Enriched Family Austin Summer Camp Guide (2021): Nature, STEM/STEAM, and Coding Camps
Photo credit: Pexels
Parents, it is that crazy time of year when we figure out the summer plan. Enriched Family is here to support you with all of your family resource information needs! The Enriched Family Austin Summer Camp Guides are underway. The first guide focused on arts-based camps, including visual art, creative writing, dance, drama/theater, film, and music. Today’s guide is devoted to Nature, STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math), and Coding camps. The next post in the series will feature sports camps. Watch the Enriched Family blog!
Please be advised that you will have to make the best decision for your family in terms of whether a particular camp meets your family’s desired degree of COVID precautions. I have included COVID information for each care option, when available, so you can make an informed decision. In addition, I have included both online and in-person camps, as well as some outdoor camps.
Does summer camp planning stress you out? Let Enriched Family be your extra set of qualified hands. Enriched Family offers custom camp research, schedule planning, and can even register your kiddos for camp! I’m happy to help you figure out summer camps, spring break camps, winter camps or the whole year of school break camps for your children!
Please note, the following is provided for informational purposes only; the information is accurate and true to the best of my knowledge, but there may be omissions, errors or mistakes, and no guarantees are made.
Nature Camps
Austin Nature & Science Center (ANSC) Summer Camps
Details: ANSC is excited to announce the launch of Summer Camp 2021. In accordance with federal, state and local health authorities, the Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) has adopted a series of modified guidelines to ensure COVID19 health and safety measures are met. Such guidelines include the use of masks, daily wellness screenings prior to entry, utilization of the pod model, and other modifications to activities within camp. New this year is the introduction of a lottery system. The lottery system will help PARD more equitably offer limited spaces to families. Click here for lottery enrollment step-by-step procedures.
Camp details:
Beginning June 7 - Virtual “Stay Creative” Summer Camp
Beginning June 21 - In-person Summer Camp
Beginning July 6 - Summer Playground Program
Important Dates
April 19-May 16 - Registration for all families. To register, please go to: www.austintexas.gov/parksonline.
May 19 - Specialty Camps (Nature Based, Inclusion and Museums and Cultural Centers) will begin contacting participants who received a lottery spot in camp.
May 26 - General Recreation Camps will begin contacting participants who received a lottery spot in camp. Be on the lookout for an email or phone call as parents will have a very short turnaround time to confirm spots. All individuals selected for camp will be asked to pay a $20 deposit for all selected weeks to ensure enrollment. The Department has made all deposits refundable this year.
Location: Central, 301 Nature Center Drive (parking at 2389 Stratford Dr., 78746)
Cost: This year there are two main options: 1) A free virtual program called “Stay Creative” and a fee-based, in-person Summer Camp at participating Recreation Centers, Nature-Based Sites, and Cultural Centers. The latter camps run June 21-August 13, $120/week, M-F | 7am-6pm. Youth: 5-12 & teens: 12-15 (at select locations). Financial aid applications are being accepted.
Families in Nature - Nature’s Wonder Camps
Details: The mission of Families in Nature is to connect children and their families to nature and to each other through time spent learning, playing, and volunteering outdoors. Families in Nature is teaming up with Nature’s Wonders Camps (Led by Jennie Glass, one of FIN's awesome guides) to offer two weeks of nature camp this summer! These camps are based on creating connections with nature and with ourselves as we use all of our senses to observe and discover in the natural world. We will be out in the park and the trails, which offer seclusion and lots of opportunities for exploration and wonderful discoveries. Participants will also have the opportunity to work on earning badges from the Ecologist School. COVID protocol.
Dates: Summer Nature Camp at Pease Park: June 14-18 and 21-25, M-F |9am-3pm. Cost: $300/week. Space limited.
