We recommend everyone to complete a few workshops from our Enjoyable series (specifically Alice and JavaScript) before this workshop. In other words, it will be better if you have already mastered the basic programming concepts and have done some free-form coding. Here are the topics that will be covered:
With the abundance of web-based tools to learn coding, we hope to play with a different tool in every session and get introduced to coding concepts in an enjoyable way. If parents want to get an idea about these tools, visitandto see a few samples, but please do not prep your children and make the camp a boring experience! Just like Scratch, this camp is for novicesno programming background is needed to attend this camp.
Topics that will be covered in the camp:
Pre-requisite:Programming in Java or C++
Enjoyable Coding with JavaScript / Drawings with JavaScript
Pre-requisite:Enjoyable Coding with JavaScript
Students will enjoy experimenting with science while they learn to build playful motorized creations with LEGO®.* Kids will be in awe to see their motorized creations come to life!
It will be all about using your creativity animate objects, draw cool stuff, make music, and even develop a simple game! Its friendly interface enables everyone, including young children, to get started, but it has tons of functionality to keep everyone interested for a long time, learning various programming concepts along the way! We encourage everyone to bring an iPad please download the ScratchJr app and install before coming to the camp.
Embedded programming with Arduino & Raspberry PI
You have a great idea for mobile app, but do not know how to program in Java/Objective C? No worries.MIT App Inventorenables you to use drag-and-drop programming to put your creative ideas to work and make Android apps. It will be helpful to bring an Android phone to test your apps. While the drag-and-drop mechanism is easy to get used to, you will come across lots of components that need to come together to make a complex mobile application. We encourage Elementary and middle school students to complete Alice camp first.
Maya is an industry-standard animation softwareit is available for free to school & college students! While one day (even one week!) is hardly enough time to learn about Maya completely, we are hoping to cover a few simple animation examples/hands-on exercises in this workshop and make you comfortable with using Maya. You are welcome to visit more details.
Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool essential for managing and presenting data in todays classrooms & workplaces. In this introductory camp, students will learn to create and edit worksheets, use formulas and functions, sort and filter detail data visually, and present summary information in a consumable and professional format.
This camp is an introduction to the powerful yet easy to learn programming language Python using robots and graphics. Participants will learn the basics of computer programming by writing interactive Python programs that control robots or draw beautiful graphics. Basic programming concepts such as variables, loops, conditionals statements, etc. required by these programs will be explained in detail. The workshop will explain also the basic concepts of robotics such as movement and interaction with the environment via various sensors.
Pre-requisite:Programming in Java or C++
Processing is a programming language, development environment, and online community. Initially created to serve as a software sketchbook and to teach computer programming fundamentals within a visual context, Processing evolved into a development tool for professionals. Today, there are tens of thousands of students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists who use Processing for learning, prototyping, and production. Khan Academy utilizes simplified interface of Processing to introduce programming to young kids.The Processing language builds on the Java language, but uses a simplified syntax and a graphics user interface enables us to learn advanced programming concepts in an enjoyable way. Clickhereto learn more about Processing.
Introduction to C and the framework
Following camp descriptions are here only for reference we are not offering these camps at this time.
This workshop teaches students how to use JavaScript to develop web pages. All modern HTML pages are using JavaScript to add functionality, validate input, communicate with web servers, and much more. We will be using w3schools built-in editor for JavaScript, and later on create our own standalone web pages. This is perfect workshop for students who have a very basic knowledge of HTML and are interested in developing really nice and powerful websites using JavaScript. Following topics will be covered: • JS Statements • Data Types • Functions • Operators • Comparisons • Switch • Loops • Validations • Animations
Learning to code with Minecraft (Python)
You need to bring a laptop with WiFi capability to the camp. Please download and install Code::Blocks IDE with mingw compiler before coming to the camp from case you run into installation problems, no worries we will help you to install it when the camp starts.
Enjoyable Coding with Alice / Animation & Games using Alice
After a short introduction about Alice tool, we will work on a series of exercises/projects throughout the camp. Please bring Windows/Mac/Linux laptop with Alice 2 installed from. Download the appropriate one listed belowEnglish Gallery Complete: Windows / Mac / Linux, then follow the instructions specified inInstalling Alice 2. These are huge download files. If you cannot download and install it, do not worry we will have the downloaded files ready to install. Ask for help as soon as you come in. Alice 3 software is quite different and we will NOT use it in this workshop. Windows laptop is preferred, but Alice does work well in Mac and Linux as well. Once installed, Alice behaves exactly the same way in all environments.
