Camp Innovation teaching Arizona students about coding, robotics over fall break

PHOENIX — Many Arizona kids are on fall break this week, and the Arizona Science Center is offering kids from first to sixth grade the chance to learn about the fields of robotics and coding.

Camp Innovation is a weeklong camp at Washington and Fifth streets in downtown Phoenix, and kids can sign up for the entire week or a single day.

Jesse Roan with Camp Innovation said every rendition of the camp has a different theme, and this year’s theme helps build scientific skills relate to technology and processes.

“They don’t realize they’re learning,” Roan said. “They’re just having fun playing with toys and games, but they’re building that love of science just in the integral parts of that science background while not realizing it. So, it helps subsidize what they’re learning in schools.”

Roan explained the campers are split groups by age, with older kids working on programming robots for rollercoasters. Meanwhile, the younger students are learning about making sure instructions are very clear.

“They just did an activity called code the instructor. So, in groups, they had to write the instructions of how you make a PB&J,” Roan said. “The instructor took those and followed them to a T, however they wrote them. So, if they said put the jelly on the bread, they’d put the jar of jelly on the bread.”

Roan said the camp is open to all kids, including those with disabilities, and it runs daily from 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Single day pricing is $60 for Arizona Science Center members and $65 for nonmembers.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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