Camp Invention

Camp Invention is a weeklong STEM experience that includes hands-on STEM adventures such as building a DIY rocket, sketching, designing and building prototypes, and creating an innovative billboard boat. Campers take part in high-energy morning games that encourage creativity and teamwork, miniaturize top-secret innovations, safeguard their designs using cryptography, protect their intellectual property from the Infringers, and time travel to ensure their ideas are patented and protected. They also investigate a series of mischievous pranks, create sleuthing gadgets, collect bits of fluffy fur, reveal a trail of animal tracks, examine suspicious splatters, forensically analyze the evidence, dive into hands-on buoyancy experiments, paddle through salty challenges, launch a mission to transform a faraway planet’s atmosphere, terrain and ecosystem, race a Rover to collect important data and samples, design and build inventions for navigating intense planetary conditions, hatch a mysterious animal egg, and encounter a dazzling crystal surprise.

• Ages: 5–12 years old
• Schedule: A weeklong STEM experience; camp dates and hours vary by location, and some locations offer Before and After Care
• Price: Pricing starts at $285 or about $9 per hour, with payment plans available at checkout up to eight weeks before the camp start date

Camp Invention is led by qualified local educators. The program includes the 2026 Camp Invention program “Spark,” and campers team up with real-world inventors. The education programs combine hands-on fun and creativity with STEM concepts and are carefully crafted to ensure the development of persistence, adaptability and creative problem-solving skills, with experiences designed to spark creativity, build confidence and ignite a lifelong love for learning. Camp Invention is part of education programs that inspire emerging creators and entrepreneurs and honor the history of innovation through a museum and Hall of Fame Inductees.

Camp Invention has been honoring the spirit of innovation and promoting inventors as role models since 1973, impacting more than 4 million children, students, educators and innovators across the nation since it was founded in 1973. Over 1,500 camp programs run nationwide in schools, community centers and other local facilities, and over the past year the program has partnered with over 1,400 districts nationwide and in Puerto Rico. It is founded and supported in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and works with 2,144 philanthropic partners making STEM education more accessible. The leadership and content team includes Rachelle Albrechta (Director of Program Development), Jayme Cellitioci (Senior Director of Education), Ashley Giordano (Manager of Program Management), Susie Duchon (Education Specialist), Rachel Lutes (Curriculum Writer), Emily Mitchell (Senior Content Writer), Sara Pompeo (Editor), Maggie Saine (Spanish Services Lead & Education Specialist), and Jennifer Sitton (Director of Science & Product Development).

Parents and caregivers describe their children coming home eager to share what they are learning, excited to bring inventions home, and talking about inventing as a new hobby. Several families report that children who were hesitant about camp or quiet in other settings were excited to attend, wanted to try new things, and made friends. Caregivers of children with different learning and social needs, including an autistic and gifted child and a 6-year-old who struggles with focus in school, report that their children enjoyed the hands-on activities, were fully engaged, and that the camp experience supported social skills, confidence, and an openness to others’ ideas. Multiple parents and grandparents describe Camp Invention as a highlight of the summer, note that their children were never bored during the long day, and mention gains in knowledge, confidence, cooperative learning, and love of hands-on creative play.

Last updated April 21, 2026.