Recommended laptop configuration for Minecraft camp:
There is lot more to Computer Science than coding! This advanced level camp is ideal for high school students who are comfortable with Java/C++ programming and considering Computer Science as college degree. Appropriate selection of data structure is crucial to run the algorithms efficiently and achieve the best running time for a program while keeping the memory requirements to a minimum. Arrays, linked lists, hash tables, tree & graph structures will be covered along with algorithms to manipulate and utilize each structure. While a typical software engineer may select a data structure and use available library functions, we will cover how those library functions are implemented.
Pre-requisite:Enjoyable Coding with Alice
This camp is all about Game development! You do not need to have programming background to attend this workshop. We will useGameMakersoftware in this camp. GameMaker enables us to assemble the building blocks and develop professional quality games quickly! After the campers get comfortable with the building blocks & drag-and-drop programming, scripting will be introduced to show a glimpse of advanced level capabilities of GameMaker.
Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool essential for managing and presenting data in todays classrooms & workplaces. In this advanced camp, students will learn to use formulas and functions, sort and filter detail data visually, and present summary information in sophisticated charts. We will also cover advanced features like PivotTables & What-if Analysis.
Pre-requisite:Enjoyable Coding with JavaScript
• Introduction to Object Oriented programming
Linux installation & command line usage
This camp will start with low-level operations in C, such as shifting, then discuss pointers. Embedded-programming concepts such as memory-mapped I/O and interrupts will be covered. There will be a few exercises in C, and a final exercise using the Arduino board and other components.
There is no software to install and all the work is done in a website. Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome browser is required since IE does not work well. Go toto test your configuration/browser it should show a funny yellow colored head in your screen, then you are in good shape! Otherwise, try another browser/laptop.
It is a bad idea for novices to learn Java as a first language We recommend everyone to climb the steps as explained inutdallas.edu/k12 complete a few camps from our Enjoyable series (specifically Alice and JavaScript) before this camp. In other words, it will be better if you have already mastered the basic programming concepts and have done some free-form coding. Thatwill make assimilating Java bit easier.This camp will cover the following concepts using hands-on projects:
In addition to basic programming experience with Python, knowledge aboutMVC architecture, HTML and JavaScript will be helpful to get the full value of this camp.
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
If youre the curious one that always wondered how computers really work, this camp is for you!
It is a bad idea for novices to learn C++ as a first language.We recommend everyone to climb the steps as explained inutdallas.edu/k12 We recommend everyone to complete a few camps from our Enjoyable series (specifically Alice and JavaScript) before this camp. In other words, it will be better if you have already mastered the basic programming concepts and have done some free-form coding. That will make assimilating C++ easier. This camp will cover the following concepts using hands-on activities:
Recommended laptop configuration for Minecraft camp:
Once the students are comfortable with the basics covered in Animations using Scratch, they can take an advanced camp to develop games & make music. We will typically use multiple sprites (objects) and even multiple code segments for each object. We will use programming concepts to make music and even utilize randomness to change the tunes along the way. We will use sophisticated concepts like event-driven programming and cloning objects to complete advanced projects.
We will start with the basic concepts and techniques that enable computers to perform intelligent tasks, then focus more on machine learning. Several of the following topics will be covered: cross-validation, decision trees, neural nets, statistical tests, Bayesian learning, computational learning theory, instance-based learning, reinforcement learning, bagging, boosting, support vector machines, Hidden Markov Models, clustering, and semi-supervised and unsupervised learning techniques.
Typically GUI is covered as the advanced topic in Java programming & requires lot of coding. Greenfoot IDE changes this around and enables us to work with GUI utilizing pre-built objects in Greenfoot IDE. Participants can build sophisticated games and work on animations quickly using those objects. Everything is based on object oriented programming concepts participants can strengthen their understanding of OOP concepts while working with this interactive GUI platform.
This summer camp is recommended only for mature high school students (10th and 11th graders) who have good coding experience. We try to limit to 8 students in each session. Students will visit a different research lab in Engineering and Computer Science every day & get introduced to something new! It can help them to make an informed decision when selecting their college major. Typical lab session will be 1-2 hours of lecture & demos followed by 1-2 hours of hands-on activity.
