Destin Community Center turns July afternoons into coding, robotics and creativity labs for children 5-12
Destin, Florida – Summer in Destin usually means sand, water and long afternoons outdoors. But this July, the Destin Community Center is adding something different to the calendar: robots, coding challenges and kid-sized engineering projects packed into two short afternoon STEM camps.
The City of Destin will host Techie Kids Camp at the Destin Community Center, located at 101 Stahlman Avenue, giving local families two one-hour enrichment sessions for children ages 5 to 12. The camps will be led by Techie Kids Club, a Florida-based provider of hands-on coding and robotics programs, and will focus on S.T.E.A.M. — Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math.
Both sessions will run from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., making them easy afternoon add-ons for families already using the city’s summer programming, including the Community Center’s half-day summer camp, which typically runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The first camp, “Under the Sea,” is scheduled for July 9. Campers will dive into ocean-themed robotics, build digital ocean scenes, explore buoyancy through a jellyfish discovery bottle and create sea animal projects. The format mixes screen-based coding with real-world building, giving children a chance to learn technology without sitting still for the whole hour.
The second session, “Sports & Games,” will take place July 24. This one brings more motion into the room. Young coders will program robots to play soccer, build robot marathon courses, test force and motion through track-and-field challenges and design basketball cup games. The theme turns engineering into play, with friendly competition built into the lesson.
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The price is meant to keep the camps within reach: $15 per session for Destin residents and $20 for non-residents. Registration is available online at www.Cityofdestin.com/reconline or by calling the Destin Community Center at (850) 654-5184.
The Techie Kids sessions are part of a broader summer lineup at the Community Center, which already offers games, crafts, swim days and other youth activities for ages 5 to 12. City officials have been promoting summer options through official channels and encouraging families to contact the center for details.
For parents, the appeal is simple. The camps are short, affordable and practical. For kids, the hook is better: robots that play, oceans they can build and science that feels more like an adventure than a lesson.
