Camp Descriptions

This camp is perfect for middle school students who have not done any programming so far. It uses drag and drop programming, which means no syntax errors! You can convert your idea to code quickly and see it in action! You can code 3D animations or games with ease. Alice comes with a powerful graphics library that minimizes coding effort. Visit utdallas.edu/~jeyv/alice to preview the content.

Alice camp requires Windows PC/laptop or MacBook. Chromebook will NOT work. Alice tool can be downloaded from alice.org/get-alice/alice-2 (English Gallery Complete is preferred). See the detailed instructions here.

Day 1: Scene Setup, Our first program with Coach & Penguin
Day 2: Dog & Cat, Loop-the-loop by Sea Plane
Day 3: Person walking back & forth (IF statements), coordinated hand movements
Day 4: Array of objects, sophisticated group dance
Day 5: Frog jumping game

A general-purpose language, Logo is widely known for its use of turtle graphics, in which commands for movement and drawing produced line or vector graphics, either on screen or with a small robot termed a turtle. See our resource page utdallas.edu/~veerasam/logo to get an idea.

Day 1: Simple drawings, Repeat to draw polygons & stars
Day 2: Arc based patterns, color
Day 3: Random patterns
Day 4: Functions
Day 5: Recursive Patterns

This camp is specifically for students who are super-excited about Math – we will highlight/focus on bringing math concepts to life through Computer Programming. We will use Scratch & JavaScript to see the math in action! Here are a few major concepts that will be covered: Angles, 3-dimensional space, random numbers, remainder, rotation, scaling & recursion. We hope this camp will increase the students’ interest in Computer Programming as well.

Day 1: Geometry, Resize Objects using variables
Day 2: Random numbers
Day 3: Transformations: Translate, Rotations & Scaling
Day 4: Arithmetic & geometric sequences - Cake layers, concentric circles
Day 5: Recursive shapes - triangles, squares, ...

3D modeling, design & printing teaches important STEAM concepts and design thinking. It helps unlock children’s natural drive to create, share and explore. We use easy to use, intuitive and engaging software to allow young students to transition from drawing in 2D to designing in 3D in minutes – no CAD or computer experience necessary!

To make our camps fun we also engage our learners in 30 minutes of unplugged activity. This is very popular amongst learners and unique to Wize Computing Academy camps. Each day we plan a new unplugged activity that applies STEAM concepts and materials needed are recyclable items in the house. Details list of the items will be shared in email after registration.

Day 1: Explore - What is 3D designing all about? Define a problem using design thinking.

How do architects, engineers, and other designers use nature as a design partner? In this session, students learn about the concept of biomimicry, analyze a pattern in nature, conduct research, and then use nature as an inspiration for designing a new product, structure, or space in Tinkercad.

Day 2: Students design an avatar either based on themselves or a fictional person. First, they create a detailed list of adjectives describing the avatar’s physical traits. Next, they draw a 2D sketch of their avatar design and measure the dimensions. And then finally, they create their design in 3D using Tinkercad or art materials.

Day 3: Students will design a measuring tool for a baker who needs to make small batches of custom cookies. Students will learn about who is involved, define the problems they must address, ideate new and innovative solutions, and prototype and test their designs, while using their geometry skills to calculate dimensions for accurate measuring.

Day 4: Teaching our students to be the next generation of innovators and problem solvers! Whatever their interests may be now--in science or in the arts--your students will benefit from this framework for critical thinking. After they learn about the basic design thinking process, students then practice each step by completing a series of hands-on activities. Then they'll have the chance to apply what they know about design thinking to create a prototype of a solution for a pollution-related problem.

Day 5: Designing a play space involves mathematical thinking about measurement and scaling, as well as spatial reasoning. Students will also apply an engineering mindset in refining their designs to adhere to safety standards. Supplemental materials are included to help you lead students through the design and engineering process, and also engage them in creatively communicating their ideas.