Computers are mysterious. Even when we know how to program them to do what we want, we still dont know how they do it. Do computers really speak Java? Computers are electronic devices. How does electricity solve problems?
Recommended laptop configuration for Minecraft camp:
Pre-requisite:Enjoyable Coding with JavaScript
– Latest Eclipse Standard version from.
CoDroneis an Arduino-based drone kit that will allow students to learn about construction of drones and how to program them to fly. We start with introduction to Arduino IDE and explaining the building blocks on how a drone is constructed and laws that make them fly. Then we build up on using these basic building blocks and program the drone kit to make it fly and reach the sky.
This camp is for high school students who have NO previous experience with Computer Programming. Following schedule will enable the campers to learn programming aspects in fast-paced manner with interesting problems every day. Students should be able to proceed to learn coding in Java/C++ after this camp.
This is a series of free light-hearted tutorials that will allow you to learn how to program and build small robots using the LEGO EV3 MINDSTORMS kits, starting with simple programs and robots, building your skills as you go. No programming or building experience is required the tutorials start from the beginning, and you learn by doing.
Cozmo is more than a computerits an AI with personality, a companion for a journey into a world of adventures and challenges (long after camp ends). Learn coding with Cozmo and see its artificial intelligence react with giggles, jiggles, squeals, and squeaks as you triumph together on any task. Use visual coding to make alarm clocks, play block-moving games, and see what programming can do with a new electronic friend. Students will be given a voucher that will allow them to order a Cozmo free of charge if delivery is within the United States.
This advanced Java camp will cover the following concepts and related hands-on activities:
Pre-requisite:Animation using Scratch
Pre-requisite:Enjoyable Coding with Alice
– Latest Java Platform (JDK) from
Arduino is a low-cost open-source MCU platform that can create easily designed electronics and homemade projects ranging from simple models to robots and satellites. With an unlimited spectrum of input and output add-ons like sensors, indicators, displays, motors etc. this hardware is great for hobbyists and engineers to create devices that can interact with the real world. This workshop will not just help the students to use the board but will also enable them to build embedded systems around it.
Embedded Systems with TI-MSP430 & Quadcopter Design
Pre-requisite:Introductory GameMaker
This camp will cover the higher level concepts of Python as well as the Model-View-Controller architecture. Participants will learn how python can be used to build powerful MVC objects and how to use Django, a very popular and powerful framework to build their very first web application. At the end of the session they should be able to build their own python web-apps using MVC.
We invite all Minecraft fans to come and attend this camp! Begin with some short, simple Python lessons, then use your new skills to modify Minecraft to produce instant and totally awesome results. Learn how to customize Minecraft to make mini-games, duplicate entire buildings, and turn boring blocks into gold.
Students will learn basic page building techniques for creating professional quality web sites perfect for family or school projects. From storyboards, digital art and page building to navigation, design and page linking, students will gain mastery of digital techniques for designing web sites, step-by-step. Prior programming knowledge would be helpful, but not required.
You need to bring a laptop with WiFi capability to the workshop. Please try to download and install following 2 Software modules before coming to the workshop:
– Latest Eclipse Standard version from.
Pre-requisite (recommended):Animation using Scratch
Robots! What can you do with them? Why are they important? Find out where art and engineering fuse! This camp will introduce students to common sensors and motors, simple microprocessors and programming robots to turn inputs into actions. Students will build robotic kinetic sculptures (or whatever they want). Students will also spend time working with real robots in UT Dallas Robotics Lab.Instructor:Dr. Nick Gans
Pre-requisite:Programming in Java or C++
Students will learn about the world of Minecraft and explore game mechanics in a fun and creative way. Youll learn about house design, efficient farming and resource gathering, and even make contraptions using Redstone! Well also explore some engineering concepts including regularity and modularity. Best suited for students with minimal Minecraft experience, or those with experience only with the mobile version of the game. If your primary goal is to learn coding, consider signing up for MIT Scratch instead.
LittleBits is a platform of easy-to-use electronic building blocks that empower you to invent anything, from your own remote-controlled car, to a smart home device. The Bits snap together with magnets, no soldering, no wiring and no programming needed. Clickhereto see more details.
Circuits with MaKey MaKey kit uses a kit that lets you turn anything into a controller. No technical expertise is needed, letting your imagination run wild while you quickly prototype ideas and interactions. Its basically a simplified Arduino processor that enables alternative ways for several inputs on your computer like mouse click, space, left-right-up-down keys, etc. through interesting objects like human body, vegetables, anything wet, pencil lead and almost anything that conducts electricity. We will be working fun projects every day! View the gallery of MaKey MaKey based projects @.
