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My teenage son wants to learn to program an iPhone app, but doesn't want a camp that's all nerdiness. What should I look for in a summer camp that offers traditional activities (such as sailing, tennis, music, etc) as well as programming education? Are there any programming camps (ideally on the east coast) where he could do beginning programming and also regular camp activities? |
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As far as I know most summer programming camps are meant to give nerds a REFUGE from the other 50 weeks of the year when they're forced to participate in sailing, tennis, and music (not to mention team sports... UGH!) The gold standard for teaching kids to program is DigiPen, the Harvard of video game programming, which offers 4 year degrees in game design and programming. They offer a two week summer camp called ProjectFUN, but when you look at what they consider "after hours activity" it's full of things like Game design contests and Super Smash Brothers tournaments. SummerTech Computer Camp is a summer computer camp program for girls and boys ages 8-16, located in Purchase, NY. |
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I agree with other answers that a camp is not at all the right direction to go. But, to answer your question as asked, Cybercamps offers reasonably well put-together technical courses and also requires campers to get outside and be active. There are programs nationwide, typically run on college campuses. The quality of the experience depends almost entirely on the counselors, though, because the provided courseware is really only sufficient to provide a very basic introduction to the material. Mileage varies widely. It's also rather expensive. I am not selling this well. |
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As a previous sleep away camp attendee and with two kids currently involved with sleep away camps, computers are typically avoided at traditional summer camps. You may have to consider sending your son to two different camps during the summer - one that focuses on iPhone development and one for all of the other activities he would like to be involved in. My son is a competitive gymnast. A traditional sleep away camp was not for him as he didn't like playing traditional sports. We now send him to International Gymnastics Camp for a few weeks and an elective-style sleep away called Island Lake (http://www.islandlake.com/) where he can focus on extreme sports. I did find an iPhone development program at George Washington University for high schoolers (http://www.cs.gwu.edu/summercamp/index.html). Maybe a two-week iPhone camp and 4-6 week traditional/elective camp? |
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If you don't find a camp that works out for him, there are some pretty good iTunes U classes on iPhone programming. If he does self-study for part of the summer (or even during the school year) and then attends a fun, non-geeky camp, wouldn't that work out to about the same thing? |
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Don't know how far East you mean but if you're looking in Ontario Canada - you could try: http://artechcamps.com/ontario/camps.htm [ArTech Camp] |
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Does your son have any previous programming experience? If not, it's probably best to introduce him to the fundamentals first. As much as I hated it, Alice should help with this. If he does have experience, there's really no reason to look for a camp. Just get a compiler and a good book. |
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Like what Anon. said you don't need to go to a camp to learn how to code. What I suggest is for you to teach him the basics of programming using something like C so he understands about basic datatypes and stuff, then graduate him to this. |
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