A day at Apple's summer camp: Coding, racing bots and more - CNET

Apple has been running its summer camps in its stores for several years now, but this is the first time it's introduced specific coding and robotics sessions. Through iPads, the cute rolling robot Sphero and the programming language Tynker, this three-day camp teaches core coding skills to children aged 8 to 12. It's one of several initiatives, including ones from Microsoft and Google, designed to inspire and teach the next generation of tech talent.

But this isn't a recruitment workshop as much as it is a brand-building exercise. Like its rivals, Apple has invested in making products for education. After all, it doesn't hurt a company to introduce its wares to a young, impressionable crowd. With their lime-green, Apple-branded T-shirts, this lot already looks like a group of mini Apple workers, and their aptitude for the program suggests they could be ideal pickings for the Cupertino, Califoia-based company in a decade's time.

Brother and sister team Luca, 11, and Francesca, 9, speed through the activities and then set themselves to the challenge of using Sphero to create a star. Some proper math is needed, but they don't shy away from it. In fact, they know exactly where to start. Luca switches over to Safari and taps "angles of a star" into the search bar before the calculations begin in eaest.

As I watch the children swinging between hyperactivity and intense concentration, it's easy to see that their experience is as enjoyable as is it educational.

"Why are we here again?" asks the camp leader to the group as one set of activities wraps up on this July day. "To play!" some shout. "To lea!" chorus the rest. Both are right, of course. It is summer camp, not summer school, after all.