skills, ability to focus for extended periods of time
Week 2 | July 8 – 12
Code Hacking I – Hacking Harmonies & Minecraft with Code
- Challenge: Using the science behind sound & music, can you create and modify music & Minecraft with code to produce instant and awe-inspiring results?
- Projects Include: The Science of Music, Digital Music Making, Minecraft Melodies
- Pre-requisites: basic keyboard + mouse skills, ability to focus for extended periods of time
Week 3 | July 15 – 19
Science + Engineering II – Bridge Builders: Minecraft Mastery & Real-World Engineering
- Challenge: What architecture bridge marvels can we implement from the real world into the world of Minecraft to solve a problem or make something new?
- Projects Include: Island Hopping, Speed Run Bridges, Toothpick Bridge Building Challenge
- Pre-requisites: basic keyboard + mouse skills, ability to focus for extended periods of time
Week 4 | July 22-26
Code Hacking II – Control Minecraft with Python Coding
- Challenge: Can you modify Minecraft gameplay with Python code to produce instant and awe-inspiring results?
- Projects Include: Minecraft Modding, Minecraft Automation, Minecraft Mini-Games
- Pre-requisites: able to focus for extended periods of time, basic keyboard + mouse skills, previous coding experience is helpful but not necessary
Week 5 | July 29 – Aug 2
Maker II – Minecraft Forge: 3D Printing Adventure- Design & Prototype an Articulating Minecraft Mob
- Challenge: Can you design and 3D Print an articulating Minecraft Character?
- Projects Include: 3D Printing – Science + Design + Fabrication of Minecraft Characters + Stop Motion Animation
- Pre-requisites: basic keyboard & mouse skills; bonus pts if you attended Summer Camp Week 1 -or- previous 3D Print lab/class
Week 6 | Aug. 5 – 9 Code Hacking III
Minecraft Robotics: Creeping Creeper
- Challenge: How would you design, prototype, & fabricate an automated Minecraft Creeper?
- Projects Include: Code Hacking, Physical to Virtual with buttons, sensors, and other electronic components, Minecraft Robotics
- Pre-requisites: basic keyboard & mouse skills; bonus pts if you attended Summer Camp Wk. 1 + 4 -or- previous 3D Print lab/class and coding experience
Minecraft Physical-to-Virtual is a 6-week Sci-Tech Summer Boot Camp
- In-person Sci-Tech Summer Boot Camp
- Full Day Rec & Sci-Tech Camp (8am-4pm)
- Half Day Sci-Tech Camp Morning (9-12 pm) | Afternoon (1-4 pm)
- MON-FRI
- Small Sci-Tech class Sizes- 8:1 ratio
- Expert Instructors: Certified Educator & Curriculum Developer Allie Pulecio, Research Scientist/Eng Dr. J Ph.D.
- 6 weeks July 1st – August 9th
Capitial District Kids!!
Hackers | 9-13 yrs old
- For students
- Who want to be challenged
- Develop deep fundamentals
- Become a ‘thinker & doer’
- Ready to persevere, innovate, create, fail forward, and succeed!
- This is an advanced sci-tech camp that is highly fun, but it is not babysitting! Typing skills, strong reading, positive growth mindset are highly encouraged
Newbies | 6-8 yrs old
- 2-week Intro SciTech Camp
- For students who are really interested and motivated but their at the beginning of their journey and first exposure to reading and typing on a computer
- Aug 12-23
Don’t hesitate to CONTACT US for more details
From June to August we are offering 15 hrs of STEM per week! See below for details.
