This is a multi-leveled question, so bear with me please.
I have a much younger S who recently became interested in some beginner’s coding. He really likes it & wants to continue. So far I’ve been unsuccessful finding any camps for him beyond Lego, which he mastered. So any suggestions in that area are very welcome.
Also, we got him a chromebook & wanted to load some coding apps on it. Suggestions welcomed there as well.
Last, he’s another bright kid who lacks motivation & effort. So when he recently picked up his older brother’s college mailings & asked what kinds of computer majors it had, I jumped at the opportunity! Problem is, we’re all Humanities in this house, so I was in over my head. The school listed: Computer Science, Computer & Information Science; and Information Science. S asked what the difference is & I had no answer. He also asked if game coding/design is sometimes part of a general CS program.
I didn’t much like any of the camp offerings I looked at. For self-directed coding, I’m buying is a $35 Raspberry Pi which easily connects to your netbook and provides a full linux environment. I picked this platform because there is lots of documentation, plans and how to instructions available for beginners. Lots of project ideas. Regarding schools, anything with Information in the title will most likely not include gaming, this is more business oriented. Some schools include game design and coding as a part of Computer Science, but many don’t. You would need to check each individual school.
I dont know where in the country you live, but my son has loved this camp, https://gamecamp.com/. It is more geared towards game coding, but it changed my son. My son specifically wanted a Game design from the coding aspects, and he has gotten into RIT . Most schools have a Computer Science Degree. I have heard of my kid talk about Python, and Unreal. A basic game design software is called “scratch” . They used it for science olympiad up until this year.
How old is your son? Has he done any pseudo-coding like MIT Scratch or Minecraft Command Blocks? My son had done stuff like that and wanted to learn some programming. There are free options online but your child has to be self motivated which my child isn’t necessarily so we signed him up for online programming classes through Art of Problem Solving. He did the Beginning and Intermediate Python classes and liked them and found them interesting and challenging eventually.
My son was in 7th grade and had pre-algebra which is enough math for the programming classes.
I know he’s tried scratch & possibly python. I haven’t heard of unreal though, I’ll have to look it up for him. Thank you!!
Also thank you for that link. We currently don’t live near any of the locations, but we’re also moving this summer & two of our possible locations have camps!!
(Disclaimer - I am not a programmer.)
My kids have done the online course “Minecraft Mod Design” through Youth Digital and enjoyed it. It involves some coding instruction, I think in Java. They have sales on their courses periodically so if it’s of interest, get on their mailing list and wait until they have a sale.
My youngest, now in 9th grade, did a week of idtech camp last year on the Stanford site (they have multiple sites across the US and internationally now). He enjoyed it a lot and is planning on a 2 week camp this coming summer. There are multiple options from coding to web design, game design, etc. It’s not cheap, though.
My middle kid is now taking AP Computer science online through eiMacs. I think they also offer lower-lever computing courses.
What college?
Usually, if the major includes *science/i, it is a more technical major focused on design and development, while if it includes *systems/i, it is a more business-based major focused on managing computers and software. You can check the curricula to see if the major requirements are mainly technical (computer science, math), or heavily business.
Yes, computer game design is based on computer science, though some creative arts are also involved. Some students study ordinary computer science and add electives to emphasize game-related topics.
Check nearby universities for summer camps. My son did 3 or 4 and enjoyed them all. He was given a Raspberry Pi at one which he took with him to college (for what, I don’t know!). He was given a Chromebook at another, and a group of them stayed after hours with the professor doing extra stuff.
You could email CS departments asking if they’ll have a summer program. High school counselors should also have a list of summer programs, although ours was somewhat late in announcing them. Some of the ones we did required an application, recommendations, transcript, etc. and it’s better to apply as early as possible.
Also look for related camps like robotics.
I agree with the above. Looks at your local universities for summer programs. Some host programs for children as young as 8.
@ucbalumnus It just happened to be Elon. He liked the Phoenix on the front & the Gryffindor colors :))
I found a business nearby that does a great deal of different things for kids that I think he would love. Unfortunately, they aren’t taking any new students. I’ll try to get him into a summer camp if there’s time before we move. It looks like they fill up quickly.
This is a great help, everyone! Thank You!
idTech camp is good and has a $125 off promotion right now. Located at many universities.
Tell your son to look for YouTube coding tutorials. And code.org
https://www.elon.edu/e/academics/majors-minors-and-programs.html indicates that Elon has a major called computer science (which looks like a typical technically oriented computer science major, based on course titles), but not majors called computer & information science or information science.
Honestly I would not consider Elon as a CS school, though they have a CS degree offered. As your child gets older, it would make sense to then look at what schools offer what. Also what State you will end up in.
Thanks @ucbalumnus . I just looked it up on big future b/c, attention span. LOL
I think the info on that site is occasionally suspect. Once he gets a little older & more serious, we’ll be more precise in our research.
I can add a little bit of info about college programs as my (HS senior) child is somewhat interested in game design (but not to the degree your child sounds like) so we checked out some programs.
There are a few threads on CC that are worth reading. They cover both finding programs at schools and the field in general and what to expect.
There are some schools that offer a specific “game design” program: some are more art-related, some are more programming-related, and some offer a choice of focus.
There are a number of other schools that offer a CS degree with a concentration/focus on game design within the degree. These are not always included on lists of “game design schools” so you may need to do more legwork to find that, but if you are interested in a specific college, it is easy enough to check it out on their website.
There are a few other schools that offer a degrees called “arts and technology” or “integrated digital arts” or something along those lines. These could be focused on game design if the student chooses or could be taken in a different direction. (We have seen these at several LACs – I don’t know if larger colleges offer the same as we limited our college search to smaller schools.)
A family member who worked at a game studio for a few years stressed that making connections are really important in finding a position in the field. So if you don’t already know someone in the field, making sure a school can offer meaningful internship connections would be important to check out.
The other thing to consider is that the computer game industry may not be as interesting as a high school student thinks it is. So it may be better to study CS in a way that allows for the student to seek other computing type jobs as well as game jobs, rather than an overspecialized computer game design major.
I totally agree with @ucbalumnus. A general CS degree opens so, so, many doors. Including games. But don’t close too many doors too early. Most kids who glom onto programming at an early age (my son, just graduated from college, is one) enjoy all sorts of programming “problems.” Even if they aren’t as “sexy” as games.
No, I agree with you both. I don’t want to close any doors now… I just want to foster interests.
How old is your son? My older son (now almost 30 and at Google) started programming in elementary school. Pickings were slim then. He read books like Visual Basic for Dummies, and then graduated to Java Manuals. He took a week long class when he was in middle school from something similar to IDTech. He took a class at Columbia U. summer program for high school students as well. Mostly he just taught himself stuff on his own. He was a bit obsessed about it.
How self directed is your child? When my youngest expressed an interest in programming in 6th grade, my husband dug out his college programming textbooks and handed them over to her. I thought that was the craziest idea ever but it totally worked. She paged through them and taught herself a ton, completely self directed. In 10th grade she started writing her own operating system. She has never taken a computer class or done a camp of any kind although that will change in the fall when she heads off to college.