American children's summer camp in China

Young Writer's Introduction:
I am Andrew Cheng. I am 10 years old and a 4th grader going to school in New Jersey of the United States. I like to cube. I have a YouTube channel named AC Cuber. My goal is to reach 1000 subscribers in 2 years. I also like to play Ping Pong and Soccer. In summer time, I like to visit my grandparents in China.

In July 2016, my younger brother Brian and I went to a STEAM camp in Shenzhen. It was my first camp in China. The camp taught us S.T.E.A.M. stuff, program with Scratch, make Google Glasses, engineering design, art design using a yogurt cup, and more. The camp was held in a beautiful castle-like hotel. There were about 24 kids and 8 teachers. We lived with the teachers in the hotel for 6 days. We also had to take care of ourselves. Each hotel room has two students. Guess who I ended up being roommate with? My brother Brian.

DAY 1

The first day was an introduction day. We created something I have never seen before; cardboard Virtual Reality (“VR”) glasses. It was cool when I saw it. At first I thought it was some type of telescope. The way it works is you download a VR app to your smartphone, insert the phone into the glasses,then you will see a 3D VR movie/game in front of you like a real thing. With the glasses, I played a duck hunt game, where I basically aimed at a duck with the glasses, and it would fire automatically. That was the cool part of the first day.

In the beginning, I felt kind of left out; because I didn’t know anyone and I don’t speak Chinese as good/often as many others, so it was a little bit hard to communicate with them. At night when Brian and I were in our room, I felt a little bit lonely. I was thinking” Man, I have to stay in this boring room for 6 days with Brian.” But that changed on all the other days.

Day 2

On the second day, I felt a lot better. I got a lot more used to the area. During classes, we programmed with Scratch. I have learned Scratch before, but for most other students, this was the first time they used it. We were creating games and other programs. I spent most of my time programming (a simple game, not one that takes 5 years to design). Some other students spent time creating videos like Brian.  It was fun. In the afternoon, we went swimming. We were more playing in the water and having fun than actually swimming. I had a water fight with someone else. At night, I also had homework. It was to create something fun on Scratch. The dorm teacher taught me how to wash clothes with my hands that same day.

Day 3

On the third day, we went to visit a 3D cartoon movie business called 环球数码. The building was big and had more than 30 floors. We went there to see some of the cartoon clips they made and learn how they make it.  We got to watch some cartoon clips that I watched before. The way they make it is very interesting.We also went swimming again in the afternoon.

Day 4  Brian's Birthday

It was Brian's birthday and he had no idea that we were going to have a birthday surprise because we are in a camp, not home. There was no birthday present, but there was a birthday cake. I took a video of the whole group singing the happy birthday song. We were all playing the happy birthday song and the animation of birthday cakes on Scratch (we prepared that in secret) together at the same time. Brian was very happy. He did not know what to say. The teachers were so nice to prepare for the birthday party for Brian. The camp felt like a big family.

Day 5

We were split into 4 groups. Each group had a challenge to do on Scratch. My group’s challenge was to create a mini version of 2D Minecraft. I guess I was doing most of the programming work because I am good at it, while others were doing something else, like collecting sounds, music, and writing PPT. We were working hard the whole day, because we need to finish it the next day. I was very tired in the end.

Day 6  Last Day

On the last day of the camp, we showed our projects in front of all the parents. First, it was a maze group. They showed us a maze project. Then, a story group, who told us a story using Scratch drawings. Then a game group. And finally it was our turn. I thought I wasn’t going to be much up there because I wasn’t even close to finished. But surprisingly, everyone went wow when I showed them the  killing-animals part. I didn’t think it was that hard to make the killing pig part. We received a big round of applause from the audience.

Before leaving the camp, Brian and I also got a gift each from the teachers. They were both robot sets.

Overall, I think this camp is very interesting, cool, and fun. The teachers are very nice. The food is yummy. The place is comfortable. I learned a lot, even many Chinese words that I don’t used to speak at home. I also made many new friends. From the first day of feeling a bit lonely to the last day of feeling a bit sad that “I have to leave”, I do wish to come back again to this camp.