Virtual Reality, or VR, is a medium that allows the viewer to get immersed into a virtual 3D experience. The virtual environment replaces the real world in the eyes of the viewer, who can move and look around, and sometimes even interact with the virtual content.

Augmented Reality, or AR, let us see the real-life environment right in front of us—trees swaying in the park, dogs chasing balls, kids playing soccer—with a digital augmentation overlaid on it.

In this course students explore the creation of virtual tours, storytelling, games and simulations. The beauty of this approach is that it allows for creativity and coding in multiple dimensions (3D, voiceover, music, video etc.). There is no limit to what one can create!

To make our camps fun we also engage our learners in 30 minutes of unplugged activity. This is very popular amongst learners and unique to Wize Computing Academy camps. Each day we plan a new unplugged activity that applies STEAM concepts and materials needed are recyclable items in the house. Details list of the items will be shared in email after registration.

Learning goals and student benefits:

● Learn 3D creation skills

● Improve spatial skills

● Develop creativity

● Develop design skills

To make our camps fun we also engage our learners in 30 minutes of unplugged activity. This is very popular amongst learners and unique to Wize Computing Academy camps. Each day we plan a new unplugged activity that applies STEAM concepts and materials needed are recyclable items in the house. Details list of the items will be shared in email after registration.

Day 1: Letting our students build their own constructions is a great way for them to develop their spatial skills, imagination, and get familiar with using CoSpaces Edu and creating in 3D with the building blocks available. The building blocks available in CoSpaces Edu can be used to virtually create anything, similar to how kids would build with Lego bricks, but with unlimited resources and an infinite creation space! The building blocks are very easy to use and offer various features for them to familiarize themselves to the world of 3D.

Day 2: Have our students create their own virtual exhibition! Learners will create a virtual exhibition on any topic, whether it’s animals, a historical event or a favorite painter. Students can also use their own art (photos or digitized paintings). At the end of this lesson, students will have conducted extensive research on a subject.

Day 3: We will teach students how to imagine and create a custom roller coaster in any environment that they like. Students begin to create increasingly sophisticated immersive scenes in their virtual environment.

Day 4: This session involves concepts of physics and how they connect to the world of 3D animation. Newton’s Laws of Motion by enabling the physics features of certain objects to allow for collisions, gravity and friction. Learners get to apply these concepts in building 3D games and much more applying their ideas and creativity.

Day 5 :This session opens up to allow for students to add their own design and interactive features. This lesson acts as a fundamental base for future lessons, as students begin to create increasingly sophisticated immersive scenes in their virtual environment.

With CoSpaces Edu’s creation tools, kids can easily create a virtual museum on any topic and later view it in Virtual Reality. This enables students to explore 3D creation while deepening their understanding of a topic or educational resource and lets them explore new ways of demonstrating their knowledge in the classroom. This lesson plan provides instructions for creating a Mathematics and Arts museum. The steps in this lesson can be adapted to create a similar project on any subject. In addition, this lesson plan also provides a section with instructions for programming different interactions with CoBlocks, the visual coding language in CoSpaces Edu.

This is an introductory camp to the fundamentals of web development using HTML and CSS to structure and design a webpage. HTML and CSS are core languages in the content creation of web pages and web applications. Through this camp, the students will be introduced to the syntax, organization, and abilities of both HTML and CSS. Students will learn the technical skills of structuring an HTML document with the compatible styling capabilities of CSS. Through hands-on demos and instruction, students will be building and designing a webpage, and learn skills that will be the foundation to a self-sufficient and knowledgeable coder.

Any text editor will work for this camp, but we prefer Sublime text or notepad++ for syntax highlighting to catch silly mistakes.

Day 1: HTML, HTML5 tags
Day 2: HTML forms, HTML tables
Day 3: HTML examples, CSS
Day 4: JavaScript
Day 5: A project using all the concepts

Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool essential for managing and presenting data in today’s classrooms & workplaces. In this camp, students will learn to create and edit worksheets, use formulas and functions, sort and filter detail data visually, and present summary information in a consumable and professional format. Then we will cover advanced features like PivotTables & What-if Analysis.