Location: Central, Pease Park, 1100 Kingsbury St, Austin, 78703
STEM & STEAM
Academy of Thought and Industry (Online)
Details: Spark curiosity with summer programs! Discover fun, social, and immersive learning experiences for students (ages 11-18) led by passionate teachers. Designed to engage middle and high school ages. Led by industry experts, our summer programs will challenge students' thinking and encourage getting their hands dirty with creation work. Virtual live sessions offered two hours daily, Monday-Friday. Students join together across different time zones (10:30am-12:30pm PT; 12:30-2:30pm CT; and 1:30-3:30pm ET). Offered as two-week sessions ($375/session). Session themes:
June 21-July 2: Physics, Math & Battle - The Catapult! (High School Only)
July 5-July 16
Exporation of Drones
Learn to Code (High School Only)
July 19-July 30
Exploration of Robotics
Learn to Code (High School Only)
Aug 2-Aug 30: Physics, Math & Battle - The Catapult! (High School Only)
Camp Balcones - Camp Fire's Summer Camp at Emma Long Park
Details: Explore, learn, and grow with Camp Balcones. Camp Fire's Summer Camp is Austin’s premier urban nature and science day camp that sparks curiosity and inspires learning in kids ages 6-12 years old (young campers must have completed Kindergarten) while preventing summer learning loss. Each week features a nature or science theme in addition to traditional camp activities like swimming, hiking, archery, canoeing, crafts, creative expression, and other fun-filled activities. Camp Balcones has four unique weekly STEM-based themes which incorporate hands-on, project-based activities. Your child will explore nature, identify plants and animals, and have fun with unstructured play in a safe environment with new friends and camp instructors. COVID process.
Dates: Camp Balcones is available Monday through Friday | 8am to 3pm. Available sessions:
Natural History of Texas: June 7-11 and July 12-16
Nature Hacks: July 5-9 and August 2-6
Outdoor Detectives: July 19-23
Camping 101: July 26-30
Location: Northwest, Emma Long Park, 1600 City Park Road, Austin, 78730
Cost: $400/week, transportation $40/week; annual membership $25. A limited number of partial scholarships and sliding fee spaces are available. Please call Camp Fire at 512-349-2111 or at 479-685-8730 to learn more.
Camp Invention - Fast Forward, National Inventors Hall of Fame
Details: Camp Invention® is a nationally acclaimed summer program where STEM concepts come to life. Led by local teachers, this program has tapped into kids' natural curiosity since 1990, giving them the opportunity to become innovators through teamwork and immersive, hands-on creative problem-solving. Grades: K-6.
Dates: Camps will run 6/14 through 7/16 at a wide variety of locations around Austin, in addition to virtual camps. Hours: 9am-3:30pm (in-person), 9am-3pm (virtual).
Cost: $260
Details: Nationally recognized STEM summer camps for girls entering 4th-8th grades. All Girlstart camps include a balance of hands-on STEM activities, relevant technology, collaborative team building, and informal camp fun! COVID policies.
June 6-11th: Camp Hermione PM In-person (entering 4th-5th). Calling all muggles! Channel your inner Hermione Granger as you discover chemical reactions in Potions class, design a catapult in Defense Against the Dark Arts, construct a sturdy tower to watch Quidditch, and 3D print the Hogwarts castle. Rising 4th-5th graders will analyze mystery powder and create their own TriWizard marble maze. M-F | 1-5pm. Space limited (all other sessions on a wait list).
Location: North Austin, Girlstart STEM Center, 1400 W. Anderson Lane, Austin, 78757
Cost: $225
Details: When school is out, IDEA Lab camps are in session! IDEA Lab Kids provides STEAM-powered camps ranging from Cooking School, Robotics, Drones, 3D Printing, Art Studio, Coding, Programming, Movie Production, Engineering, and Science. At our STEAM camps, participants will truly Rock Their Grey Matter! All camps feature our uniquely developed curricula that encourage and enable campers of all ages to learn through inquisitive hands-on activities utilizing science, math, critical thinking skills…and a great deal of IMAGINATION! Camps at IDEA Lab Kids provide tools for kids to engage in the complete design process from start to finish and learn through design-based learning methodology. Ages 5-13.
