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Please check our main Recreation & Parks webpage for all updates. Please call our inclement weather lines about the status of camps, programs, events, facilities, and parks: www.howardcountymd.gov/inclementweatherlines.
Howard County Recreation & Parks offers science & technology programs, workshops and camps that include LEGO; Science; Minecraft and Robotics. Programs and camps are STEM based and offer a variety of themes so students can participate over time and experience new and exciting topics.
To register, call 410-313-7275 or Register Online
Howard County Recreation and Parks strives to make programs available to all individuals with disabilities and complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Inclusion Services provides a variety of supports to individuals with disabilities who choose to participate in any recreation program or class offered by the department. Inclusion accommodations may include financial assistance, accessibility, companions, additional training, medical, and interpretive services for the deaf or hearing impaired.
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to register for general recreation programs of their choice. Howard County Recreation and Parks Department has developed an inclusion process to better accommodate citizens with disabilities. To ensure that we meet your program needs, please call 410-313-4628 or 410-313-4708 at least two weeks before the program begins.
The Inclusion Process: Look through the brochure and find a class or program you like. Register for the program. Let us know what you need to participate on the registration form or when you call to the person taking the registration. Examples may include effective communication for the deaf or hearing impaired, improved signage, activity modification, additional staff training, companions, accessible equipment and facility features, and/or individualized planning for program or class participation. Therapeutic Recreation Staff will contact you to discuss strategies for inclusion and to offer an opportunity to share additional accommodation information. You will be asked to complete this confidential survey to help us better serve you. Each request is assessed on an individual case by case basis. Additional information may be needed to address the request. Modifications or accommodations will be made as needed.
Companion Services are not guaranteed.
Come live, learn, and choose your fun!
• Camps listed by age first, then alphabetical. • For more STEM camps for 3-6 yrs, see page 75. • Club SciKidz, C3 Cyber Info: Kiki Fagan, 410-313-4609 or kfagan@howardcountymd.gov. • Mad Science & Motivation Education Info: Holly Harden, 410-313-4625 or hharden@howardcountymd.gov.
This newly-designed camp is for our youngest campers to introduce robotics and programming using KIBO. KIBO allows kids to make their ideas physical and tangible—exactly what their young minds and bodies need. And KIBO does all this without requiring screen time from PCs, tablets or smartphones. Build, program, decorate, and bring your own robot to life.
Dinosaurs may be extinct, but they are alive in Camp Jurassic. Learn about a variety of dinosaurs and their habitats. Rocks, minerals and fossils are studied along with a variety of related projects. Explore Geology 101 with special emphasis on observation, inference and data collection.
Sir Isaac Newton never had this much fun! Be immersed in our toy maker’s workshop to construct and take home toyolen projects. Projects teach an important physical property. Learn why kaleidoscopes produce beautiful colors; build and play with a marshmallow shooter; and create a rubber band ball.
This unique camp offers an incredible collection of projects and experiments that amuse and amaze little scientists! Enjoy several hands-on activities to explore the basic scientific ideas that play a role in everyday life. Some projects are rocketry, glowing firefly, edible oceans, & marshmallow catapults.
Become astronauts in training. Learn about and participate in hands-on activities about the sun, moon, planets, and the life of an astronaut. Projects include making Moon Sand, fizzing planets, creating a galaxy, participating in an astronaut obstacle course, and more.
What do lizards hunting with their tails, lobsters getting trapped, alligators wrestling, and sloth bears surviving have in common? Answer: They are specialized simulations that teach you about the wonders of our animal planet. Learn about scientists and historical figures that have led to both the understanding and lore around many animals.
This very popular program immerses you in all things aquatic. Building a team aquarium, stocking it with live fish and learning to manage water chemistry is but one challenge. Following whales, turtles and constructing underwater volcanoes are others. Solve the great mystery of Who Killed Ronnie Reef?
Take the stories and illustrations from books and the spoken word to activate your imagination. Then create dance, music, laughter, hands-on science, and art. Caldecott, Newberry and Coretta Scott King winners, stuffed animals, magic wands, play props and other materials of imagination lead the way into an unforgettable set of experiences. Join us to bring literature alive!
