LEGO summer camp lets Bay Area kids get creative while learning valuable lessons

TAMPA, Fla. - At a Bricks 4 Kidz LEGO summer camp in Tampa, the possibilities are endless. Younger campers can create without some of the time restrictions of school.

"It was very interesting to be able to see them use their minds and their hands to create exactly what they're thinking," camp counselor Makeela Hawkins said.

Weekly camps are offered throughout the Tampa Bay area all summer. Kids spend the day in small groups rotating through four different stations: mosaics, color build, free build and motorized. The motorized station involves LEGO bricks, pins and wheels that will move when connected to a small motor.

"As someone like me who's into, like, STEM-related things, it is very interesting to see little minds create such big designs and such, use a lot of ingenuity," Hawkins said.

Hawkins and her camp counselor partner, Alexis Kelly, are Hillsborough County teachers during the school year. They love to see kids continue to use their minds during summer. Kelly values the failures as strongly as the successes when it comes to the kids' brick building.

"Honestly, it's about them seeing their mistakes," Kelly said. "The better that they get with handling that now, especially at this elementary, which is typical age range for a lot of our kids… the better they are at elementary handling that, the better they'll be in life, hopefully being able to handle that as well."

As much as the kids are learning, both Kelly and Hawkins say the camp is simply fun.

"Seeing the kids work together is the biggest thing," Kelly said. "A lot of times the kids don't get enough of a chance of just kind of freethinking activities but with another partner."

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