Themes include: Girl-powered STEAM camps; Robotics and LEGO Camps; Art Studio Camps; Computer Engineering and Design Camps; Science Lab Camps; 3D Printing and Design Camps; Coding and Programming; Entrepreneurship and Kid Boss; Mental Math and Logic; and Culinary Arts.
Location: North Austin, Idea Lab Main Campus (8620 Burnet Rd., Suite 500, 78757)
Full day (9am-3pm) and half day (9am-12pm or 12:30-3:30pm) camps available June 7-August 13. Extended hours available for an additional fee.
Half day camps are $200; full day camps are $375
Details: Mad Science camps are designed for exciting, fun, and hands-on science activities. Your child will become a junior scientist for the week, having the opportunity to experience a variety of science adventures. They use an inquiry-based technique that allows even the youngest camper to enjoy learning. Grades: K-6. Wide variety of camp themes and locations. Full and half day camp options. Virtual and in-person camps available. Camps run May 3-August 20. Complete descriptions of the camps are available here.
Cost: $290-$350/week for most full day camps; half day camps are $180-185. Online camps are $180/week (10 classes - AM and PM each week). *Some camp locations may have varied pricing.
Neuron Garage (Online)
Details: The Summer Online Building Camp for Kids! Creative Thinking, Collaboration, & Resilience. Ages 6-12 years old. Campers join our virtual community, led by a LIVE, trained Guide, and get hands-ons, repurposing their recycling to solve fun, weekly engineering challenges. Through the process, they have fun, make new friends, and build the foundation for a vibrant future. We leverage a premium Zoom account to keep your children safe. Sessions are password protected and private chat is disabled. Typical Day: In addition to hands-on building in the morning and afternoon, campers will play interactive games led by our instructors and on-line boardgames to develop individual friendships, engage in group discussions, and participate in plenty of movement activities and games. Our goal is for parents not to be involved with their children's camp day. However, depending on a child's level of independence and fluency with technology, they may need additional guidance or redirection that we are not able to provide virtually. Campers will be with a live instructor throughout their day. Instruction and activities will be adapted to each camper and each group, just as they would be at our in-person camps.
Dates: July 12th-23rd (limited space).
Morning Camp (1 week sessions) | 9am-12pm
July 12-16: Cardboard Creations
Cost - $150 per deviceJuly 19-23: Invention Convention
Cost - $150 per device+Optional 8:30am Yoga & Mindfulness
Afternoon Camp (1 week sessions) | 1-4pm
July 12-16: Medieval Construction
Cost - $150 per deviceJuly 19-23: Space Survival
Cost - $150 per device+Optional 8:30am Yoga & Mindfulness
Science Stars Virtual Summer Camp (Online)
Details: Virtual science experiment summer camp developed by Westlake High School (WHS) rising juniors. The WHS G.STAR team has received an overwhelming response and has added/revised offerings to reflect the needs of the Eanes community. For 3rd-6th graders.
Session 1: June 7-11 | 9:30-11:30am
Session 2: June 14-18 | 2:30-4:30pm
Session 3: June 21-25 | 2:30-4:30pm (accepts all participants, but is geared for older kids, including 6th graders)
Cost: $55 (includes delivery of all experiment materials to your door). Register here.
Snapology Austin, STEAM-focused LEGO camps
Details: Snapology Austin S.T.E.A.M. summer camps are a great option for children ages 4-14 to engage in age-appropriate LEGO® engineering and robotics activities, gain social skills, and build creativity. Camps and workshops are offered year-round, including spring break camps, summer camps, holiday break camp, and camps during teacher in-service days. Your child will learn, create, and innovate while having a blast! COVID policies.
June 1-August 20 (dates vary by location).
