Would you know what to do if you and fifteen others were trapped in a mine (or underwater, in a volcano, or ice dungeon) with only an iron axe and 10 pieces of beef jerky to go around? Do you have the skills to build a shelter, forage for food, and repair the radio in time to call for help before the mobs arrive?
*To see our current programs click here.
This summer’s Survival Camp (June 25 -29) takes on these dangers and more in a rewardingly intense, week-long experience. Teams of campers explore a survival map containing build, resource, and team challenges: fix a broken radio from scavenged parts in order to call for help; create a stable food source; protect the basecamp from waves of creatures that explode in close proximity.
Free with a Connected Camps membership, all our camps offer more connected, creative fun during the summer months. Camps run 90 minutes each day, for 5 days. Each day brings a new challenge, and with it, a chance to flex problem solving and communication skills. Click here to see the full schedule.
Survival Life Skills
We’ve written elsewhere about how playing Minecraft with others supports kids in developing life skills. Players plan, make decisions, and collaborate on their quest to survive and thrive in a perilous landscape. To do this they must prioritize and persevere. They must be able to communicate and resolve conflict.
For example, imagine a survive and rescue survival scenario where campers form two teams that must work together. One group has survived a plane crash and are now lost in a landscape rich in ore but waterless. These are the survivors. The other group is made up of cadets in training as Rangers, who must race against the clock to locate and extract the survivors using a limited set of tools. These are the rescuers. Here is a snapshot of day 2 of camp, highlighting the challenges faced by each group, the rescuers and survivors:
Rescuers Day 2: Your group survived yesterday’s plane crash and the first night by scavenging the wreckage for food and supplies to build a shelter. At dawn you set out in groups of two to survey the landscape. You and your buddy locate an abandoned mine that looks rich in ore, a resource needed by the group if they are to survive another night. You return to the group and lead them in to the mine just as it collapses. Cave in!
Survive and Rescue!
In order to survive you and the other camps will need to work together to meet both short and long term goals. This includes:
- Establishing a base camp inside the mine
- Surveying the damage
- Finding a way out of the mine
- Protecting your team from mine-dwelling mobs
Survivors Day 2: You’re in a bit of a pickle. The food won’t last forever and you don’t know when the rescue team will arrive, if ever. Staying near the crash will allow better visibility.
Your Ranger leader back at the tower send instructions: make a better camp at the plane crash. Clear out the area around the plane and start prepping. Document what you can while working to survive. Create a Scientist Tent with a wall of item frames. The natural rocks and flora in the area will be collected and named appropriately.
Your goals include:
- Building a better base camp
- Farming to create a stable food source
- Building a shelter to survive the night
- Creating a Scientist Tent to document the area
Campers can only reach their goals by coordinating their efforts with others, maintaining their own health, and managing their time. Each day of survival ends with nightfall and the reemergence of the mobs.
All Experience Levels Welcome
Survival Camp offers kids the chance to take risks and have fun in the company of a supportive and expert learning community. Our counselors act as experienced guides, crafting daily challenges that encourage teamwork and creative problem solving. The camps are designed to support kids of differing experience levels—newbies learn side by side with more expert players, tackling challenges together. Camps are a great way to experience the best of the Connected Camps lab community.
Girls Only Edition
Our Survival Camp Girls Edition offers the same experience but for a girls-only crowd (camp runs July 16-20). Our friendly atmosphere is the perfect antidote to the sometimes over-competitive and intimidating online social world. See the full summer camp schedule here for details, as we offer girls-only offerings for Code Camp, too.
Survive and Rescue concept developed Cherry Jung, Connected Camps counselor extraordinaire.
Image credits, the Noun Project: zombie chase by Gan Khoon Lay; Swiss knife by Ricardo Moreira; Mountain Rescue by Lee Mette; Community by Jessica Lock