Day 1: Working with Formulas and Functions- Introduction, Creating Formulas that manipulate Text. Working with Dates and Times. Creating Formulas that Count and Sums Values.
Day 2: Creating Formulas that look up Values, Miscellaneous Calculation.
Day 3: Introduction Formulas and Functions, Working with Formulas and Functions, Creating Formulas that manipulate, Sum, and Count Values.
Day 4: Introducing Array Formulas, Performing Magic with Array Formulas.
Day 5: Analyzing Data with Pivot Tables, Performing Spreadsheet What-If Analysis.

This camp uses the Khan Academy JavaScript environment, which features a web-page with coding area and virtual canvas area for output. As you type the code, output appears/changes. This friendly environment comes with a powerful graphics library that minimizes the coding effort. utdallas.edu/~jeyv/kajs has a few examples if you would like to review.

There is no software to install and all the work is done in a website. Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome browser is required since IE does not work well.

khanacademy.org is a popular site for school students - most of them should have an account there already. If not, we encourage you to create one so that the programs can be stored for future reference. We will start the coding journey at khanacademy.org/computer-programming/new/pjs.

Day 1: Drawing Basics, Coloring, Variables, Animations
Day 2: Mouse Interactions, Functions - Art work!
Day 3: Local and Global Variables, If Statements - Bouncing Ball
Day 4: While Loops, For Loops - Fancy patterns!
Day 5: Arrays - tons of bouncing balls, Brownian motion!

This advanced level camp utilizes the building blocks covered in the basic JavaScript camp (Drawings & Animations with JavaScript) to design simple games. Here is the resource page for this camp: khanacademy.org/profile/jeyf20/projects

Day 1: Review, Paddle ball
Day 2: Fast click game
Day 3: Fast flip game
Day 4: Memory game
Day 5: ColorBlocks

Cyber Robotics 101 camp introduces students to the core concepts of code development and

robotics. Students will learn engineering concepts like mechanics, navigation, sensors and more

while being introduced to computer science fundamentals like commands, variables, conditional logic, loops, smart blocks/functions and more.

Day 1: CoderZ environment, Basic navigation, Object detection
Day 2: Loops, Gyro turns, Gyro reset
Day 3: Domino Creations, Challenge Missions I
Day 4: Color detection, Challenge Missions II
Day 5: Object manipulation, Decision making, Ultimate challenge

Giving students real choices in the classroom through educational robotics can boost their engagement and motivation, allow them to capitalize on their strengths, and enable them to meet their learning needs. Educational robotics helps students feel a sense of autonomy, capability and relatedness.

Autonomy: Students feel autonomous when they understand the task, particularly if the task feels aligned with their values, interests, and goals.

Competence: Students feel competent when they believe they know what to do to be successful and feel capable of mastering challenges.

Students feel a sense of relatedness from feeling close to people or a sense of belonging in a group.

To make our camps fun we also engage our learners in 30 minutes of unplugged activity. This is very popular amongst learners and unique to Wize Computing Academy camps. Each day we plan a new unplugged activity that applies STEAM concepts and materials needed are recyclable items in the house. Details list of the items will be shared in email after registration.

Day 1 : Introduction to Engineering & programming concepts

Motors and Gears

Sensors – Motion, Tilt, Color & Infrared

Gears – Crown, Worm

Understand the Programming Concepts

Day 2: We will be assigning missions to drive the Vex virtual robot and make him complete the missions assigned. Exploring the coding concepts related to Motion, variables and loops

Day 3: Robot will be assigned more complex tasks that will require understanding of advanced programming concepts like Functions, Algorithms , variable, Data flow

Day 4: We will be using online tools for learners to build Lego Mindstorm robots real time. So they understand building concepts and the engineering knowledge around it

Day 5 : Learners will be tasked with missions, they will write the code and we can test behavior using the virtual robot.

