School is almost over for the year but often you want to make sure that your children are doing something useful outside of term time. Many parents will consider sending their child overseas for a summer camp. These can be costly ventures, so you want to make sure your child actually learns something while gathering useful experience for their future resume. That’s why this week we look at some of the best summer camps in America, although it is worth noting that the costs cited are those of tuition fees only.

There is Camp BizSmart, at either Stanford University (US$1,590) or the Silicon Valley Community Centre (US$1,290), where for twelve days, kids aged 11 to 15 are put into teams and given business problems to solve while being mentored by executives from Google, Microsoft and Cisco (http://campbizsmart.org/). There are the Concordia Languages Villages in Moorhead, Minnesota, which offer 1 to 6 week language immersion courses in fifteen modern languages, including Japanese, French and Arabic. Students also enjoy related cultural experiences. Programs are prices between US$515 and US$5975 (http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/).

If your child is into numbers then they might enjoy the Honors Summer Math Camp (US$3,100) at Texas State University, where they will take classes in elementary number theory, combinatorics and abstract algebra, while also learning to use Mathematica software to solve real world problems (http://www.txstate.edu/mathworks/camps/hsmc.html). Model UN Camp is held in Pine Hill, New York and costs between US$875 and US$2425, running between one and three weeks. Here students practice diplomacy and international relations under the supervision of a staff that includes professors, former peace corps volunteers and those who participate in the MUN at university level (http://www.modeluncamp.com/).

At the National Computer Camp your child can learn how to design 2D and 3D video games, code an Android app and produce digital video. Camps cost US$1,095 per week and US$245 per weekend and are held at Fairfield University, Oglethorpe University and John Carroll University (http://www.nccamp.com/). One free summer camp is the University of Waterloo’s Quantum Cryptography School for Young Students. The program accepts students aged 15+ but it is incredibly competitive. Here, under the guidance of world-renowned researchers, students conduct practical experiments, for example developing unbreakable encryptions to protect communications networks (https://uwaterloo.ca/quantum-cryptography-school-young-students/).

Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama (US$929) is aimed at children aged 9 to 18 and has produced NASA astronauts, engineers, scientists and technical specialists. Among other activities students can experience a simulated mission control, scuba dive microgravity, design a spacecraft and analyse mission findings (http://www.spacecamp.com/). Despite the cost of getting there, these US summer camps really do offer educational experiences that are often unparalleled.

 

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