Hopkins Community Education

We are passionate about inspiring an interest in engineering! This hands-on experience is a perfect introduction to science concepts like structural engineering, architectural design, physics, external forces, and more! Students will move through advanced building exercises to learn the complexities of designing structures and investigate the impact of external forces. Students will follow step-by-step builds in this camp and then test their new skills with open-ended building challenges and design projects. Students will be working in pairs.

From a galaxy far, far away, Star Wars comes to life! Work on a stop-motion animated LEGO® Star Wars movie. Star Wars action figures, LEGOs, and backdrops will be available for filming in class. Handle all the technical details, including using a digital movie camera, filming scenes, doing stop-motion animation, digital editing, adding finishing touches, special effects, and transitions to the movie. Our instructors will take your student through the entire digital filmmaking process from start to finish using our Frames software in this exciting hands-on learning class. Bring a USB drive on the last day. Students will be working in pairs.

Dive into more advanced computer science topics that include artificial intelligence and Machine Learning. Computers are getting smarter every day due to advances in machine learning algorithms. Coders can teach computers to recognize faces, play games, and find patterns. We will create a chatbot, Rock, Paper, Scissors game, and more in our class. Bring a USB drive to save your games on the last day.

Create YOUR OWN VIDEO GAME! Love video games? Students as young as five years old can create their own platform video games in this cool class! Choose your storyline with your favorite superheroes as your stars. Add challenges and difficulty levels, then share them by email or post them on the web to challenge family and friends. Now young students can practice math, logic, and programming and put their video game talents to work! Bring a jump drive to the last day of class.

Learn film editing basics and how to use Hollywood-style special effects techniques. Possible special effects learned in class include animated lasers, Harry Potter’s Invisible cloak, custom Star War-like light swords, pulp sci-fi crawl, Thor’s lightning hammer, or hyperdrive effects. Groups' final projects will be emailed to parents, or students may bring a USB jump drive on the last day. Student photography releases must be signed for this class. Please bring a snack daily.

Bring your imagination to life. Become a master bricklayer and use our special architectural LEGO® kits to build your creations. Be an architect as you learn the principles of construction. The main goal of the course is to introduce the concept of 3 dimensions and their role in design. Working in teams, students will construct buildings, structures, towers, castles, and more. Students will learn construction principles and use math skills to experiment with scale and size, staggering vs. stacking bricks, and more. We’ll build houses with removable roofs, castles with turrets, and towers of strength! It might just be impossible to exhaust the creative potential of LEGO® bricks. With an active imagination as your guide, there are endless possibilities. Students will be working in pairs.

Learn to mod Minecraft and customize your gaming experience. We will create crazy new armor, items, weapons, and more! Students will be introduced to beginner coding concepts and learn how to make custom Minecraft items and mods. Students should be comfortable with keyboarding, reading, and playing Minecraft! At the end of the class, take home your Mods to share with family and friends. We will be using the PC/Java Edition of Minecraft. Bring a USB drive to save your creations on the last day.

Exciting class with new builds and challenges! Take your engineering skills to a higher level. Students will be using the EV3 Mindstorm Robotics Systems and special LEGO® Technic™ engineering components to build extreme, competitive robots. Build remote-controlled robots inspired by the popular Discovery Channel’s “BattleBots.” Students will be challenged to morph their projects into better, stronger, and faster robots to compete in a tournament on the last day. Students will be working in small teams of 2-3.

Yes, we CAN learn about robotics! With the LEGO® WeDo Robotics System, young children can build and program their robotic creations. Designed by the experts at MIT, this unique system teaches children about simple machines, engineering, programming, and so much more. Young imaginations soar! The LEGO® Education WeDo Robotics Builder class allows students to explore different concepts in robotics. Possible models may include Dancing Birds, Hungry Alligator Robot, Goal Kicker Robot, Rescue Plane, and a Smart Spinner Robot. Students will be working in pairs.

Unleash your imagination as you journey through the wide-ranging world of LEGO® building. Students working in pairs will build models and discuss the engineering science behind each. This fun, hands-on class shows students how engineering can be fun and silly yet still educational. Students will then be challenged to improve the model and customize their creations. Possible models include the Never-Look-Back Machine, Skittletops, Do-Nothing Machine, Coat Hanger Daredevil, Trapdoor Cable Car Parachute Machine, Rubberband Racer, Balloon-Powered Car, and other Crazy Action Contraptions. Students will be working in pairs.

Printing and Material Fee included. This 3D printing camp takes students through the 3D printing process from start to finish. Students will design 3D objects using TinkerCAD and use the 3D slicing program Cura to bring their creations to life. From industrial design and manufacturing to software and hardware engineering, the 3D printing industry is booming. This course serves as an excellent introduction to 3D printing and is ideal for students who like to draw, design, imagine and see their creations come to life.

Printing and Material Fee included. This 3D printing camp takes students through the 3D printing process from start to finish. Students will design 3D objects using TinkerCAD and use the 3D slicing program Cura to bring their creations to life. From industrial design and manufacturing to software and hardware engineering, the 3D printing industry is booming. This course serves as an excellent introduction to 3D printing and is ideal for students who like to draw, design, imagine and see their creations come to life.

Become the architect of mini-game battle arenas! Build your own spleef arena, capture the flag base, king of the hill stadium, or one of many more mini-games, then challenge your friends! Battle it out against friends and compete to win challenges! Create tons of mini-games with all of your friends! Students will get a copy of the world map to take home and expand on. We will be using the PC/Java Edition of Minecraft. Bring a USB drive to save your games on the last day.

Learn to create an interactive 2D video game using your FAVORITE characters. Choose Undertale, Pokémon, Nintendo, Minecraft, and even classic characters like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Sonic, and Mario! In the first class, we will learn to use Scratch, and in the final session, students will be walked through creating a maze game and picking which main character to use. Bring a USB drive to save your games on the last day.