MCC offering six summer kids camp options

McCook Community College is offering six options for something to do this summer for students from kindergarten through eighth grade. There are camps for robotics, birding, art, science, and computer coding.

All classes are held at the MCC campus. Class sizes are limited. Registrations and payment is required. For more information or to sign, please visit the Mid-Plains Community College Business and Community Education web site at BCEregister.mpcc.edu or call (308) 345-1822.

Going to Mars! – Robotics Camp is for students in the fifth through eighth grade. This three-day camp will be Tuesday-Thursday, June 4-6, from 9 a.m.-noon at 201 McMillen Hall. Todd Weimers leads the camps which costs $49. Students will design, build, and program an autonomous robot using the Lego Mindstorms EV3 platform. Missions will include navigating to a satellite dish and turning it upright, picking up crew members at a lunar base and transporting them to home base, traveling to a mars crater to free another robot stuck in the sand, and using their robot to locate and move a satellite to the launch area. Other missions will be added depending on time.

Birding for Kids is for children ages four to 10. It is June 8 from 10 a.m.-noon at 201 McMillen Hall, led by Shannon Sughroue and the cost $15. This camp offers children a start to their birding experiences with beginning bird-watching activities, ideas and tips. During the second part of the class, students will paint their own birdhouses, which will go home with them and hopefully attract a variety of birds to their own backyard.

Summer Kids’ Art Camp will be June 10-14 in 201 McMillen Hall with Deonne Hinze instructing. There are two sessions for this camp, one for students entering second through fourth grade and another for students entering fifth through eighth grade. Cost for this five-day camp is $69. Students entering second through fourth grade will go from 2-4 p.m. with students in the fifth through eighth grade going from 10 a.m.-noon.

Students will encounter the elements and principles of art by creating several works ranging from drawing with perspective, to creating mosaics, to modeling magic sculptures. Campers will use various art medias and techniques while exploring the elements of line, shape, color, value, and texture.

The camp will conclude with a student art exhibit in McMillen Hall on Friday, June 14 from 5-6:30 p.m.; family and friends are encouraged to attend.

Pond Life Through the Microscope is offered to students eight and older on June 18 from 11 a.m.-noon in 110 Barnett Hall. MCC Biology Instructor Rob Bogardus will lead this class. Cost is $15. Students will learn there is a whole microscopic world to discover in just one drop of pond water. These creatures will come into view as students learn to use a microscope and to identify just what living organisms are floating by. They will quickly discover the life that they've been missing.

Let’s Get Buggy is for youngsters from four to 10-years old and will be Saturday, June 29 from 10 a.m.-noon in 201 McMillen Hall with Shannon Sughroue instructing. Cost is $15. In this fun workshop students will learn about these tiny creatures, how they squirm, wriggle and live. They will also create lil’ bugs by painting some river rocks, turning them into adorable “pet rocks” to take home.

Coding Camp: Interactive Animations and Games is for fifth through eighth grade students June 16-18 from 9 a.m.-noon in 201 McMillen Hall. Todd Weimers leads this three-day camp. Cost is $49. Campers will create programmatic images, animations, interactive art, and games. Starting with simple, primitive shapes and building up to more sophisticated sprite-based games, students will become familiar with the programming concepts and the design process that computer scientists use daily. They will then learn how these simple constructs can be combined to create more complex programs. In the final project, students will develop a personalized, interactive program.