DIY MicroComputer Summer STEM Camp

Are you ready for your child to experience a summer STEM camp unlike any other? How about a camp where your child can build and take home their own retro microcomputer? Valley Christian Schools and its Lewis Center for Gifted Learning (4401 Southern Blvd/30 W Front Street, Youngstown) is offering a weeklong summer camp June 18-22, 2018, where students will build and take home their own retro microcomputer using Arduino microcontroller technology. Students will learn essential electronics skills as they wire circuits for a screen, keyboard, joystick, speaker, LEDs, and removable ROM chip. They will also learn the fundamentals of computer programming as they code their own games and educational programs in the BASIC language. Students will critically and creatively apply a broad and deep range of STEM skills each day of the camp. An Interactive Tour of Microcomputer History - For Students and Parents! Students will also experience a hands-on walk through the history of the microcomputer revolution and interact with the computers that “changed the world” including the Apple II, various models of the TRS-80, the Commodore 64, the Timex Sinclair, and x86 PCs with early operating systems such MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows 95. In exploring this history, students will discover how computers have changed over time to bring us to today’s handheld and mobile computing era and how computers continue to impact our everyday lives. Parents, who may have owned and experienced many of these computers, will be invited to interact with them along with their children on the final day of the camp, when will also students present their creations. For students going into 5-8th grade in the fall! Cost is $150, which includes all of the necessary take-home parts to build their own microcomputer!