John Naiker – Founder of Think Camp
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Think Camp is a tech-focused holiday programme which exposes young minds to a combination of powerful technologies and thinking skills. Think Camp works with Robotics, App development, Coding, Game Design and Minecraft.
Think Camp operates solely in the Gauteng holiday periods, for both three term and four term schools. At the moment, we have nine different camps that teach different technologies and target different grade ranges from grade 2 to 9. Each camp takes place over a single day of 7 to 8 hours. In the near future we will be welcoming grade 1s into our robotics camp and will introduce some exciting two and three day programmes.
The Think Camp day is a busy one and it’s chock-a-block full of learning, challenges and fun. Our day starts early, parents can drop off their kids anytime from 7:30am and they will be kept busy with interesting ‘off-line’ activities until the official start of camp at 8am.
The important tech-focused learning happens through short instruction sessions followed by a challenge period of 12 to 15 challenges. This cycle is repeated with a different focus, three to four times throughout the day. Using tried and test educational theory, Think Camp is able to meet children at their level of experience – each individual moves at their own paces through our thoughtfully designed challenges. As each challenge is mastered, the individual gains important learnings and is able to tackle the next challenge that they are presented with. It’s an exciting way to learn! Our mission is not to get each child to finish every single challenge available; rather each child who enters Think Camp gains some important skills regardless of where they ‘get up to’. While technology is the focus, Think Camp recognised the importance of traditional ‘off-screen’ activities. We break up the screen-time with group activities which promote critical thinking and teamwork.
Throughout the day we emphasise our important Think Camp values and encourage each participant t
Think Camp operates solely in the Gauteng holiday periods, for both three term and four term schools. At the moment, we have nine different camps that teach different technologies and target different grade ranges from grade 2 to 9. Each camp takes place over a single day of 7 to 8 hours. In the near future we will be welcoming grade 1s into our robotics camp and will introduce some exciting two and three day programmes.
The Think Camp day is a busy one and it’s chock-a-block full of learning, challenges and fun. Our day starts early, parents can drop off their kids anytime from 7:30am and they will be kept busy with interesting ‘off-line’ activities until the official start of camp at 8am.
The important tech-focused learning happens through short instruction sessions followed by a challenge period of 12 to 15 challenges. This cycle is repeated with a different focus, three to four times throughout the day. Using tried and test educational theory, Think Camp is able to meet children at their level of experience – each individual moves at their own paces through our thoughtfully designed challenges. As each challenge is mastered, the individual gains important learnings and is able to tackle the next challenge that they are presented with. It’s an exciting way to learn! Our mission is not to get each child to finish every single challenge available; rather each child who enters Think Camp gains some important skills regardless of where they ‘get up to’. While technology is the focus, Think Camp recognised the importance of traditional ‘off-screen’ activities. We break up the screen-time with group activities which promote critical thinking and teamwork.
Throughout the day we emphasise our important Think Camp values and encourage each participant t
