Gifted Atlanta

The University of West Georgia in Carrollton has several day camps for kids in kindergarten through age 18. Topics include science, arts and crafts, and a film camp where teens write a screenplay, learn acting skills, and ultimately have their film curated by a film professor.

The university is holding additional STEM summer camps at satellite locations in Paulding County and Douglas County.

Rising 4th to 6th graders will become magazine writers and creative directors in a one-week camp at Georgia Tech run by Katori Education Company.

Campers will choose their stories, write them, and lay out the look of their online magazine, which will be finished at week’s end.

Highwire Comedy Co. invites teens to its acting and writing workshop, a two-week summer program in which kids will write, rehearse and perform an original, live sketch comedy show — like creating their very own “Saturday Night Live.”

Students ages 13 and up will learn both improv and sketch comedy from an experienced faculty that includes a former instructor at Chicago’s Second City theater.

Highwire is located near Decatur.

The CougarBots, a robotics team made up of students at DeKalb County’s Henderson Middle School and Lakeside High School, will run a one-week programming camp this summer for rising 3rd-6th graders.

The camp will be led by the students and their coaches, who will introduce children to the simple Scratch programming language and LEGO NXT robotics programming. No prior experience is necessary.

The CougarBots camp will take place June 29 to July 3, 2015, on the campus of Henderson Middle School. Cost is $180.

To register or for more information, download the PDF flyer.

Walton Robotics, the Walton High School robotics team, will host three summer camps for kids entering 6th to 9th grades.

Camp topics are:

• LEGO NXT, an introductory class in basic robotics for rising 6th to 8th graders
• VEX Advanced, using robotics to study basic principles of engineering, for rising 7th to 9th graders
• Java programming, for rising 7th to 9th graders

Each camp runs Monday through Thursday, June 1-4, 2015.

* NOTE: The online information says applications are due April 3, but I’ve been told by the organizers that they will continue to accept registrations until all spots are filled.

Wheeler Magnet School in Marietta will host three summer camps for elementary- and middle-school students interested in science and technology.

Science Spectrum Camp will be held June 1-5, 2015. The camp is open to rising 7th-, 8th- and 9th-grade students, and will allow exploration in such areas as robotics, chemistry, electronics and drafting.

Camp GAMES, June 22-26, is for girls entering 4th, 5th and 6th grades. It, too, will include a range of science and engineering topics.

This year, Wheeler has added a third camp, STEM Explorers, also June 22-26, for rising 4th, 5th and 6th grade boys. This is the boys’ counterpart to Camp GAMES.

Wheeler Magnet is a science, technology and math magnet program housed at Wheeler High School.

The Museum of Design Atlanta celebrates good design as a marriage of artistry and functionality. Kids in the museum’s campMODA summer camps will experiment with their own design to see how well they can combine ingenuity and engineering.

Topics this summer include LEGO robotics, Minecraft-based design, gadgets and devices, and electronic circuitry. Most camps are for children ages 8 to 12, although children as young as 6 may attend the LEGO robotics camp. MODA offers a separate Design Academy camp for middle-schoolers.

All camps last one week. Some are full-day, others only half-days. Camps are held at the MODA Midtown campus, Georgia Tech, or the Lovett School.

Just about everything I post on GiftedAtlanta.com is local to the Atlanta area.

The one exception I make is the Appalachian Institute for Creative Learning, held for two weeks each summer on the campus of Warren Wilson College, just outside Asheville, North Carolina.

For years, I had been intrigued by AICL with its wide range of courses. Where many programs billing themselves as gifted camps are science and technology heavy, AICL offers classes in music, magic, philosophy, and Dungeons & Dragons, just to name a few of the dozens of courses for 2015.

Last summer, my kids went to AICL and loved it. And I loved it, too, because I’ve never been anywhere where children’s creativity and individuality were so honored.

Let’s face it: Gifted kids can be unusual and quirky. Too often in life, they are embarrassed by their differences. At AICL, their quirks aren’t ridiculed. They’re celebrated. AICL is a safe place where exceptional children can meet other kids like them — kids who think it’s cool to learn about medieval warfare, form a marching band, create a documentary, or build a house out of cardboard.

AICL is open to children ages 8 to 17, with day camp or residential options. Children need not be gifted identified by their school to attend. As the camp’s web site puts it, “[W]e call our campers motivated learners, figuring anyone who shows up to take biology, math, or art in July is motivated.”

The Morehouse School of Medicine is now accepting applications for its Vivien Thomas Summer Program, a biomedical science research apprenticeship for high-school students.

The eight-week program pairs students with faculty mentors from the school and allows the students to work in biomedical research labs.

The program’s overarching mission is to increase the number of minority students interested in biomedical science.

The application period will close April 18, 2015.