Tinkering Camp 2025 – Rediscover Center

Learn tools, build big, and make friends. Tinkering Camp teaches children the skills they need to turn their wildest imaginings into robust items made from wood, plastic, metal, and fabric. With a 5:1 camper to facilitator ratio, our workshop provides a supportive environment for personal growth through skills development and creative construction. Use hand and power tools. Turn scraps and recyclables into personalized artworks. Work together to create huge, amazing projects like nothing else.

Campers go outside each day for lunch and active play.

No one with open toed shoes, loose hair, or loose clothing will be allowed in the workshop.

9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Monday - Friday

Aftercare (additional fee) available M-Th 3:00-5:00 PM.

Locations

Rediscover Venice
12958 W Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066
June 16 - August 29

Rediscover Mid City
2375 W Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90018
June 16 - August 29

Highland Park
Pacific Opera Project
125 S Ave 57, Los Angeles, CA 90042
June 16 - August 8

Interested in bringing Tinkering Camp to your school or summer camp for a day, a week, or more? Contact mail@rediscovercenter.org for more information!

Pricing

Tinkering Camp: $600 per week

After Care: $100 per week

Discounts

Multi-Person:
$50.00 off when you register 2 people

Multi-Session:
$50.00 off when you register for 2 weeks
$100.00 off when you register for 3 weeks

Early Bird:
10% off when you register before March 15! Use code EARLYBIRD

Financial Aid

Sliding scale financial aid is available at multiple income levels! See if you qualify.

E.g. A family of 4 with an annual income under $110,000 will qualify for assistance!

Middle School Maker Camp is a new half-day program from Rediscover that gives youth entering 6th, 7th, or 8th grades access to a professional-grade makerspace with facilitation to design and build complete projects. Including Rediscover’s beloved upcycled materials, skills building classes, ambitious and achievable project arcs, and talented teachers from some of LA’s top high school makerspaces, Middle School Maker Camp is built for youth who love to design, make, and tinker. Led by Julian Rich, Makerspace Manager at Geffen Academy at UCLA.

iStudio Makerspace, Project Based Learning Pathway Building
Santa Monica High School
601 Pico Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90405

Monday-Friday 9:00AM-1:00PM

- woodshop - laser cutter - large format printing - sewing machine -

Session 1 - June 23-July 11 - Character Design - $1,200

Design a character through cosplay, costuming, sculpture, and/or puppets

Session 2 - July 14-July 25 - Fantastic Inventions - $800

Invent solutions to a problem in your life, for a friend, or for a fictional character

For questions about Rediscover's Middle School Maker Camp, please contact tinkering@rediscovercenter.org or call 310-393-3636.

Campamentos de Carpintería Creativa en el Rediscover Center (edades de 8-12)

Come build amazing eco-friendly creations with us! One Day Tinkering Camp Intensives teach children the skills they need to turn their wildest imaginings into robust items made from cardboard, wood, plastic, metal, and fabric.

With a 5:1 camper to facilitator ratio, our workshop provides a supportive environment for personal growth through skills development and creative construction.

No one with open toed shoes, loose hair, or loose clothing will be allowed in the workshop.

Camp will run with a minimum of 6 campers.

$140/per camper – Scholarships Available
$50 add-on for a Tinkering Toolkit to take home our favorite Cardboard Construction tools
Home School Funds Accepted
Ages 8-12
9:00 – 3:00pm
$30 add-on for Aftercare 3:00 - 5:00 pm

One-Day Tinkering Camps happen during most school holidays. See the current schedule.

Beginning with tool technique and safety training, the day progresses through exciting rapid design challenges and brainstorming methods to get participants ready for a big afternoon project of their own creation. We provide tools from scissors to power drills, a wide variety of versatile and inspiring materials, and just the right amount of staff guidance to let kids take ownership of the skills they acquire and the super-cool contraptions they bring to life from their imaginations. No one with open toed shoes, loose hair or clothing will be allowed in the shop. Parent Camp Information

Campamentos de Carpintería Creativa en el Rediscover Center (edades de 8-12)