This camp is for students who are interested to develop Virtual Reality Game using Unity Framework (seefor documentation). This framework supports C and JavaScript. This is an advanced workshop students should be comfortable with Java/C++/C and Object Oriented Programming concepts, before attending this workshop. We will start familiarizing with Unity environment in the morning and start working towards a simple game.
One page flyers for popular camps:bit.ly/camps-pdf
Topics:Number Systems (only binary), Basic Logic (Everyday Logic Exercise), Compound Logic, Truth Table to Compound Statements, Intro to Logisim, Decoder/Multiplexer exercise in Logisim, Compound Logic to Truth Table Exercise in Logisim, Concept of a Computer discussion, Hex/Negative numbers, Full-Adder exercise, Flip Flops
Overview of Visual C Express Edition
We invite all Minecraft fans to come and attend this camp! We will set up the environment to work with Minecraft MODs and run through a few simple projects making code changes and seeing their effects! Then we will get into serious coding for complicated MODs that will require you to be knowledgeable in Java to get the full value of the camp.
Pre-requisite:Enjoyable Coding with JavaScript
This fusion camp uses a little device calledBBC micro:bit it was designed by the BBC for use in computer education in the UK. It has 25 red LED lights that can flash messages & two programmable buttons that can be used to control games or pause and skip songs on a playlist. It can be used for all sorts of cool creations, from robots to musical instruments the possibilities are endless. It comes with multiple code editors we will start off with Block based programming & show the path to use the programming languages like JavaScript & Python using various interesting projects.
Pre-requisite:Enjoyable Coding with JavaScript
This camp is perfect for middle school students who have not done any programming so far. It uses drag and drop programming, which means no syntax errors! You can convert your idea to code quickly and see it in action! You can code 3D animations or games with ease. Alice comes with a powerful graphics library that minimizes coding effort. Visitto preview the content. Since Alice does require careful drop operations, we do not recommend Elementary students to take Alice directly, we prefer them to start with Scratch.
Pre-requisite:Enjoyable Programming using JavaScript
Reading and Writing Data using Text Files
Working on Classes and OOP Concepts
We will install one of the popular Linux distros, understand various components of Linux, then dig deep into Linux command line & realize its full power specifically, we will learn how to do complex operations by combining several simple commands using pipes. Then, we will learn how to use scripts to avoid typing several commands repeatedly. We will also learn how to run tasks periodically (also known as cron jobs).
Pre-requisite:Programming in Java or C++
We will cover the basics of Objective C for couple of days, then we will proceed to cover a few simple iOS applications. Macbook is required for this camp. We recommend you to download and install XCode before coming to the camp. We also recommend you to bring an iOS device, but Apple does provide a built-in iOS simulator to test the most features.
In this camp, we will look under the hood of a computer and learn the fundamental language of computing systems: Binary Logic. Using an open-source logic simulator called Logisim, we will explore the basic architecture of a computer. We will learn how information flows from memory to processor and how electricity can encode the computers instructions.
There are several choices of IDEs to develop C++ programs. We recommend you to download and install CodeBlocks for C++from
This camp is specifically for students who are super-excited about Math we will highlight/focus on bringing math concepts to life through Computer Programming. We will use Scratch, Logo, Alice, JavaScript or Java to see the math in action! Here are a few major concepts that will be covered: Angles, 3-dimensional space, random numbers, remainder, rotation, scaling & recursion. We hope this camp will increase the students interest in Computer Programming.
Pre-requisite: Enjoyable Coding with JavaScript OR Learning to code with Minecraft (required) & Programming in Java (recommended)
Understanding Event Driven Programming
Micro-controllers are little chips that enable intelligence in everyday objects. These tiny computers can be integrated into anything and can enable inexpensive, anytime, anywhere computing! From your electric toothbrush to your vehicles key fob, a micro-controller is the brain programmed by code. Micro-controllers enable new inventions every day. They can be the building blocks of your next big idea. Connect them with wireless modules, lights, motors, and more to create new or better solutions for todays problems. Clickhereto know more about this camp.
