Odessa College has scheduled a slate of camps for youngsters this summer offering everything from sports and conversational Spanish to designing robots and drones.
College for Kids will offer Science Camp, culinary camp, art and math course projects and drone camp.
Sections are scheduled from June 4 through June 7; June 11 through June 14; June 18 through June 21, and June 25 through June 28.
A robotics workshop will be held June 4 through June 14 and June 18 through June 28.
OC will also offer camps through the Sports Center including archery, co-ed basketball, golf, conversational Spanish, Moves and Grooves Dance Camp, Running Club, Snack Attack!, soccer, adaptive sports, fitness camps and Camp Runamuckus with indoor and outdoor sports and Laser Tag.
Continuing Education Operations Coordinator Michelle Brown said College for Kids’ camps will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and include lunch. The camps are aimed at students age 10 to 14.
The courses include shark dissection where students will use a shark cadaver to investigate the anatomy of a shark.
Students also will extract DNA from strawberries and look at it under a microscope. They will be able to keep the DNA sample, camp literature states.
Drone Camp is new this year, Brown said.
With each one of the classes, she said students will be able to keep some part of their projects and activities.
“At the end of each week on Thursday, they’ll do a showcase type of thing … where family and friends are invited to attend and they’ll be able to see the different displays, activities or projects that their kids have been able to do throughout the week,” Brown said.
Brown said registration is still being taken for the June 18 to June 21 and June 25 to June 28 sessions.
Louis Gonzales, associate dean of continuing education, said the art and math course prompts students to think critically.
Some Odessa College faculty members will be teaching the courses, along with some outside instructors, Gonzales said.
Gonzales said the drone camp will give students a chance to make their own drones and expose them to the college’s Fab Lab.
It’s hoped that being on the campus will help students realize that college is not a scary place, let them meet professors and get a glimpse of campus life, Gonzales said.
He added that he hopes students will consider dual credit courses, as well.
On the OC Sports Center camps, Christine Williams, director of community recreation, said there is still space available for youngsters. The camps start June 4 and run through the second week of August.
“We are running full steam ahead all summer long. I’m excited. … Once the kids are here, we just have a blast,” Williams said.
For more information about College for Kids and the Robotics Workshop, call 335-6580. Those interested in the Sports Center camps should call 335-6438.
