All camps at this grade level are held at an Oak Park elementary school and priced at $180 for a half-day, full-week session with these EXCEPTIONS: shorter Week 3 camps (4 days, w/ July 4 off) at $145; full-day Sailing camp (offsite+transportation) at $600; Biking camps Weeks 1, 2, 4 & 5 at $210; Biking Adventures Week 3 (4 days, w/ July 4 off) at $170. Read more about our amazing BASE Camp teachers. Please register for your child’s grade level as of Fall 2022.
AM Camps
Biking Adventures (5th-6th) ($210 per session)
| Week 1 | June 20 to June 24 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 2 | June 27 to July 1 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 3 | July 5 to July 8 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM (4-day week) | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 4 | July 11 to July 15 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 5 | July 18 to July 22 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Ready for a daily biking adventure? In this camp each day features a new theme, route and unique stops around the Oak Park area. We’ll learn and practice bike maintenance and biking safety as we hit destinations such as Thatcher Woods, local cafes and recreation areas. Sign up with a friend and get ready to make new friends – it’s time for a summer riding adventure! Instructors: Varies based on week. Required daily items include a road-ready bike with gears (no dirt bikes), spare inner tube, bike lock, helmet, snacks, water bottle and closed-toe shoes. Prompt arrival is a must, and bikers ride rain or shine (although not during thunderstorms). Bicycles should be inspected and tuned up at a local shop before the start of camp. Limited loaner bikes are available; please contact the camp director for details.
Carnival Game Maker (5th-6th)
| Week 4 | July 11 to July 15 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 5 | July 18 to July 22 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Do you enjoy playing skee-ball, ring toss, and other games of chance? Take your hand at designing and building your own versions of popular carnival and boardwalk arcade games. Flex your maker muscles as you turn recycled materials, LEDs, motors and more into interactive games large and small. From mini pinball machines to ball tossing catapults, you’ll be limited only by our collection of supplies and your imagination. Add the finishing touches, then invite your family and friends to test your creations at the end-of-week with a DIY carnival extravaganza. Instructor: Jocelyne Adkins. Content will be the same each session.
Frisbee Physics (5th-6th)
| Week 3 | July 5 to July 9 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM (4-day week) | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 4 | July 11 to July 15 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 5 | July 18 to July 22 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM **Girl Power Week! | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Learn STEAM concepts such as force, velocity, pitch, angle, gravitational pull, lift, drag, angle and buoyancy. Students will predict the flight path of a frisbee and test their predictions. We will take our physics lesson to the field and work on playing Can Jam, Frisbee Golf and Ultimate Frisbee. Instructor: Antonia Van Twisk. Dress in comfortable clothes, with closed-toe shoes. Note about the Girl Power Week: Our goal is to encourage girls to feel more confident in the world of Ultimate Frisbee by providing an environment that focuses on their active participation. The camp is open to all, but would be especially welcoming to campers identifying as female or non-binary.
Level Up! Video Game Design (5th-6th) NEW CAMP!
| Week 3 | July 5 to July 8 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM (4-day week) | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Climb into the captain’s chair and design your own video game! Develop original characters, tell compelling stories, create intriguing graphics, and more. Learn basic video game coding concepts by making a variety of different types of games, including racing, platform, launching, and quest games.This camp uses Kodu Game Lab. Instructor: Jim Hayward.
LittleBits Inventors (5th-6th) UPDATED CAMP!
| Week 4 | July 11 to July 15 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 5 | July 18 to July 22 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session This summer, the inventors are taking over the design lab…and the machines! Put your imagination to work as you channel your inner engineer and collaborate with fellow campers to build an apparatus where innovation and technology collide. Exercise your creative side as you learn about design, electronics, while evolving your ideas from paper to gadget with the LittleBits. Then code your vision to make your projects interact with the world. At the end of the week, we’ll showcase our work to families and other campers. Instructor: Jim Hayward. Content will be the same each session.
Minecraft Create (5th-6th)
| Week 1 | June 20 to June 24 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 2 | June 27 to July 1 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Join fellow campers to explore architectural and urban planning endeavors through Minecraft. We will collaborate to build a fully functioning city, balancing all necessary construction while respecting the landscape and environment around us. You will build your own homes and then move on from there, developing food and water sources, schools, parks, while overcoming fun challenges, all within a secure Minecraft world. Instructor: Griffin Waterman. Previous experience with Minecraft is helpful, but not necessary. Content will be the same each session.
Outdoor Escape Room (5th-6th)
| Week 4 | July 11 to July 15 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 5 | July 18 to July 22 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Head outside and experience the best elements of escape rooms, classic treasure hunts and geocaching into one fast-paced week of adventure! Working cooperatively in small groups, you will use math and science skills combined with logic, compass/directional skills and community knowledge to unlock clues that will help you escape a looming disaster. Along the way, prevent a zombie invasion, locate a long-lost formula and create your own outdoor escape/scavenger hunt challenge.