Full and half-day camps offered across six Austin area locations (Bee Cave - Urban Air on 620; Lakeway Activity Center; South Central Austin - Snapology Discovery Center; North Austin - Impact Martial Arts; Central Austin - West Austin Youth Association; South Central Austin - Circle C Community Center). Camp schedule.
Half day (AM: 8:30-12:30 and PM: 1-5): $250
Full day (8:30am-3:30pm): $395
Details: Thinkery Camps provide a creative, safe and challenging environment for campers to learn and grow—and have a whole lot of fun while they’re doing it! In each weeklong camp, PreK–5th grade campers engage in playful, hands-on learning activities that develop critical thinking skills in a collaborative environment. Campers explore questions of “how” and “why” through immersive, interactive learning experiences designed to keep them moving, thinking, and creating. Camps focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM), with a variety of fun mental and physical challenges that activate campers’ creativity and stimulate their natural curiosity. COVID information.
Camp details:
May 31-June 4 or July 12-16: Tinkering with Color and Light (9am-4pm) | $385. You’ve painted before, but have you ever painted with light? Use hands-on creative play to discover the science of illumination! Light up your imagination as you tinker at the intersection of art and science. Camp is designed for incoming prekindergarten and kindergartners. Campers must be 4 years old the month before their camp.
All other camps are sold out/on wait list.
Location: Mueller, Thinkery Meredith Learning Lab, 1830 Simond Ave.
Coding
Code Galaxy (Online)
Details: All Code Galaxy Camps are 100% online and taught live by the same experienced teachers who teach our world-class curriculum, so your students still get the same quality of instruction whether it’s school season or not. Camps for students from ages 7 to 14. Camp themes include Minecraft; Python Coding; Young Coders: Games & Animations with Scratch; and Creating and Publishing Roblox Games.
Dates: Camps are offered June 7-August 6. Weekly camp sessions are typically two hours long (various times) and parents can add on sessions for longer days.
Cost: $225/session (will increase to $249 after May 31)
Coding with Kids (Online)
Details: Weekly online coding camps for ages 5-18. Live sessions: Our online environment lets your child interact with the instructor much as they would in person. Video conferencing and screen-sharing capabilities allow teachers to work with students in a group as well as individually. Individualized approach: We recognize that each student learns best at their own pace. Camp leaders will be offering individual support and help with project design and debugging to each camper individually. The video conferencing technology we use allows instructors to view and edit each camper's code as needed. Small groups: Camp groups have a maximum of 8 students per teacher. Coder's Pathways® curriculum introduces students to advanced programming in core languages, such as Scratch, Python, or Java. Coder’s Pathways® offer a wider range of specialty options, from Minecraft Modding and Roblox to App Development and Robotics. Pathway-based programs are great as stand-alone programs for students with specific interests or as supplemental enrichment options that ad to the versatility of any young coder, including students enrolled in our academic Coder's Ladder® program.
Available dates: May 31-August 27
Cost: Starting at $99 for 1hr/day week-long camps; $219 for 2.5 hr+/day week long camps.
Details: Fun 2 Learn Code offers coding classes and day camps for children and tweens in the Austin area (ages 7-12) to learn the fundamentals of computer programming. They strive to make technology fun and engaging for children, and they strongly believe that as children are learning to code, they are also coding to learn – to solve problems, to express themselves creatively, to work in collaboration with others, and to communicate their ideas. This summer, they will provide in-person camps at their studio in Round Rock, as well as live, virtual camps. Registration for in-person summer camps is now open, and virtual camps will open in early May. Week-long summer camps have half-day or full-day options. Full-day camps are from 9am-4pm. Half-day camps are from 9am-12pm and 1-4pm. To sign up for a full-day camp, select a morning camp and an afternoon camp during the same week. Camps run weekly June 1-August 13. Themes include: Intro to Coding with Scratch Programming; Coders and Makers; Minecraft Mods; Minecraft Redstone; Minecraft Basics; Python Programming; and Video Game Design & Development with Unity. COVID safety.
