Rocket Lee’s Summit kids into fun with these technology-focused online summer camps

If you have a budding programmer or content creator in your midst, the University of Central Missouri’s Lee’s Summit campus has a few ideas to keep them busy over summer vacation. The school is teaming up with Black Rocket to offer a wide range of technology-focused online summer camps.

The camps will run weekly from June 6 to Aug. 26, offering either morning or afternoon sessions. Depending on the topic, the cost per week ranges from $135 to $169.

It’s the third year the school has offered the Black Rocket camps.

The school started having the camps when they noticed that a lot of grandparents were picking up and dropping off kids at in-person camps at the Warrensburg campus, because parents were at work during those times. Then, the pandemic hit, and everything went online.

That’s where the online program’s big advantage comes into play, according to Clarinda Dir, program manager for workforce and professional education at the Lee’s Summit campus.

“(Black Rocket) gave us the option of doing online, where students could be at home or even at a sitter and be able get online and do summer camp without any of the dangers. It just allows more children an opportunity versus parents having to get them here,” Dir said.

Each camp runs for two and a half hours, Monday through Friday. New classes start each week. Black Rocket has classes for a variety of age levels, splitting classes into ages 6-8, 8-11 and 11-14.

In previous years, the Lee’s Summit camps have gotten more of the younger set, but Dir hopes to attract more teens to the camps this year.

Kids can learn about YouTube content creation or visual effects, making video games in the style of Fortnite, programming in Python or JavaScript and more.

For parents who are concerned about their kids interacting with strangers online when playing games such as Minecraft, these camps offer a safe alternative.

“One of the things that is really great about Black Rocket is that it’s a closed environment. Parents don’t have to worry about someone they don’t know getting in with their students. It’s just the instructor and students,” Dir said.

There are specific technical specs for each class, so parents need to check and make sure their home computer set-up is compatible. Some classes require a 64-bit operating system, and others may not work with Chrome or Mac operating systems.

Kids don’t have to have experience with any of the programs to take part in the camps.

“Maybe some of younger ones have never done it before, and so they’re learning how. I think some of the older kids have worked on similar things at school; it just lets them take it up a level,” Dir said. “It’s really built on fun. It allows them to expand their knowledge in a fun way so it doesn’t feel like school. That’s what everyone wants in the summer. They don’t want to go to school.”

Dir said she hopes trying new techniques and having the space to be creative with what they’re doing leaves the kids with more confidence than when they started.

For more information about the specific camp offerings, visit blackrocket.com/online/cmu. Parents must complete sign-ups by 6 p.m. three days before the start of each camp.