Inside the Best Robotics summer camp, wires snake across tables, wheels spin on half-built robots, and the air buzzes with excitement—and maybe a little confusion. For the kids who signed up, it’s a crash course in robotics and coding. But what really makes this camp stand out is who’s running it.
From Students to Teachers
Kate Ling remembers when she first stepped into the world of robotics. Back in middle school, she didn’t know much beyond the basics. Now she’s a high school senior—and this summer, she’s the teacher.
Kate and her classmates from Allen High School are spending their vacation hitting the road. They’re not just building robots; they’re teaching other kids in places like DeSoto ISD how to do it too. It’s part summer camp, part STEM revolution.
“Coding can seem very daunting at first,” Kate says. “If you know nothing about it, it just looks like a big block of text. But once you get into it, you realize it’s not as scary as it seems.”
Building Robots, Building Confidence
The camp’s recipe for success is simple: mix hands-on building with a dash of friendly competition. Nothing grabs kids’ attention like a robot race. Who can program their bot to zip down the track fastest? Who can tweak their code just right to take the trophy?
For many kids, it’s their first taste of coding—and their first taste of winning with their brainpower.
“It seems hard at first,” one camper says, showing off a handwritten cheat sheet. “But once you get the hang of it, it’s really simple.”
That little spark—that moment when a camper figures out they can do it—is exactly what these student teachers live for.
Changing Mindsets Early
Kate knows firsthand how big a moment like this can be. One fourth grader pulled her aside and told her she’d just realized something huge: she could study robotics in college. For Kate, hearing that from a young girl who was just like her not so long ago makes the long camp days worth it.
“She told me she realized, ‘I can go to college for this,’” Kate says, smiling. “That made me really happy.”
Learning From Each Other
The Best Robotics summer camp isn’t just about gears and gadgets. It’s proof that students can learn as much from each other as they do from any textbook or teacher.
For the high schoolers, teaching pushes them to know their stuff inside out. For the younger kids, seeing someone just a few years older leading the way makes big ideas feel possible. Robots and code aren’t just for geniuses or grown-ups—they’re for everyone.
A Summer of Discovery
At the end of the day, the room looks like controlled chaos: half-finished robots, kids hunched over laptops, lines of code dancing on screens. But beneath the mess is something simple and powerful—students teaching students, helping each other push past “I can’t” to “Watch me.”
One line of code at a time, they’re not just building robots. They’re building confidence, curiosity, and maybe even a few future engineers.
