Summer Space Program (Virtual)

Founded by Sandy Springs native and Georgia Tech grad Warren Eshpeter, Let’s Go to Space works to engage, educate, and inspire kids of all ages to get involved with STEM and space! Let’s Go to Space sends engineers and computer scientists to K-12 classes around Georgia and hosts virtual summer camps and after-school activities. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we work with universities, aerospace companies, and other nonprofits to do awesome space research and get everyone excited about space.

The Summer Space program is a virtual day camp that connects kids ages 8-12 (with exception) with STEM mentors over Minecraft and Zoom on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. All of our mentors have a background in STEM fields: aerospace engineers, computer scientists, electrical engineers, certified teachers, and undergraduate engineering students! We break the camp down into 5-6 kids per mentor so that every child has a personalized and social experience - without being trapped in an oversized Zoom call!

Each camp session begins with mentor introductions and a fun lesson!  Lessons cover rocketry, radio and light waves, astronomy and constellations, planets and the solar system, comets, asteroids, and meteors, and life on Mars! After the lesson, we bring the campers onto our Minecraft servers with custom-designed maps. There, they’ll work together to solve their way out of escape rooms, go through scavenger hunts, and explore the solar system - all on Minecraft! At the end of each camp, we share a post-camp activity list with resources and instructions to continue the learning after the kids leave the camp for the day! These guides will give you a handle on helping your camper create a water-bottle rocket, find different constellations, build new Minecraft contraptions and more.

• In our rocketry sessions - campers learn about chemical reactions that help rockets lift off the ground. We bring campers to our Minecraft Moonbase where we learn about the environment of the moon so that we can build habitats for astronauts, mine for lunar resources, and build rockets to get home! Campers learn about all of the resources on the moon that can be used for building or living there - such as water-ice and iron! We focus on NASA’s plan to use resources on the moon to build and sustain a moon base for astronauts, and teach students about the many different ways water-ice can be used: purified to be used as drinking water, broken down to become breathable oxygen, and broken down to be used as an oxidizer and rocket fuel!
• For the radio and light sessions, campers are taught how astronauts and satellites communicate with everybody back on Earth! They must work together with their newfound knowledge to escape the moon prison and make it back home! The escape room features building rainbows, moving through lava-filled obstacle courses, solving radio/light riddles, constructing radio towers to phone home, and building a rocket to escape! Campers will also learn about the speed of light and the size of the Earth, solar system, and the universe!
• In our coding camp sessions, we have real computer scientists introduce basic coding concepts to the campers! Minecraft is well suited for coding activities because it has materials to build circuits and contraptions in the game itself. Campers run through an exciting archery course in Minecraft where they storm a castle by shooting targets that trigger awesome Minecraft redstone reactions. Then, we teach your children how to create TNT cannons, special traps for their bases, and combination locks for the doors of their base! These activities teach the campers about different logic and coding functions while in Minecraft!
• Our astronomy and constellations sessions focus on the life cycles of the stars and the stories behind different constellations. Campers get to build their own constellations and come up with a story behind it, just like the constellations we see in our night sky! After building some awesome constellations, we explore the solar system and build ships to cruise through the galaxy! We also have some huge, premade spaceships to explore and play in!
• In the comets, asteroids, and meteors sessions the campers learn the difference between all the different types of space objects and what important roles they play in the formation of the solar system! The campers are placed in a huge Minecraft Metropolis and must go through a scavenger hunt - where they learn all about comets, meteors, and asteroids - before saving the city from impending meteor collisions and an alien invasion!

All of our camps work to generate awareness and build excitement around STEM and space for your children. Campers get introduced to NASA and the awesome work done by various space agencies around the world to study the universe, explore the solar system, and extend humanity’s reach into space!

All lessons take place on Zoom (free) and Minecraft!

• The boys had a really good time and are looking forward to next week's session! They were excited to tell me all the things they learned and did. Well done! - Dennis
• Liam had a great time, he was super excited and learned a lot! Thank you! - Margaret
• Thank you for the session, Sofia is super happy! She is going to 'teach' me what she learned today, so we will be reviewing and playing this week [while] happily waiting for the next session!- Rocio

Let’s Go to Space has session dates July 15, July 17, July 20, July 22, July 24, July 27, July 29, July 31, Aug 3, Aug 5, Aug 7, Aug 10, Aug 12, Aug 14th, and Aug 17th. 

We also offer 100% scholarships to parents who cannot afford the camp - no questions asked.

Follow Let’s Go to Space on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Please Email Warren Eshpeter with any questions.

This article is sponsored by Let’s Go to Space.

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