What do campers do during the day? FAQs

What do campers do during the day? Most of the camp day is in the shop, learning new skills, brainstorming, making, and tinkering. Camp scheduling can vary, but generally follows this model: <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Every day begins with a morning welcome activity while everyone is arriving, followed by introductions, rules, and tool training for those who need to go through it.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Each day we take a snack break at 10:30, and we go outside for lunch (Note: Lunch and snack are not provided)</li> <li>Campers have free time to work on the theme of the day or an independent project.</li> </ul> How do I know my child will be safe? You’re giving them saws and power tools?!? We take safety very, very seriously, it’s the first thing we talk about. On day one, we go over all of our tools and teach our specific safety protocols for each tool - which we have developed through years of experience and research. How to use them safely, identifying the dangerous parts, identifying ways that people may try to use them unsafely and what can happen. Additionally, certain tools such as power saws always require direct supervision to use. We have a low counselor to camper ratio, and ensure that energy remains at a safe level, monitoring camper behavior closely and ready to adjust activities or take a break as needed to keep the energy focused. We establish and support a Culture of Safety that helps campers to develop practices that can help them achieve situational awareness in any potentially dangerous environment. My child knows how to use tools already, do they really have to do tool training? If they have been to Rediscover Center and done our tool training or built something recently (in the last few months), they may be allowed to join in a separate activity that gets them using the tools right away. If it has been a year or more, we ask that they get a refresher on the tools to ensure everyone’s safety. If they use tools a lot at home, we may take it on a case by case basis, but generally it’s important to learn our specific safety protocols that we use here (hand placement, how our specific tools work, moving through the shared makerspace, etc). If they’re particularly advanced, we will recognize it, and may expedite them, or else have them help us teach the new tinkerers. Note: Learning tools at a Tinkering birthday party at Rediscover Center isn’t the same as going through the full Tinkering Camp tool training; Tinkering birthday parties typically only cover a limited number of tools, and don’t get the reinforcement and assessment that the full training provides. My child wants to make a go-cart/catapult/bookshelf etc. Can they just build their own thing? Our Big Build themes are very broad and can usually encompass most pre-existing ideas. In the rare case that they can’t find something related to the theme that interests them, they may work on an individual project, though this is something more suited to Open Tinkering on the weekends. Can they take home what they make? Smaller projects that are made earlier in the week, or smaller portions of the Big Build may be taken home with permission from parents/guardians. Often our Big Builds are too large to take home and are created by several people anyway; those stay here and are taken apart to be made into future projects (go sustainability!). We encourage tinkerers who are working on small builds together to discuss what will happen to it when it’s finished as part of the project planning process.

Counselor in Training Program, ages 13-18

Rediscover’s Counselor-in-Training Program at Tinkering Camp provides youth ages 13-18 with an opportunity to develop leadership skills in a youth makerspace program. In 3 week sessions, CITs work alongside Rediscover staff to facilitate tinkering and maker projects created by campers ages 8-12. The CIT Program includes a 3 hour orientation on the Sunday preceding the session that sets norms for the program, teaches facilitation and maker skills, and sets CITs up for success. CITs’ work is intensely hands-on and minds-on, coaching and assisting youth to imagine, plan, create, tinker with, and present their projects. CITs typically have strong maker skills in areas such as cardboard construction, woodworking, sewing, or design thinking. Teens join the Tinkering Camp CIT program less out of the desire to make projects and more about helping others to develop their skills and realize their maker ambitions. CITs enjoy personal connections with campers and with Rediscover staff, acting as a bridge that unifies the entire maker community. CITs are deeply involved with the ideation and creation of Big Builds, supporting and centering campers’ ideas and efforts while contributing enthusiasm and skills. CITs are included on the team that operates Tinkering Camp. CITs attend staff meetings before and after the camp day, receive meal breaks, and contribute to the daily and weekly maintenance tasks needed to provide a clean and safe makerspace environment. CITs are not allowed to use personal devices except on breaks and never in the presence of campers. Each CIT is matched to a Rediscover coach, a staff member who will provide guidance, feedback, and support to the CIT. This support includes daily check-ins and goal setting. CITs develop skills in hands-on teaching/facilitation, project management, maker techniques across multiple disciplines, engineering design process, and problem solving. CITs are encouraged to take on a camp development project in the second and third weeks of the session, such as: creating and leading an activity for outdoor play and lunchtime, rehearsing then leading a tool training to a full class of campers, documenting the development of a Big Build through photos and videos, or building a piece of equipment that improves the makerspace. Schedule: Orientation 1PM-4PM Sunday Camp day 8AM-4PM Monday, 8:30AM-4PM Tuesday-Friday, 30 minute meal break scheduled between 11:30AM and 1:30PM Qualifications: Age 13-18 in summer 2025. Demonstrated aptitude as a maker in at least one of the following: cardboard construction, woodworking, sewing, or design thinking. Demonstrated aptitude and interest in working with children, providing support, coaching, supervision, or childcare. Dates: Session 1 - Sunday June 15-Thursday July 3 Session 2 - Sunday July 6-Friday July 25 Session 3 - Sunday July 27-Friday August 15 Cost: $1,050 per 3 week session How to Apply: Please fill out the <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdaPBSVu8CALvTsbhloMomhJjck8lvMaKfvF55I1gWk2d5Jog/viewform?usp=sharing">Tinkering Camp CIT 2025 Application Google Form</a> by March 15.

Cancellation Policy/ Reglamento de Cancelación