What kid doesn’t love Lego?
What parent doesn’t love when their kid engages with learning, science, technology and critical thinking?
Well, North Island College is bringing back their NIC Youth Academy summer camps again this year, creating a win/win for both parents and kids alike.
The summer 2021 line-up of camps for kids from 9-16 include the always popular NICBot Camp, where students will learn how to build, program and control Lego EV3 Robots. The camps will run at the Campbell River campus July 19-23 and August 16-20 and down in the Comox Valley July 5-9 and August 23-27.
There is also a girls-only session of the camp being held the week of July 26-30 here in Campbell River and in the Comox Valley the week before.
The camps combine fun and hands-on learning in a variety of areas including STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), health, language arts and more.
“Youth Academy camps are a great opportunity for students to explore their interests and develop new skills,” says Ali Sandholm, NIC youth & community outreach liaison. “We’re thrilled to be able to offer the camps this year, with full health and safety plans in place to ensure the safety of all our students.”
Naomi Tabata, manager of NIC’s Centre for Applied Research, Technology and Innovation, says the school loves getting kids engaged with STEM, not only because it’s super fun to watch them explore the possibilities, but it also helps grow the social culture of technology and innovation in the region.
“We’re really interested in building tech in the North Island, whether that’s supporting tech companies or innovation, we recognize that the jobs of the future are going to be – in a way we can’t even imagine – related to technology, and we want to prepare the community for that,” Tabata says. “One way to do that is to talk about it, and these camps have been a great venue to have that conversation. We get kids interested in programming and coding, we get their parents talking about it. Communities as a whole are really excited when we bring these camps to town.”
There are other camps happening for those willing to travel down to the Comox Valley, as well, including Mad Scientist, where children explore optics in physics, create reactions in chemistry, and navigate the wonders of life in biology. That camp runs July 5-9 and August 9-13.
You can see the entire list of youth camps on offer through NIC this summer, including “Future Health Leaders” and “Jr. Adventure Guides,” at www.nic.bc.ca/youth-academy
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