Cost: Half-day camps range from $120-160 (combine AM & PM for full day camp = $240-32o).
Location: North-Round Rock, 420 Chisholm Valley Dr., Round Rock, 78681
Details: Game Worlds Summer Camp gives kids ages 8-18 the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of game development! Whether they’re independently experienced or brand new to STEM education, students will have a blast as they turn their passion for playing games into a love of building them. With the current situation, we have had to be creative with our summer plans. We’ve been working hard to create a fun and safe plan for our summer season. Currently, we are planning on running 10 in-person sessions during the late summer. COVID precautions.
Location: Northwest Austin, 9600 Great Hills Trail, Austin, 78759
Available dates & hours: June 14-July 2; July 5-30; and August 2-20. Weeklong sessions, M-F from 7:30am to 5:30pm.
Cost: Weeklong summer camp sessions are $650. This includes a healthy catered lunch, numerous snack breaks throughout the day, and a Friday night gaming and pizza party! Each Friday ends with a presentation where students pitch their game to Developers. Parents are welcome and encouraged to come! Afterwards, we celebrate with a pizza party and awards ceremony until 9pm.
Details: Hello World Studio’s one-week immersive summer courses are held at academic institutions and technology hubs in downtown Austin, TX. Hello World’s mission is to build autonomous learners who have positive experiences with computer science, approach and solve problems like engineers, and grow true programming and computational capabilities that can be applied to any field. Students learn directly from our team of industry leaders, including software engineers, artificial intelligence architects, and data scientists to prototype and test solutions to real world challenges. All levels are welcome, including both those that are new to computer science and those with many years of experience. Students will be separated into groups by grade and those with prior programming experience will be placed in more advanced levels. COVID precautions.
Session Details:
Game Engineering & Virtual Reality (Ages 7-18): June 21-25 | 9am-5pm
Artificial Intelligence & Self Driving Cars (Ages 7-10): July 12-16 | 9am-5pm
Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (Ages 11-18): July 12-16 | 9am-5pm
Virtual summer courses also available for elementary school through high school.
Location: Downtown Austin, Capitol Factory, 701 Brazos St, Austin, 78701
Cost: $869 (early enrollment discount ends 5/15)
Details: My Coding Place offers virtual and studio STEM camps exploring topics such as coding, robotics, and even AI! Summer camps will be offered in two formats: virtual or studio with precautions to ensure safety. Virtual camps will take place in one of 3 virtual classrooms and will be limited to 5 students. In person, we are limiting enrollment to 6. Computers will be distanced and assigned for the week and students must wear masks except when eating. We may increase camp sizes based on safety. Camps run June 7-August 30th. Half day AM (9-11:30am) or PM (12:30-3pm) or full day (9am-3pm) options available. Here are a few examples of the 16 camps (in-person and virtual) My Coding Place offers this summer:
Minecraft Mania (Lua), for ages 8+: Jun 28-Jul 2 and Aug 9-13, $225 (virtual)
Amazing AI, for ages 8+: Jun 21-25 and Jul 26-30, $225 (virtual)
Racing Robots, for ages 7+: Jun 7-1 and August 9-13, $229 (half day)/$499 (full day) (in-person)
Cost: Price ranges from $225 - $499 depending on format and length. In Lakeway, the cost is $275 for members and $299 for non-members.
__________________
If you would like help sorting through the camp maze, please check out services and pricing information here (under research projects).
Enriched Family helps modern parents manage the mental load of family, life, and career by providing custom, family-focused research and family organization coaching. If you need help finding the right camps, children's enrichment activities, childcare options, or schools, or need some support with family, personal, or business organization, please reach out! I offer a free, 20-minute initial phone consultation to discuss matching your needs and priorities with my services. Click the "Let's Get Started!" button below.
Esha/Enriched Family