15 Best Coding Summer Camps for Middle School Students
If you’re a middle school student and are planning to pursue computer science in the future, chances are you’re interested in learning how to code in different languages. Coding is a valuable skill to have in today’s world and can be useful across multiple industries and fields. To get a headstart, you should consider joining a coding summer camp! These camps offer an immersive learning experience, an opportunity for you to develop new skills or hone existing ones, and build a strong foundation of programming knowledge.
Finding the right program can be a bit challenging. To help you get started, we’ve curated a list of 15 coding summer camps for middle school students!
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: Students in grades 6-8 are eligible to apply
Coding Experience: None for AI Trailblazers. Basic experience with Python is required for the AI Junior Fellowship
Application Deadline: Summer cohort - May 29, 2024. Apply here!
Dates: AI Trailblazers - Runs for a total of 25 hours over 10 sessions | AI Junior Fellowship - 12 weeks. You can find the available dates for the summer here!
Cost: AI Trailblazers - $1,790 | AI Junior Fellowship - $2,900. Need based financial aid is available
Veritas AI, founded and run by Harvard graduate students, offers virtual AI programs for middle and high school students. Middle school students can pick from two options - the AI Trailblazers bootcamp and the AI Junior Fellowship. With the AI Trailblazers program, you will learn the fundamentals of artificial intelligence and machine learning, along with the basics of Python. You'll work on hands-on, real-world AI projects in areas like medicine, finance, autonomous vehicles, and more under the guidance of mentors from top universities like Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and more! This is best suited for students who are beginners.
If you have already gone through the bootcamp or have some experience with Python, the AI Junior Fellowship is a good option for you. You get to work 1-1 with a mentor to build out your own project or research paper over 12 weeks. This is a great way to work with AI at the intersection of various topics and showcase your passion.
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: Students in grades 6-8 are all eligible to participate
Coding Experience: No prior experience is required
Application Deadline: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis
Dates: June 24 - 28, 2024
Cost: $595 per week
The National Computer Camp (NCC), which started in 1977, is America’s oldest computer camp. At NCC, you can choose to attend for one week or engage in multi-week sessions with curricula designed to deepen your computer literacy, whether you’re new to the field or have some experience in it. You will have access to an extensive list of courses and activities. This includes diving into programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, C++, and Java, exploring web development through CSS, Web Design, and HTML 5, and enhancing your graphics skills with OpenGL, Flash–Animation, and Photoshop. If you’re interested in game design, you can start from 2D Game Design to advanced 3D Game Design, including hands-on experiences with Arduino Computer Lab and Minecraft Modding. Additionally, unique offerings like 3D Printing, Cryptography, and even flying the NCC Drone are available to you.
3. The University of Texas at Dallas Coding Camps
Location: Both in-person (at the University of Texas at Dallas) and virtual options are offered
Eligibility: Students aged 11-14 are eligible
Coding Experience: No prior experience is required
Application Deadline: Enrollment is open until the Wednesday prior to the start date of the week’s camps.
Program Dates: Weekly camps from June 3, 2024 - August 2, 2024
Cost: $150
These Coding Camps allow students to learn how mathematical concepts come to life by integrating them with computer programming, using platforms such as Scratch and JavaScript. Students will delve into various mathematical concepts including angles, 3-dimensional space, random numbers, and recursion. A highlight is the "Bring Math to Life!" camp, where students focus on applying programming to understand geometry, object resizing, transformations, arithmetic and geometric sequences, and recursive shapes throughout a fun and engaging week. The "Modding with Minecraft" camp allows students to step into the world of their favorite video game, Minecraft, and learn to create mods using programming concepts. For those who are new to programming, the camp offers an "Enjoyable Coding with Alice" segment, which utilizes the Alice programming environment to teach 3D animation and game development without the hassle of syntax errors. This camp is especially suited for beginners and provides a solid foundation in programming concepts through a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface.
4. UC Berkeley Coding Academy - Data Science to AI
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: Students aged 12-18 are eligible
Coding Experience: No prior experience is required
Application Deadline: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis
Program Dates: June 17 - 28, 2024 | July 8 - 12, 2024
Cost: $2,495. Limited scholarships are available.