Printmaking Discovery (5th-6th)
| Week 1 | June 20 to June 24 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 2 | June 27 to July 1 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Design, play and experiment with an introduction to relief printmaking: monotypes, block prints, mini screen prints, and more. Work individually and collaboratively to create one-color and multi-color prints. Explore many different printmaking techniques, from stamping to making your own printing plates, and experiment with gelli printing. We will also look at ways different artists use printmaking in their work. Instructor: Emily Tague. Content will be the same each session. Dress for mess!
Science of Sweets (5th-6th)
| Week 1 | June 20 to June 24 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 2 | June 27 to July 1 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Studying sugar sure is sweet! In this camp you’ll take a close look at the delicious science of sugar. Examine how temperature influences crystal formation and see first hand how science works to create different textures in sucrose. Density, saturation, and dynamic equilibrium are just a few terms you’ll explore while experimenting to make glass, rock, gummy, slimy and spongy sweets. Instructor: Val Brown. Content will be the same each session. Note: All ingredients will be nut free.
Tinker Lab (5th-6th)
| Week 1 | June 20 to June 24 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 2 | June 27 to July 1 | 9:00 – 11:30 AM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Do you love experimenting and working with your hands? You’ll tinker with a variety of familiar and new materials using ideas from MAKE: magazine and a toolbox of maker supplies. You might fabricate a greeting card that lights up or an art-making bot. Boost your innovation, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking skills with new maker challenges each day, and immerse yourself in the captivating process of design and invention! Instructor: Tyler Banks. Content will be the same each session.
PM Camps
Advanced Experimentation Station (5th-6th) UPDATED CAMP!
| Week 3 | July 5 to July 8 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM (4-day week) | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Science is a messy business! Conduct hands-on experiments with items gross and gooey, stinky and surprising. Power a boat with baking soda, create a giant carbon snake out of sugar, blast off with balloon rockets, whip up a batch of heat-sensitive color-changing slime. Hypothesize about the science behind the reactions you see, and create a lab book of experiments you can recreate at home.
Breakthrough Beading (5th-6th) UPDATED CAMP!
| Week 5 | July 18 to July 22 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Ready to take your beading art to the next level? This intermediate class will focus on creating patterns and layering for a more intricate design. We’ll use beading needles to explore bead weaving techniques as we build our stitch repertoire from Daisy Chain to Square to Flat Spiral stitches all while creating one of a kind objects, animals, and jewelry. Instructor: Tania Wilson
Cardboard City (5th-6th)
| Week 1 | June 20 to June 24 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 2 | June 27 to July 1 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Design and construct a small-scale city with upcycled cardboard, and give all those shipping boxes a second life. Put on your urban planner hat and determine the essential parts of a successful community. Learn about the structural properties of different types of cardboard, from corrugated boxes to paperboard cartons. Then use this expertise to engineer and assemble buildings and structures for a preschool play area cardboard city. All design, engineering, and construction will be camper-led. Content will be the same each session.
Green Avengers (5th-6th) NEW CAMP!
| Week 1 | June 20 to June 24 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 2 | June 27 to July 1 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session. Put on your green cape and become a superhero for Planet Earth! There is so much to learn about what it takes to make our planet more sustainable–from healthy soil and biodiversity to recycling and alternative energy–and this is the camp to help you dig a little deeper. Design a mini green roof. Build a model of a food system. Watch what happens inside a worm composting bin. Create your own solar-powered machine. Through hands-on projects and field trips, you will discover what you can do to make a difference.
Jumpstart Robotics (5th-6th) NEW CAMP!
| Week 3 | July 5 to July 8 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM (4-day week) | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 4 | July 11 to July 15 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM **Girl Power Week! | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 5 | July 18 to July 22 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Jumpstart your journey into the world of design and technology! Using barcode programs and drag-and-drop software, this camp will explore fundamental robotic concepts and inspire improvisation, creativity and teamwork. Using fun and compact programmable robots, team up with fellow campers to transform your designs into fun projects — such as an artist or alarm clock, a security system or candy dispenser. Instructor Paula Spring. Content will be the same each week, but campers could repeat the camp and try new challenges. Note about the Girl Power Week: Our goal is to encourage girls to feel more confident in the world of robotics by providing an environment that focuses on their active participation. The camp is open to all, but would be especially welcoming to campers identifying as female or non-binary.
Lift Off! Aeronautics (5th-6th)
| Week 4 | July 11 to July 15 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 5 | July 18 to July 22 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Investigate and test the dynamics of flight by building different aircraft models and learn first hand about combustion and trajectory by launching your own rockets. Investigate physics concepts such as energy conservation, buoyancy and the forces of flight. During the week you’ll design, build, and test airplanes, rockets, Chinese lanterns and more. The sky’s the limit as we explore the science of aeronautics. Instructor: Ryan VenHorst. Content will be the same each session.
