In transitioning a 3-day in-person soccer camp for veterans with disabilities to a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one of our greatest concerns was that veterans would lose the opportunity to establish social connections, which had heightened importance to this population because of the social isolation brought on by restrictions on…

Millions of youth in North America attend summer camps each year. Researchers have documented the potential positive developmental outcomes associated with camp (Flynn et al., 2019; Gagnon et al., 2021; Gillard & Watts, 2013; Warner et al., 2021); however, some youth are required to depart from camp before the end of their session for…

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Clemson University Paralympic Soccer program transitioned its in-person soccer camps for veterans with a disability to a virtual format. Providing veterans with experience playing the game rather than just learning about the game in a classroom environment is an effective way to increase buy-in, activity,…

This article focuses on one university literacy camp for kindergarten through sixth grade students that shifted from traditional in-person instruction to a virtual setting during the COVID-19 pandemic. The change from an in-person camp to a virtual camp setting created an opportunity for research in investigating students' attitudes towards…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the power of affective pedagogies and playful literacies to resist neoliberal framings of video game play and design in educational contexts. Design/methodology/approach: Focusing on the Giga-Games Camp, a video game design camp for adolescents, the authors mobilize different methodological…

At the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, I grew concerned and also curious about how theatre educators would transition theatre and drama instruction to an online platform. I began a research study interviewing theatre artists while they shifted their formerly in-person summer camps to virtual spaces. One of those instructors, Flannery, was…

What do we know about camps and COVID-19? About as much as we know about the virus itself, which is that it is universal, it is catastrophic, and it is forcing us to bend and shift in ways we never expected. We don't yet know the full impact of COVID-19 on camps, although preliminary findings from a series of studies conducted by the American Camp…

In response to academic and healthcare restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pirate Wellness Program (PWP), a recreational therapy telehealth program, was developed and implemented in May of 2020 by East Carolina University Recreational Therapy (RT) faculty to provide virtual services and interventions to quarantined individuals with…

As a result of COVID-19, various forms of education and teaching are moving online. However, the notion of an online STEM camp is still in its beginnings, and there is little relevant research and experience in this context. At the beginning of April 2021, the research team launched an online STEM charity camp with the theme of "Shen Nong…

The societal disruptions due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic are well noted, especially in the context of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Absent a concerted effort to sustain hands-on learning opportunities in STEM amid the crisis, the consequences of COVID-19 may exacerbate existing inequities and…

Data reasoning and digital literacy skills, especially the ability to find, represent, and accurately interpret the relevant data, are critical in workplaces and lifetime experiences. Given the importance of developing data reasoning skills from learners' experiences, this article aims to describe teacher and student actions that contributed to…

We describe two established STEM camps that went virtual following the outbreak of COVID-19 during the summer of 2020. Our Summer Research Opportunity (SRO) camp engages middle school science fair winners in a forensic research opportunity, while The Immokalee Foundation (TIF) camp introduces middle school students from historically…

Students' social and emotional well-being can impact academic performance, the college planning process, transition to college life, and college retention. Many students have had their mental health and well-being negatively affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, especially within the educational setting. When instruction was shifted from…

This article discusses how mathematics teachers seized the opportunity to keep the mathematics component of STEM camp on track by transforming the camp into a virtual camp themed "Out of this World." Teachers and camp interns encountered technical, social, and instructional challenges in transitioning to a digital platform while…

The report "Time for a Game-Changing Summer, With Opportunity and Growth for All of America's Youth," finds that as participation in summer programs prior to the pandemic was on an upwards trajectory, there remained a significant number of children missing out. For every child in a summer learning program in 2019, another would have been…