Summer Computer Camps some padding stuff and words needed

Learn the basics of computer animation and programming using a fun language called Scratch! You'll create your own one-of-a-kind projects which tell a story or make a game that you'll be proud to show your parents and friends.

  • Level: Beginner
  • Students: Girls and Boys entering grades 3-5
  • Date: June 19 - 23, 1:00 - 4:00
  • Drop off time: 12:45 - 1:00pm
  • Pick up time: 4:00 - 4:15pm
  • Class Location: Serra 134, USD Campus
  • Drop off / Pick up Location: Parking Lot in Front of Loma Hall (Map)
  • Course Fee: $220
  • Frequently Asked Questions

Registration Options

Register your daughter for this summer camp using one of these 3 options:
  • Online
  • by Email: please include
    • Student Name
    • Student Age
    • Student's School
    • Parent or Guardian Name
    • Phone number
  • or by Phone at 619-335-5378.
After registering, please complete and mail to

University of San Diego
Department of Mathematics
Summer Computing Camps
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego CA 92110.

Course Description

People who know how to program a computer can use the computer to tell stories, create movies, and make new games. That's what you'll be able to do after taking this workshop where you will be introduced to the fundamentals of computer programming using Scratch, a fun computer programming language that was developed to help people learn to program while being creative. During these five half-day sessions, you will learn the basics of Scratch by creating programs that use sound, pictures, and animation to tell a short story or make a game. Then you will create your own one-of-a-kind project. At the end of the week, you'll be able write your own programs at home or school, and you'll be ready to take more advanced classes on computer programming where you will learn to do even more.

What is Scratch?

Scratch is a free programming tool developed at MIT that runs on Windows and Mac computers. It has a simple interactive interface that lets students write programs by dragging and dropping graphic blocks to create or change the logic of the program. These blocks perform the same operations that commands do in professional languages like C++, Java, or Python. Programmers can define variables, use loops to repeat operations, create functions, respond to input from a mouse and more. Scratch is supported by an active online community of students and educators, so it will be easy to continue to learn even after this workshop is over. For more information on Scratch, please visit Scratch.

Course Goals and Learner Outcomes

The primary audience for this workshop is composed of girls who are new programmers. The goal of this course is to provide a foundation in computer science by letting the students work on programs that interest them. By participating in this workshop, students will improve their ability to think logically and express their ideas precisely. They will also learn that programming can be fun and that they have the ability to become computer scientists or software engineers.

While learning to program using Scratch, girls will develop an understanding of many of the essential principles of computer programing including how to

How the Class Will Be Taught

This course is taught in the classroom and computer laboratory, employing lectures and demonstrations, in-class exercises, student participation, individual explorations, and class activities leading to a final project. Every day, students will be introduced to new computer science topics through structured exercises in Scratch that reinforce the new ideas. Many of these exercises will be performed in two-person teams to facilitate learning and develop collaboration skills. Each student will work on her own individual project during part of the day. On the last day of the workshop, each student will demonstrate her final project to the rest of the students.

Our Other Computer Camps

We are offering 2 follow-up camps to our Creative Computing from Scratch camp this summer, where your daughter can learn more advanced coding techniques and create 2D and 3D animations and games,! Please visit our main page for details: USD's Summer Computer Camps

About the Instructor

Dr Hoffoss has been teaching both mathematics and computer science courses to eager students from middle school through university since 1993, when she was a graduate student at UCSB. Since her PhD in 1997, she has taught at Colorado College, Rice University, and teaches now as a tenured professor at University of San Diego. USD is a great fit for her interests and talents because of its strong commitment to high quality teaching, and she has received many teaching awards from both faculty and students.

Hoffoss was a Summer Faculty Fellow at NASA JPL, where she worked on computing problems involving optimizing the scheduling of communication between the Mars rovers, Mars orbiters, and the 3 Deep Space Network communication stations on Earth, and also at Bell Communications Research, where she helped develop a new object oriented, deductive database computer language called LAURE.

Since 2011 she has taught several summer computing camps for middle school kids, and enjoys introducing young minds to the excitement of creative problem solving, logical thinking and computer programming using the instant feedback of computer animation and LEGO robot control.