Manga Mania (5th-6th) NEW CAMP!
| Week 4 | July 11 to July 15 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 5 | July 18 to July 22 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Use your ANIME-gination to create those awesome Manga characters, creatures, and beasts. You will learn how to take an idea or sketch a character, and develop it into a stylized, colorful, animation-ready rendering. Learn the basics of animation techniques and bring your designs to life. The possibilities are endless as you begin the journey of character design and animation exploration! Content will be the same each session.
Minecraft Create (5th-6th)
| Week 3 | July 5 to July 8 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM (4-day week) | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 4 | July 11 to July 15 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 5 | July 18 to July 22 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Join fellow campers to explore architectural and urban planning endeavors through Minecraft. We will collaborate to build a fully functioning city, balancing all necessary construction while respecting the landscape and environment around us. You will build your own homes and then move on from there, developing food and water sources, schools, parks, while overcoming fun challenges, all within a secure Minecraft world. Instructor: Griffin Waterman. Previous experience with Minecraft is helpful, but not necessary. Content will be the same each session.
MINDSTORMS Robotics (5th-6th)
| Week 1 | June 20 to June 24 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 2 | June 27 to July 1 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Imagine how you could change the world with a robot to command. Want to clean the ocean? Explore the solar system? Pick up your room? With Mindstorms, you’ll be on your way. Learn to design, build and program robots using LEGO’s most advanced robotics technology – Mindstorms EV3. Work as a team to complete projects and games created specifically for EV3. New to robots? Not a problem! Through the engineering design process, you will gain the skills needed to build and program robots and understand how technology works in real-world applications. Instructor: Jim Hayward. You may register for multiple sessions; you can take on new challenges with each.
Mythical Magical Art (5th-6th)
| Week 1 | June 20 to June 24 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Unicorns! Dragons! Mermaids, fairies and wizards! Let your imagination soar as you create art inspired by mythological creatures. Fabricate an enchanting vessel to store artifacts and specimens of your own creation. Invent and artfully record your creatures’ habitat, diet and other distinctive characteristics. Craft otherworldly fur, hair or skin samples. Other artifacts you might make include a magic scepter or special potions. All art is possible in the fantastic world of the mythological. Instructor: Jocelyne Adkins.
Pattern and Print (5th-6th) NEW CAMP!
| Week 2 | June 27 to July 1 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 3 | July 5 to July 8 | 12:30 to 3:00 PM (4-day week) | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Make your mark… with fabric surface design. Learn the basics of silk screening and transfer a design from screen to cloth. Explore positive and negative space, repeating patterns, and more with stamps. Color fabric using the power of the sun, or Shibori resist dyeing techniques. Embellish with needle felting or hand stitching. Experiment and have fun with multiple processes for textile printing and pattern creation. Instructor: Pamela Penney. You may register for multiple sessions; campers can create different designs each session. Dress for a mess.
Tinker Lab (5th-6th)
| Week 1 | June 20 to June 24 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
| Week 2 | June 27 to July 1 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Do you love experimenting and working with your hands? You’ll tinker with a variety of familiar and new materials using ideas from MAKE: magazine and a toolbox of maker supplies. You might fabricate a greeting card that lights up or an art-making bot. Boost your innovation, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking skills with new maker challenges each day, and immerse yourself in the captivating process of design and invention! Instructor: Tyler Banks. Content will be the same each session.
Totally Twisted (5th-6th)
| Week 4 | July 11 to July 15 | 12:30 – 3:00 PM | at D97 school TBD |
1-week session Explore the art of wire sculpting. Let your imagination soar as you shape and twist wire into animals, garden art, mobiles, and jewelry using the natural world around you as inspiration. Learn wire work techniques such as wrapping and weaving. “Write” in cursive with twists of a single strand. Bend, curve, and coil with pliers or your hands, and embellish your art by incorporating objects such as beads, buttons, metals and fibers, as you work. Instructor: Tania Wilson.
Full Day Camps – Two Weeks!
Cost is $600; includes lunch and transportation to and from Columbia Yacht Club
REACH Sailing (5th-8th)
| PREWEEK | June 13 to June 17 | 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM | departing from a D97 elementary school TBA |
1-week, full-day session Learn to sail on Lake Michigan and explore the science, technology, engineering and math that sailors use every day. We’ll take a bus each morning to the Columbia Yacht Club. Using REACH, US Sailing’s STEM education curriculum, answer questions like: How does this boat float? What does geometry have to do with sailing? Does the wind pull or push a sailboat? Half your day will be spent inside the yacht club doing hands-on, sailing-related STEM activities, and the other half out on the lake on a J/22 sailboat with a US Sailing-certified instructor and five campers per boat. Campers will be grouped by grade, 5th/6th and 7th/8th. Instructor: Miranda Tucker. Content will be the same each session. Price includes lunch at the yacht club plus daily bus transportation to and from an Oak Park school. In partnership with the Columbia Yacht Club.