ECHO Camps

Here are some key changes for Summer Camps 2020:

• Our curriculum is designed to accommodate physical distancing guidelines. Each week will be a “best of” selection of activities. We’re calling it ECHO STEM Camp, and we’re pretty excited to show you what we’ve come up with. Normally, we rely heavily on hands-on, collaborative projects, but this year we’ll be incorporating more awesome science demonstrations, independent engineering challenges, and outdoor play. 
• To enable us to sanitize our space, prepare ample activities for our campers and keep the same staff throughout the week, we are not able to offer aftercare, so the day will run from 8:30 am to 3 pm. 
• Drop-off and pick-up will look different. Parents and caregivers will not be allowed to enter the building. We’ll share more details about exactly what the process will look like soon.
• Your camper will need to bring a morning snack in addition to a nut-free lunch and a water bottle – we will not be able to provide snacks to all of our campers. Please reach out if this is a challenge for any reason. We are here to help. 
• Staff will wear masks, and we strongly recommend that kids do, too. It’s going to be an adjustment, but we’d like everyone to try.
• When ECHO reopens to the public, there will be no cross-contact between camps and guests. We won’t share spaces (including bathrooms) and any movement of camps around the museum during hours that we are closed to the public will be preceded and followed by cleaning in accordance with CDC guidelines. 

Some tips: have kids choose or even decorate their own mask, have honest conversations about how wearing masks helps us keep each other safe, and try to acclimate slowly to wearing a mask for long periods of time. We’ll send along more ECHO-specific resources to help ease campers’ anxieties, but feel free to contact us if your camper needs any specific support.