Darcy Roland, Assistant Director

Walk into an IDEA Lab Kids classroom and you’ll see a hub of activity – robot battles, drones hovering or kids coding.

If it looks like play, you might wonder, what skills are they learning? Plenty!

Some camps are teaching kids teamwork as together they program drones to hover and soar. Others teach kids how to excel in Minecraft, coding and world building.

What makes our camps unique is they combine soft skills such as cooperation, following instructions and teamwork with the many tech skills needed to design, build, program and code.

Tech skills are increasingly essential.

STEM jobs are growing faster than average (10 percent growth compared with 5 percent growth in non-STEM fields).

STEM jobs pay a national average salary of $87,570, nearly twice the average for non-STEM jobs ($45,700).

According to one study, 85 per cent of the jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t even been invented yet. If that seems high, remember a time, not so long ago, when social media manager, web developer and digital marketer roles didn’t exist – now nearly every company has someone in those roles.

These are just a few high-tech, high fun options for kids of all ages this summer.

Each camp adventure combines multiple high-tech skills — coding, programming, 3D printing, robotics or drones — so you and your children get the most out of your summer camp experience

A few of the things we have found that kids love:

1. We give kids lots of time to explore. There’s so little time in the school day for STEM activities, especially open-ended learning. Our programs give students time to explore an idea and find their own answers.

2. Is your child interested in lots of things? In our program, they don’t have to specialize. They can dive into cooking, robotics, art, engineering and science all in one place!

3. We added lots of hands-on learning. Whether your child love creating artistic masterpieces or learning coding, each class brings in hands-on activities to help your child express him or herself and gain new skills.

4. We make time for physical education too! We get it, kids need time after school to burn off energy, so we add dodgeball and active games to our schedule.

5. One of the best parts of IDEA Lab Kids is that kids can explore high-tech equipment hands-on. Your child can learn how circuits work, program a drone, explore 3D printing or tinker with robots, and you don’t have to invest in expensive technology at home.

6. Kids want to explore with other kids excited about STEM, and here they have the opportunity to work in teams to program a drone or create a robot.

7. Kids also love a little healthy competition in creating battle bots or chess matches. Everyone loves a challenge and opportunity to display their skills in our showcases.