If you want to explore how data is used in various fields, from social media trends to environmental changes, the UC Berkeley Coding Academy is a solid option to consider. With tools like numpy, pandas, matplotlib, seaborn, and sklearn, you'll get hands-on experience analyzing big data and constructing machine learning models, all while mastering the Python code that powers AI. You will work on projects, with the program culminating in a presentation, backed by blockchain-authenticated certificates, giving you a tangible link to your achievements. You will also gain lifetime access to an extensive suite of resources, including over 100 4K Data Science videos, Colab Notebooks, slides, and all materials generated for the class.
5. Girls Who Code Python Activities
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: All female middle school students are eligible.
Coding Experience: No prior experience is required
Application Deadline: No deadline.
Program Dates: Self paced, available year-round
Cost: Free
With the Girls Who Code Python Activities, you can learn how to program in one of the most popular text-based languages, Python. The program offers the chance to work on real-world, practical projects by creating a chatbot, learning how to depict data using various types of graphs, or drawing information from a dataset to observe possible trends. Through various projects, you'll explore how to represent data through line, bar, pie, histogram, and scatter plot graphs using Python. An exciting project involves analyzing data from Kickstarter projects, a popular crowdfunding platform. This hands-on experience will introduce you to the many roles of data scientists, from cleaning data to ensure its accuracy and relevance, to analyzing it with sophisticated algorithms, and finally presenting findings to stakeholders, who could range from policy makers and business leaders to researchers.
6. Create and Learn Data Science with Python, Pandas, and ChatGPT Class
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: All middle school students are eligible.
Coding Experience: No prior experience is required
Application Deadline: No deadline
Program Dates: 6 weeks at ~1 hour per week
Cost: $262.80 for six sessions
Create and Learn Data Science with Python, Pandas, and ChatGPT Class is a live online class, designed for small groups of 2-3 students and lasting 75 minutes per session. Students begin with an introduction to data science, exploring the purpose and features of the powerful Pandas library. You'll explore essential techniques for data cleaning, data processing, and data analytics, setting a strong foundation for your journey in data science. You will also learn how to leverage ChatGPT to develop higher quality code and expand your learning beyond the classroom. This program opens up new avenues for exploration and enhances your coding skills in practical, real-world applications. You will leave with a capstone project where you'll apply everything you've learned to your own dataset.
7. Code HS Introduction to Python
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: All middle school students are eligible.
Coding Experience: No prior experience is required
Application Deadline: No deadline
Program Dates: Self-paced for 30 hours
Cost: Unspecified
The CodeHS Introduction to Python course is perfect for middle school students who want to get started with one of the most versatile programming languages – Python. Through engaging lessons with Tracy, a virtual turtle, you'll learn to command her to create various scenes on a canvas. You'll master Python commands, functions, and control structures by solving puzzles and crafting creative programs for Tracy to execute. The learning environment is a blend of digital and hands-on activities, allowing you to write and run code directly in your web browser while also participating in collaborative exercises with your classmates. With 45 lessons, 43 videos, 76 exercises, 11 challenges, and numerous offline handouts, each lesson includes short, formative quizzes to help consolidate your learning and gauge your progress.
8. Lumiere Junior Explorer Program
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: Students in grades 6 - 8 can apply
Coding Experience: Some prior experience will be beneficial
Application Deadline: May 12, 2024 (Summer cohort)
Program Dates: 8 weeks starting June 3 (Summer cohort)
Cost: $1,990
The Lumiere Junior Explorer Program is an 8-week program that allows you to work one-on-one with a mentor to explore their academic interests and build a project they are passionate about. The mentors are scholars from top research universities such as Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale, Duke and LSE.
During this program, spanning weeks 1 to 4, participants will delve into four distinct topics within their selected track. In weeks 5 and 6, the focus intensifies as participants embark on a deep dive into one specific topic area and finally, weeks 7 to 8 are dedicated to project implementation, with participants receiving guidance and support from their mentors as they bring their projects to life. You can find the application form here.
9. Lavner Technology and STEM Camps
Location: Both in-person and virtual options are offered
Eligibility: Students aged 6-14 can participate
Coding Experience: Camps are offered for students at all levels
Application Deadline: Enrollment is open until the start of each camp session, with sessions running from June 3, 2024 - August 30, 2024.
Program Dates: Weekly camps from June 3, 2024 - August 30, 2024
Cost: Most courses are priced at $399, with select courses at $449 or $549.
