Synergy Tech Camp

How do we serve middle school students during the summer? What inspires kids aged 10-14 today? We tried to answer these questions this past summer at Synergy’s first ever Tech Camp.

Beginning with week-long classes including Introduction to Coding, Robotics, Moviemaking, and Digital Photography, the camp engaged nearly 80 students over four weeks. Using  the school’s upstairs classrooms, the Tech Camp coexisted successfully with Synergy Summer.

The Tech Camp fills a need for kids who typically go on to other summer camps after aging out of Synergy Summer. Many of this year’s Tech Camp participants were current Synergy students, but the majority came from the local community and  attended Synergy Summer in the past.

The Tech Camp team included middle school teachers Kristi Coale, who taught Robotics, and Nisrene Kazimi who headed Video Production.  Synergy alums Ian Sicurella  and David Stull worked as camp counselors.

“It was our first summer and it was a learning experience for all of us,” said Kristi, who  worked at Oceana High School before coming to Synergy, and started a Robotics Club there.  “The kids really wanted to make battle bots, so that’s what we did and there was lots of enthusiasm and excitement.” Kristi carried the tech theme into the school year: she taught Robotics as a middle school elective last fall, and plans to offer a Tinkering elective this spring.

After our successful rollout, plans are underway to expand the Tech Camp in the summer of 2015.  We are considering  offering the camp for six weeks and increasing the number of class subjects. Find out and register here.  

– by Russ Curtis, Director of Technology and Tech Camp founder

Photos by Russ Curtis