Available Options
- MON-FRI
- 6 weeks July 1 – Aug 9
- Full 6-week Session (register early & save $50)
- Pick and Choose weeks
Full Day Camp
Half Day Camp
Morning 9-12 pm
-OR-
Afternoon 1-4 pm
If you have any questions, click here to chat with us. Phi, our AI assistant is pretty smart 🤓so feel free to ask questions. You can also let Phi know you want to speak with someone, and he will get you in touch with us right away 👍
Preparation for their FUTURE not our PAST/PRESENT
- The ‘Art of Problem-Solving’
- Engineering Design Process
- Creative Design Process
- Scientific Method
- Plan and carry out investigations using:
- multiple trials
- variable manipulation
- Mathematics
- Algebra
- Geometry
- Arithmetic
- Coordinate Systems
- Physical World vs. Minecraft Virtual World
- Compare/Contrast
- Test/Analyze
- Code your Commands:
- Program in-game using/commands, and then go deeper by programming with multiple coding languages and mods
- Robotic Foundations:
- Fabrication + Assembly
- Components + Programming
- The Science + Tech of 3D Printing
- Explore and implement design elements of cloning shapes, negative space, articulation, and more
- Explore and implement key computational concepts like data types, functions, variables, and more.
- Laws of Physics (electricity, motion, forces)
- Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering
- Investigate and analyze forces
- Gravity
- Friction (drag, static friction, kinetic friction, air resistance
STEAM-Team or DreamTeam? 😉
This lab is taught by STEAMwhiz’s lead educator Allie P. She is certified in K-6th education, published STEM education work in a peer-reviewed journal, and has over 15 years of classroom experience and curriculum development. The lab is overseen by STEAMwhiz’s scientist Dr. J who holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences has worked as a physicist at premier U.S. research institutions, as well as an engineer at fortune 100 companies, and authored over a dozen publications in top-tier journals. Together they are driven by their passion to empower students to develop their analytical and critical thinking, necessary to prepare them for the future. Click here to learn more about the STEAM-TEAM.
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Each week will include 5 days of hands-on, project-based learning (PBL) STEAMwhiz labs and lessons that will empower students to Explore Up, Skill Up, and Build-Up. Each week’s curriculum has been designed with a spiral scaffold approach to build upon the prior knowledge and concepts to develop a deep fundamental understanding. This fundamental learning will then be applied to the weekly projects using tools such as Minecraft gaming, CAD + 3D printers, Scratch & Python coding languages, laser cutter/engraver, Raspberry Pi, Robotic components + programming, and much more!
Minecraft Physical to Virtual: A Sci-Tech Summer Boot Camp
As the name implies ‘Sci-Tech Boot Camp’ is not your everyday science camp. Will your child have FUN? Of course! Will your child learn more science, tech, engineering, designing, and programming in 1-month than 1-school year? Without a doubt! But that’s not what sets Camp STEAMwhiz apart. Camp STEAMwhiz has been created to be a part of the change and help empower the NextGen ‘thinkers & doers’ with the critical tools of creative problem-solving and analytical thinking to be successful!
Our Method of Success
Eliminate the fear and allow our children the time and space to fail forward and succeed. The STEAMwhiz Method will help students build their confidence in themselves and their abilities through discovery, tests, creation, and analysis. STEAMwhiz kids will be able to embrace the idea that failures lead to opportunities to learn and grow. STEM/STEAM learning experiences offer amazing opportunities to develop powerful GROWTH MINDSET attributes, which are pivotal for success!
Prior Knowledge
Each lab is built upon the other. Students will be given the time necessary to develop new connections resulting in new learning. When instruction is not jumping from one new thing to the next, students can develop goals, take on challenges, learn from mistakes, practice new skills, persevere, and ultimately create a culminating “Show-What-You-Know” PBL unit (project-based learning).
Project-Based Learning
Project-based learning empowers students to seize control over their camp and learning experiences, following their interests and passions as they address a driving question or challenge; through investigation and inquiry; student voice and choice; reflection; revision; and finally, a project to be shared and celebrated. As students work with one another to create projects to share, they become responsible for the assessment of their work. Project-based learning frees students from the anxiety of meeting the expectations of school and/or instructors while allowing them the agency to create using the meaning they’ve developed from their experiences. This is a powerful re-imagination of what is possible!
