Camp Invention Connect
What is Camp Invention Connect?
The most inspiring online summer camp available anywhere!
- Who: Children or dependents of active-duty Armed Forces, National Guard or Reserves, who are entering grades K-6
- What: An opportunity to safely explore hands-on STEM fun at your own pace
- Where: Anywhere in the United States*
- When: Camp is offered June 24-28, July 8-12 and July 22-26, and you may choose the week that works best for you
- Why: Because when kids have this much fun creating, they won’t even realize how much they’re learning!
- How much: FREE for the first 100 kids, thanks to support from DoD STEM! Registrations are first-come, first-served, and once they have been filled, the cost will be $270 for a week of action-packed virtual camp sessions and an Innovator’s Toolkit filled with all the materials your child will need.
*Program materials cannot be shipped to PSC addresses at this time.
Here’s how our camp works:
- Your Innovator’s Toolkit — packed with all the materials needed for your STEM summer camp experience — is shipped directly to your door
- Your child can join a week of virtual camp sessions (four per day for five consecutive days!) led by a qualified educator, and they’ll get access to exclusive online resources
- Virtual session attendance is recommended but not required, so your child can join all, some or none of the sessions
- Even if you don’t plan to join any virtual sessions, we ask that you sign up for a specific week — this will tell us when to ship your Innovator’s Toolkit and ensure that if you do decide to join virtual sessions, we will have a spot saved for you!
Here’s what an action-packed day looks like with Camp Invention Connect
Get Excited for Your Program
The Innovator’s Toolkit — packed with everything your camper needs — will be sent straight to your home ahead of the program start date, so you’ll be set for a week of hands-on fun and exploration!
When your package arrives, your camper can check out all their materials and set up their own space for creativity with their Innovator Workshop, complete with a Toolbelt and Maker Mat.
Daily Kickoff (9 a.m.)
Your child will join an educator — their Camp Invention Connect Coach — and fellow campers to start each day of camp with a live online session that includes icebreakers, module instruction and opportunities to collaborate.
If your camper can’t join live, don’t worry — you will have access to videos that go through each activity step by step.
Create and Invent (11 a.m.)
Following a quick break, kids get back together online to make, create and invent with their Coach and fellow campers.
Afternoon Hangout (1 p.m.)
After taking a break for lunch, kids join their Coach and fellow campers to socialize, build friendships and gear up for the rest of the day’s hands-on fun.
Unplug and Get Outdoors
Hands-on STEM exploration continues as kids enjoy screen-free time and get outdoors with high-energy activities.
Collaborate and Share (2 p.m.)
Each afternoon, campers regroup with their Coach online to complete their final challenge and proudly share their projects and inventions.
With a set of four themed kits providing tons of materials, our 2024 program, Recharge, offers hours of hands-on fun! Each kit brings a unique set of challenges inspired by world-changing inventors, and certified educator Coaches help kids make real connections through instruction, teamwork and outdoor play. It all adds up to a one-of-a-kind experience that’s sure to get kids thinking, moving and creating!
As campers take apart and rebuild their very own wireless microphone, they amplify their big ideas to become creative entrepreneurs. They discover sound waves in action, hear from great inventors and make a powerful pitch to promote their own amazing invention.
In this fun physics adventure, kids create and test a device to launch rubber ducks across the world. After earning “quack coins” to buy materials to build their devices, they send their ducks to visit famous landmarks, testing fascinating concepts like trajectory and velocity.
Kids make and adopt their own solar-powered, robotic crickets, and they jump into experimenting with circuits and energy. Using empathy to consider the lives of real insects, they create custom habitats — including a fun-filled cricket playground — for their awesome bots.
Campers learn how to adapt as they design morphing vehicles to race across land and add prototype elements for moving through air and water. With inspiration from cool creatures including a “plantimal,” they modify their vehicles to submerge, soar or sprint in a Super Road Rally.
For more than 30 years, Camp Invention® has been inspiring confidence and creativity through fun, hands-on STEM activities. Now, young innovators can bring the excitement of this STEM summer program home with Camp Invention Connect.
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