Come enjoy fun-filled adventures that are both unbelievable, but true. Learn some sign language to be like Koko, the talking gorilla and hear about Modoc the world’s greatest elephant. Explore magic wands with electricity or monsters of the sea (that were really manatees).
This week of mechanics and virtual reality has full- and half-day options. Extend your day with Camp Plus.
Roblox, Imaginative Game Design (morning/6-14 yrs): Learn how to use coding fundamentals to strategically engineer cosmos while providing students with hands-on experiences in innovation and the underlying mechanics of 3D gaming. Game Design (afternoon/6-9 yrs): Use 3D geometry to create a video game level. Create puzzles and challenges using jump pads, elevators, lava, and more! Game Design using Unreal (afternoon/10-14 yrs): Learn how to create exterior environments and apply different procedures of modeling and texturing. Create outdoor terrain using advanced tools such as terrain sculpting, particle creation, and dynamic lighting. Learn how to import pre-set 3D models, control dynamic lighting, and add interactive vehicles and weapons.
Minecraft Modding (morning): Learn how to create your own custom game play items and elements using MCreator and Minecraft. Create artwork for various items and implement them into the game with custom behaviors. Explore texturing, logic flow, asset organization, and custom event triggers. Design your own custom blocks, food, biomes and more! Younger students focus more on texture work. Minecraft Animation Camp (afternoon): Find out how characters move and look alive in movies and video games! Create basic 2D and 3D animation techniques using Minecraft characters and stages. Expand your observation, imagination and storytelling by studying motion in reality and then applying it to animation. Learn how animators work by completing a variety of short animation exercises and projects. Note: returning students use new tools in the updated 2.0 software.
Coding & Design Games with Scratch (morning): Explore basic programming concepts using a simple drag-and-drop interface within Scratch software. Use premade art assets or create your own. Learn how to program, walk, talk, and interact with objects while creating a simple, 2D video game in Scratch 2. Coding with Minecraft & Design (afternoon): Create your own program called “Turtles” inside the world of Minecraft. Program your robot to complete tasks such as build, mine and craft items. Understand coding language such as Lua, if-then-else statements and for-while loops. Experience playing Minecraft preferred, but not required.
Learn how to create exterior environments and apply different procedures of modeling and texturing. Create outdoor terrain using advanced tools such as terrain sculpting, particle creation, and dynamic lighting. Learn how to import pre-set 3D models, control dynamic lighting, and add interactive vehicles and weapons.
Discover loads of horribly fantastic experiments! Projects focus on blood, bones and body bits! Tons of chemistry and biology for the aspiring doctor or scientist! Projects include bulging bag of brains, simulated snot, baby diaper dissections, eyeball acrobatics and that’s only the beginning.
Make no bones about it- this camp is for the aspiring young physician. Learn that your bodies contain miles of blood vessels, hundreds of muscles, thousands of hairs, a furnace, a filter, and a computer! Receive your own stethoscope and percussion hammer. Projects include building a lung model, testing for germs, building a spinal column, and skin prints!
Join us as we race across the Milky Way with 20 astronomy projects! Want to be a rocket scientist? Experiment with screaming balloon rockets; use solar glasses; then construct and use a star finder! Build a telescope and launch an airburst rocket! Create a glow in the dark model of Saturn, design a UV bracelet, build a sun dial, model our solar system, and so much more!
Use Dash and Dot, cleverbots created by Wonder Workshop. They are real robots that can sing, dance, navigate courses, and respond to voice commands. Using a tablet and apps, practice programming the robots to participate in a variety of different challenges and to create new behaviors for Dash. $25 materials fee.
Explore the organisms and habitats of different eco systems, discover earth’s different systems through hands-on activities, and learn ways to take care of the planet we live on. Get outside to explore nature first hand.
Measure and record rainfall, create a water cycle wheel, build a weather station, learn about the Greenhouse Effect, create a terrarium, design tornadoes, make snow, and more! End the week demonstrating the three states of matter by making and eating some delicious ice cream. Take home projects include sun prints, UV beads, a wind vane, anemometer, and a very cool rain stick!