Lavner Camps' Virtual Tech and STEM programs are a great way for you to dive into the technology world. Camp Tech Revolution Online was developed by a leadership team with educational backgrounds from the University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School, Columbia University, Cornell University, Brandeis University, UCLA Graduate School of Educational Leadership, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and more. With a staff to camper ratio of approximately 1:4 to 1:8, and live online instruction provided by expert instructors, Camp Tech Revolution Online is a great STEM camp experience for campers ages 6 to 14. They offer over 35 camps including Robotics, Coding, Game Design, Minecraft, Roblox, Content Creation for YouTube, Digital Art, Spy Tech, STEM & Medicine, and more.
10. Camp Integem
Location: Multiple locations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Orange County
Eligibility: Grades 6-8
Coding Experience: No prior experience is required
Dates: Between one and three weeks; programs are held in July and August
Application Deadline:
Cost: Between $570 and $2000, depending on the program. Partial financial aid is available
Integem offers in-person summer camps in STEM, AI, robotics, AR coding, game design, and much more for students in California. A unique selling point of Integem is that it is an NVIDIA-authorized training partner. During the camp, Students can earn NVIDIA AI certificates from the company’s deep learning institute.
11. Summer Discovery Middle School Enrichment Program at UCLA
Location: University of California, Los Angeles
Eligibility: Middle school students aged 11-13
Coding Experience:
Dates: June 23 - July 11, 2024
Application Deadline:
Cost: from $4,199 (commuter students) to $8,889 (residential students). Summer Discovery does not offer financial aid
Summer Discovery offers pre-college academic programs at leading U.S. colleges. At UCLA, they offer their Coding with Python: An Academy course for middle school students curious about programming and computer science.
During the three-week program, students will study the basics of programming in Python. Students can expect to gain critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork skills throughout the program.
12. Northwestern CTD Online Enrichment Courses
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: Students in grades 3 - 8 are eligible
Coding Experience: Different courses may have different requirements
Application Deadline: June 5, 2024
Program Dates: June 12, 2024 - July 26, 2024
Cost: $600
Through Northwestern's Center for Talent Development (CTD) Online Enrichment Courses, you can take courses that cover a wide array of subjects such as "The Smartest: The Future of Artificial Intelligence”, "Engineering the Future" and "Scratch: Animations & Games", students will delve into the practical and theoretical aspects of computer science, encouraging a deep, hands-on understanding of the subjects. Each course is structured to require 2-5 hours of engagement per week. This self-paced approach is supported by weekly pacing guides from dedicated instructors, who also facilitate online discussions to enrich the learning experience. The program emphasizes the importance of effective communication skills, both via written assignments and participation in online discussions.
13. Johns Hopkins CTY Online Course
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: Students in grades 3 - 8 (varies per course) can apply
Coding Experience: Different courses may have different requirements
Application Deadline: June 5, 2024
Program Dates: Varies per course
Cost: $1,325
The Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) online courses are a great way for you to dive into computer science and technology, as well as other interdisciplinary areas. Among the diverse offerings, you can explore "Arduino® Prototyping," where you'll learn to build and program your own electronic devices, or delve into "Bioethics in the Age of Pandemics," to understand the ethical implications of medical decision-making during global health crises. For those inclined towards engineering and design, the "Engineering Design" course challenges students to think critically and creatively to solve real-world problems.
14. Codecademy
Codecademy's summer camps offer a flexible and immersive platform for students to deepen their understanding of concepts in computer science. Codecademy’s range of courses caters to diverse educational needs – there’s something for both, beginners and students with some experience in programming. Through real-time coding exercises, collaborative projects, and a supportive community, students not only learn coding concepts but also actively contribute to their educational experience. Whether exploring web development intricacies or diving into data science mysteries, Codecademy's summer camps lay a solid foundation for future learning and exploration.
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: Open to everyone!
Coding Experience: No prior experience is required for a number of options offered
Dates: Students can attend a course at their convenience
Application Deadline: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
Cost: There is no cost.
15. NextGen Bootcamp
The NextGen Bootcamp offers a series of summer computer classes online and in-person in New York City. The programs encompass a range of subjects, from JavaScript training to online graphic design, with the option to pursue a general Computer Science certificate. Designed to accommodate students from diverse scientific backgrounds, many programs are offered at the beginner level.
Location: Both in-person (in New York City) and virtual options are offered
Eligibility: Open to everyone!
Coding Experience: No prior experience is required
Dates: End of June through early July, depending on the program you choice
Application Deadline: Varies, based on the program you’re choosing
Cost: Between $1,200 – $2,000 depending on the program you choose; early bird discounts are available with some programs
Image Source - Girls Who Code Logo