Maker Camp Starts Today!

Attention makers everywhere. MAKE and Google+ kick off Maker Camp today at 11am PST/2pm EST with a fun and project filled day of making. In case you haven’t heard, Maker Camp is a six-week virtual summer camp for teens. Week one is “makers in motion” and so this week we’ll be making things that roll, fly, sail. We’ll be kicking off Maker Camp with an on-site broadcast from San Francisco’s brand new and fabulous Exploratorium. Eric Stackpole and David Lang from OpenROV will be there and we’ll also watch an origami kayak take to San Francisco Bay. The featured project of the day is a two liter soda bottle boat.

This is Maker Camp’s second summer, and the format is similar: Each weekday morning, we’ll post a new project or activity on our Google+ page—30 things to make over six weeks. Each weekday at 11am PST/2pm EST, tune in to a live Google+ Hangout to meet expert makers who create amazing things. And like last year, our Field Trip Friday Hangouts will take you to new places that few of us get to see. For instance, we’re excited to take you to NASA Ames Research Center next week, and this week we’ll be checking out one of the world’s fastest sailboats, from Oracle Team USA.

We’ve added a few things to make this year’s Maker Camp even better. There’s a new +Maker Camp Community, so it will be even easier for you to chat with other campers and see what they’re working on. We also have a network of affiliate camps (we call them “campsites”), so you can create and make together in your local library, youth club, or makerspace. If there’s a campsite near you, you’ll find it on this map. We’ve worked with Google to supply many of these campsites with maker equipment like soldering kits, LEDs, Raspberry Pi boards (mini Linux computers), and Arduino microcontrollers (good for making robots and other gadgets).

Please go here to read our FAQs to see how you can participate in Maker Camp. In short, it’s easy. Maker Camp is free and you’ll need to create a Google+ profile. Maker Camp is aimed at teens 13+, because there is an age restriction to create a Google+ profile and attend hangouts. If you’re under 13, you can attend Maker Camp on Google+ with your parent, using his or her Google+ profile. You can join in on any day you like.

Click here to watch all the fun today and throughout Maker Camp.