Summer Day Camp
San Francisco
Tinkering School is an immersive, hands-on maker experience in the heart of San Francisco. Come build with our amazing and creative camp staff. Each session we welcome a new crew of campers and the project theme is always unique, so every Tinkering camp session is one of a kind.
2024 Summer General Registration is open now!
Location: Tinkering School campus in the Presidio - 682 Schofield Road, San Francisco, CA 94129
Schedule: Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm
Sessions:
Programs:
Tinkerers
Our Tinkerers range from 8 to 16 years, with different age groups attending each week. Tinkerers are trained to use power tools, and work in groups to build projects that they dream up and design.
Past projects we’ve built include: a 25ft tall dancing marionette. A NASA-style space mission complete with launch tower, rocket and mission control. A human size foosball table with suspended campers as the ball kickers. Tinkerers have lifted themselves into rafters, built cars they can actually steer, and created humongous robots that deliver flowers… this list could go on for a looooong time :-)
Young Builders
Young Builders are our 6 to 8 year old campers! They begin their week with tool training, and spend the rest of the week building with wood, working on art projects, tinkering, exploring the Presidio, and playing. Check out the bridge that our Young Builders built during week 7 last summer!
Robotics
We have two different robotics programs for different ages this summer:
10-13 year olds: Campers in the two week MARS Mission program will assemble robots that we call BoxBots, and learn to operate and modify them. They’ll figure out the basics of electronics, learn introductory programming, and be prompted with ways to modify their robot’s functionality in order to complete specified tasks. In their second week, they’ll be immersed in a fictional narrative as Space Cadets in a Mars rover training program, and put their modified BoxBots to use in a Martian lava tube.
Changes for campers who attended last year: updated BoxBot, new sensor(s), teamwork, immersive narrative experience.
9-10 year olds: Building on the Tinkering School Mars team’s five years of developing robots for learning experiences, Tinkering School's Robotics Camp introduces campers to the process of designing robots. Over the course of a week, campers will assemble the Tinkering School robotics platform called BoxBot, and then modify it with sensors, motors, and cardboard. Along the way they'll be introduced to the systems in robots that make them go, like code and power management.
Art
8-13 year olds, come explore 2D and 3D art with us! You’ll get an introduction to carving with safety techniques.
If you attended Tinkering School last year, you likely saw campers working on or participated in wood carving, wire sculpting, clay work with armatures, and painting.
LARP
Come join us for a week of Live Action Roleplaying (or LARP) at Tinkering School camp in the Presidio! We'll use an array of props – padded foam equipment made to look like swords and spears – to create a shared story of fantasy adventure. LARP plays out as a combination of sports, drama, and tabletop role-playing games in which each player acts as a character who they themselves create. (A mighty warrior? Or perhaps a powerful wizard?) Together we’ll fight battles, find treasure, learn magic spells, and weave a fantastical tale unique to our players’ imaginations.
Tuition:
Young Builders - $675 per week ($540 for week of July 1, no camp on July 4)
Tinkerers - $775 per week ($620 for week of July 1, no camp on July 4)
Robotics - $1550 for 2 week sessions, $775 for the 1 week session
Art - $675 per week ($540 for week of July 1, no camp on July 4)
LARP - $675 per week ($540 for week of July 1, no camp on July 4)
Multi-week discount! Sign up for more than one week, and you’ll receive a $25 discount for the 2nd and additional weeks.
Financial aid is available! Please register for the session(s) you’re interested in, and select “Financial Aid” on the payment page. You will be asked to put down a $5 deposit to hold a space for each session. We will reach out to you with next steps. Questions? Email info@tinkeringschool.com for more information.
Cancellation policy: Cancellations initiated before May 25, 2024 (30 or more days from the first day of summer programming) receive a refund, less the $100 non-refundable deposit. Any cancellations that occur after May 25, 2024 will receive a refund only if we are able to fill the spot.
If you cancel a session on your own, the system will default to giving you credit toward future classes. If you'd like a refund (instead of credit), please reach out to info@tinkeringschool.com directly.
Registration: We’re using UltraCamp’s registration system for camp signup. Please feel free to create an online account prior to registration day.
Availability and Waitlists:
We are being conservative with our availability as we ramp up our staffing for the summer. If a session that you want is full, don't worry, please sign up for the waitlist. We will be releasing additional seats as we firm up our hiring plan. We are currently unable to predict when seats might be made available.
Check out our Day Camp Blog to see some epic tinkering over the years!