This camp is specifically for high school students who are new to coding. This camp utilizes "fun" tools to teach the basic building blocks. This camp is strongly recommended before the students proceed to do the advanced camps.

Day 1: Basic Scratch projects
Day 2: Advanced Scratch projects
Day 3: Microbits projects / Basic Alice projects
Day 4: Microbits projects / Advanced Alice projects
Day 5: Machine Learning with Scratch / Khan Academy JavaScript

This camp uses p5js environment (improved version of Khan Academy JavaScript environment), which features a web-page with coding area and virtual canvas area for output. As you type the code, output appears/changes. This friendly environment comes with a powerful graphics library that minimizes the coding effort. editor.p5js.org/jeyv/sketches has a few examples if you would like to review.

There is no software to install and all the work is done in a website. Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome browser is required since IE does not work well. Go to editor.p5js.org and click on the top-right corner to create an account so that your programs can be stored in the web. Here is a sample agenda for 4 days:

Day 1: Drawing Basics, Coloring, Variables, Introduction to Animations
Day 2: Mouse Interactions, Functions
Day 3: If Statements, While & for loops
Day 4: Intro to Arrays
Day 5: Cyber-flowers, Recursive trees

Java is a popular language that is used to program tiny devices to complex software applications!

While there are several IDEs available to develop Java code, we will use web-based IDE to get going quickly. Please visit repl.it and create a free account. Then, you can start at repl.it/new/java10 and create programs and store in the web as well. This camp will cover the following concepts using hands-on activities.

Day 1: First program, user input & output, variables
Day 2: If-else statements,
Day 3: for and while loops
Day 4: static methods
Day 5: Problem solving using IF statements and loops

Java basics camp covers the basic building blocks of the language. This next level camp will cover the advanced level topics using hands-on examples.

Day 1: Arrays
Day 2: Strings
Day 3: ArrayLists
Day 4: Recursion
Day 5: More problem solving

Dr. Meenakshi Maitra, faculty in the department of biological sciences @ UT Dallas will be the lead instructor for this camp. Visit this site for details.

Python is a friendly & powerful language to develop the software applications quickly!

While there are several IDEs available to develop Python code, we will use web-based IDE to get going quickly. Please visit repl.it and create a free account. Then, you can start at repl.it/new/python3 and create programs and store in the web as well.

Day 1: First program, user input & output, variables
Day 2: If-else statements
Day 3: Loops
Day 4: Strings
Day 5: Functions

Python basics camp covers the basic building blocks of the language. This next level camp will cover the advanced level topics using hands-on examples.

Day 1: Review of basic Python structures
Day 2: Lists
Day 3: Dictionaries
Day 4: Combination of Lists & Dictionaries
Day 5: Introduction to NumPy

You have no idea what Artificial Intelligence is or what it can do? You don’t have much coding experience? You have come to the right camp! No pre-requisite knowledge is required to attend this camp. Just come with a curious mind and be ready to get your hands dirty!

You will need FREE Microsoft Azure account to work hands-on materials. Our special thanks to Mark Cuban Foundation for sharing the camp materials & enabling us to offer this camp.

Day 1 Introduction to AI & bots
Day 2 Machine Learning
Day 3 Computer Vision
Day 4 Natural Language Processing
Day 5 Project ideas

In this camp, Cybersecurity students will learn the current best practices for keeping their personal

information safe, discover how to gather information safely and ethically , explore the history of

hacking and cracking computer systems. By studying the historical context of hacking students will gain insight into the who, how, and why of hackers, students will be provided with the tools to keep their online information safe not only now but in the future.

Day 1 - Cyber Attack , Different Types of Cyber Attacks, Hacking , Hacker Categories.
Day 2 - Working on Kali Linux and How to use it.
Day 3 - Digital Identity, Identity Spoofing, IP Address, Spoofing Attacks.
Day 4 - Reconnaissance, Types of Reconnaissance, How Search Engine Works, Google Dorks.
Day 5 - Networking Scanning Process, TCP and IP, Ping Command, ICMP and TTL.