MIT Scratch is a GUI based programming environment. While it has a friendly interface that appeals to young children, it has tons of functionality! You can do 2D animations of objects, create cool drawings, make a character sing a tune, develop an interactive game (control it with various inputs including voice!) and even narrate a story with images! Go toscratch.mit.eduto check out the tool and lots of examples. We will use a specific list of examples shown in. Scratch uses drag-and-drop programming which means no syntax errors your program is always ready to run! It enables the young learners to focus on the logic instead. This camp is for beginnersno prior experience is required.
Pre-requisite:Data Structures & Algorithms
This page contains the descriptions for all the camps we have offered in the past & we may not offer all the camps all the time (almost all of them are available any time for private camps). We will continue to fine-tune our offerings and we may discontinue specific camps any time. If you landed here from another page, return to that page to find the registration link.
OOP & Games in Java using Greenfoot IDE
– Latest Java Platform (JDK) from
We recommend everyone to complete a few camps from our Enjoyable series (specifically Alice and JavaScript) before this camp. In other words, it will be better if you have already mastered the basic programming concepts and have done some free-form coding. This workshop will cover the following concepts using hands-on activities:
Other than these topics we will also show some fancy examples using JQuery and students will be given challenging exercises to create their own JavaScript enabled web pages.
This camp is perfect for students who have done a little bit of programming using Alice/Scratch/Robots, etc., but have not spent much time with C/C++/Java yet. While many high school students may be OK to start here without any prior programming experience, all novices are strongly encouraged to complete Alice camp first. This camp uses the Khan Academy JavaScript environment, which features a web-page with coding area and virtual canvas area for output. As you type the code, output appears/changes. This friendly environment comes with a powerful graphics library that minimizes coding effort. If you want to preview the workshop content, visit.
We will review a few advanced Java concepts like Swing & Inheritance quickly, then we will proceed to cover a few simple Android applications. We recommend you to bring an Android device with your Windows laptop, since Android emulator tool comes with a few limitations.
Pre-requisite:Animation using Scratch
Finch robotsare tiny USB-powered robots that were developed specifically to learn programming. While these robots can be controlled from programs written in almost dozen languages, we are going to use MIT Scratch it enables Elementary kids to write a few simple programs for the robot to move around, sense obstacles & light, play tunes etc.! Then, we will look at another sophisticated robot calledScribbler it is suitable for a wide range of programming skills. In addition to light-seeking, object detection, object avoidance & line-following, it can do art-work: place a Sharpie marker in the pen port and it will draw as it goes around! We will use the Graphical User Interface tile-based programming tools. Finally, we will look atSpherorobotic balls they enable us to bring several math and science concepts to life!
Imagine it, engineer it! Powered by the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Base Set and software, explore the exciting world of robotics and engineering. Students will work together to design, construct and code their own interactive, autonomous robots using EV3 LEGO®* motors, sensors, and microprocessors.
Pre-requisite:Enjoyable Coding with JavaScript
This fusion camp uses a little device calledBBC micro:bit it was designed by the BBC for use in computer education in the UK. It has 25 red LED lights that can flash messages & two programmable buttons that can be used to control games or pause and skip songs on a playlist. It can be used for all sorts of cool creations, from robots to musical instruments the possibilities are endless. It comes with multiple code editors we will start off with Block based programming, then move to JavaScript editor, and finally use Python, working on various interesting projects along the way!
Pre-requisite:Enjoyable Coding with JavaScript
There are several choices of IDEs to Java programs. Based on the past experience, the following tools work well for our needs in this camp. Please download and install Eclipse for Java:
This camp is all about Game development! This workshops assumes that you have some programming experience. We will write code using the built-in scripting language GML to develop the games. We will useGameMakersoftware in this camp.
Campers will learn about the importance of databases, then start hands-on activities with one of the open-source databases like MySQL to learn about various concepts, including a hash mechanism that enables super-fast searches! After learning to write simple and complex SQL queries, campers will be introduced to accessing databases from Web applications.
This workshop will cover the following concepts and related hands-on activities:
What is special about programming competition problems? It is all about algorithmic thinking & solving problems correctly & efficiently! If you are strong in programming fundamentals and can code well in Java or C++, you will get the maximum value from this camp. We will start with a few simple competition problems & show what it takes to compete in the programming competitions. We will start with Bronze level problems in, then work toward harder problems.
Pre-requisite:Enjoyable intro to Programming using JavaScript
Pre-requisite:Programming in Java/C++/Python
Pre-requisite:Object Oriented Programming in Java or C++