Academy Summer Camp

While you're more than welcome to sign up for multiple weeks, it is not necessary. We do encourage full participation as each week will build upon the overarching theme, but if your child is only able to attend one that's great! Valuable collaborative skills will be gained by every camper ending with a mini project each week.

Campers can be dropped off at 8:50 a.m. and picked up at 4:00 p.m. at the Business Entrance located at 75 Nancy Pelosi Drive where educators will be waiting to escort them inside.

Unfortunately, we will be unable to accommodate early arrivals or late pick-ups.

Although we will not be distinguishing between membership levels, priority registration will be given to families that respond to our interest form prior to April 1. 

Since this is the premier launch of our summer camp program at the Academy, we will not be offering discounts at this time.

Yes! We welcome you to register a child who is not a member for our summer camp sessions. 

However, should the need arise we will not be offering the option to transfer your camp registration to another child at a later date.

Yes, our camp is inclusive of all learning profiles and physical abilities and we will provide accommodations for students with specific physical abilities.

The team behind the design of the camp’s overall thematic line, weekly topic, and activities for each day includes our Chief of Education and Learning, Dr. Estefanía Pihen-González, our Director of School and Youth Programs, Mary Whaley, and a team of curriculum specialists.

All activities are designed to be student-centered, non-standarized, and multimodal. We aim to create a learning structure that fosters a sense of learning as a community. This means that our counselors guide and support the learning journey, but campers lead their learning through their pre-earned knowledge, curiosities, interests, and lived experiences. It also means that we do not give worksheets or deliver knowledge in one way. 

In addition, we utilize different approaches, which include: learning in the outdoors, through play, by doing and building, by observing, writing reflections, and by engaging in group discussions and science-based activities.

We plan to provide a detailed schedule of activities in late May 2025. Each day will be structured in the following way:

8:50 am - Student drop off

9:00 am – 12:15 pm

• Welcome & review of daily schedule
• Indoor, hands-on activities in the Moss Room
• Break and snacks in East Garden
• Nature-based outdoor activities at one of the Academy’s outdoor spaces (within the Museum campus).

12:15 – 1:00 pm - Lunch in the Moss Room

1:00 – 3:55 pm

• Indoor activities on the Museum floor, connected to a current exhibit (Steinhart Aquarium, Osher Rainforest, Tusher African Hall, California: State of Nature, Unseen Oceans).
• Break and snacks in the Moss Room
• Indoor activities in the Moss Room that will include a guest speaker, group activity, and/or experimentation

4:00 pm - Pickup

Space will be limited to 20 children per session, with a staff-to-child ratio of 1:7. 

There will be a team of 3 Academy camp counselors who will lead the daily activities. There will be a lead camp educator who will work with two camp counselors to serve a maximum of 20 campers.

The Academy’s Summer Camp staff are educators with experience in science informal and formal learning; hands-on, nature-based, and experiential education; and deep knowledge of regeneration of our natural world.

Yes, your child's safety is our utmost priority. All of the Academy educators for our summer camp sessions will be trained and certified to provide first aid and CPR.

Full refunds will be available until April 21, 2025.

We will offer a 30% refund from April 22 - May 31. No refunds will be available after May 31. 

Should the need arise, any changes to the week(s) that you have registered for can be made until April 30, 2025 and will be subject to availability.