Calling all marine biologists! Explore the crystal blue oceans; and study the structure of our oceans, marine life, and environmental issues. Along with oceanography experiments and activities, enjoy pirate escapades in search of gold, gems, and buried treasure. Includes 20 make-and-take projects!
Enjoy an intro into the world of robotics. Learn about the six simple machines and how they are incorporated into more complex machines. Learn about circuits and power sources as you build our Mars-like RC Rover. The radio-controlled RC Rover is capable of performing 23 experiments and activities. Construct our Art Bot. Take home a robot after the camp week has finished.
All activities meet or exceed National Science Standards through great lessons and hands-on experiments. Explore fun and exciting science topics in chemistry, biology, physics, and lab-process skills.
Are you an inventor? Enjoy instructors who are passionate about learning! Each day, a series of challenges must be overcome using basic materials, simple machines, and tips from world famous inventors. Construct catapults and forts! Assemble a working light saber to take home. Extend your day with Camp Plus.
Calling all pilots! As a Mad Science flight cadet in training, discover how airplanes fly. Test your airplane’s performance in a wind tunnel. Build your own kite, stunt plane and model rocket. Ride the air on a hovercraft and discover how hot air balloons, blimps and parachutes work.
Discover how things move with science and awesome Mad Science instructors. Take apart pellets to see what an owl cannot digest! View the world through a camera obscura. Build bridges, domes, cubes, and pyramids. Assemble and control pulleys, levers, catapults, and simple machines. Make your own sidewalk chalk, crystal gardens, and chromatography-dyed t-shirt (provided).
Dig up dinosaurs and the ancient past! Solve real-life mysteries! Learn about archaeology and the techniques scientists use to excavate fossils and longlost cities! Study bone fragments, pottery shards, amber deposits, and fossils to understand what they can tell us about history. Receive an unforgettable visit from Tiny T, an amazingly life-like, 10-year old Tyrannosaurus Rex!
Suspects! Schematics! and Sleuths! Connect the dots using science to help solve a crime in this hands-on investigation. Uncover the science involved in evidence gathering and analysis and fingerprinting detection. Enhance your recall and observation skills and learn how to use spy equipment.
Blast off with the only camp designed and created specifically by NASA engineers! Future space explorers, set your trajectory from our Earth’s atmosphere to the outer reaches of our solar system! This hands-on program brings you closer to the stars, planets, comets, and more. Learn about living in space, getting away from gravity, looking for space phenomena, and participate in a rocket launch!
Learn to create stories, games and animations using Scratch, a visual programming language that helps you think creatively, work collaboratively and reason systematically. Learn basic coding while more experienced coders can create complex programs. In Digital Animation: Art & Adventure, learn how to program their own adventure stories, quiz games, and visual art; Game Design: Arcade Action, learn how to program their own take on classic arcade games like Pong, Tanks, and Snake!; In Game Design:Mazes & Monsters, program their own maze games, platformers, and side scrolling. Bring a nut-free, non-perishable lunch, beverage and snack. Extend your day with Camp Plus.
Use 3Doodler Pens to create 3D structures. Learn about its practical uses in the fields of science and technology. Learn engineering concepts. Design, plan, and create your own 3D projects. Respond to engineering challenges. Some sample projects include bridge building and replica famous structures. $45 materials fee.
Enjoy a ticket into the world of Veterinary Medicine. Meet practitioners in the field, pet groomers, and be involved with several hands-on experiments. Receives your own medical kit (dependent on availability).
Aspiring crime fighters and CSIs, this camp is for you! Work through a series of forensic activities using one of our murder mystery case studies. Learn about evaluating a crime scene, hair analysis, blood typing, crime scene shoe impressions, interviewing witnesses, Luminol detection, white powder analysis, fingerprints, and of course, blood spatter! $30 materials fee.
Learn the science behind Hollywood’s special effects. Activities demonstrate concepts related to light, sound, perception, illusion, and model building. Create and take home a movie using techniques in claymation and stop-motion animation. Lessons include plot development, storyboarding, set building, filming, and sound effects. Learn various special effects make-up techniques working with the same materials used by professional make-up artists. Simulate cuts, bruises,