Nanan Academy Summer Camp 2026 – Curious Creations

Nanan Academy ran a summer camp in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, from July 27-31, 2026. Twenty students age 8 to 14 spent the week building video games, working on science experiments, wiring circuits, meeting a robot dog, and training in a taekwondo dojang. This year’s summer camp theme is Curious Creations. The event was featured in two Moose Jaw Today news articles: July 31 and Aug 4.

Game Development and Creative Writing

The capstone project was a 2D platformer game built in Godot. Godot is a free game engine used by indie developers to make commercial games. It is also widely used in Game Jams.

Students started by getting familiar with the Godot platform and importing pre-made sprites (characters) or creating their own original sprites using Piskel. Afterwards, they added a tileset and collision detection. A respawn system, collectible coins, and platforms were then included. By day four, they added enemies, played through each other’s games, and shared feedback.

On the final day, they polished their games and exported them to executable files. Each student then demonstrated their game to their parents. The results were impressive. The purpose is not only to develop a product, but also to develop skills in analytical thinking, problem solving, troubleshooting, resilience, and creativity. Download their games from this shared folder.

Every good TV show, movie, or video game needs a good story. Writing is an essential skill for the future of work, and students engage with it more when they have a clear purpose for it. It’s important for them to develop proper writing skills since communication is another essential skill for the future of work.

The writing exercise started by writing down three passions outside of video games and explaining why they enjoy them. They discussed how colours and visual choices in illustrations create different moods. They learned the elements of a story, including theme, characters, setting, and plot. By the end of the week, each student had a storyboard showing the backstory of their game.

Curious Creations

Students participated in hands-on science activities that encouraged creativity, learning, and personal development. They made stained-glass ornaments, worry stones, borax ornaments that crystallized overnight, bouncy balls, and salt paintings on canvas.

The higher purpose of these activities is personal development. Before making their worry stones, students had a conversation about mental health and stress. They talked about when stress can sometimes be positive and what to do when worrying becomes overwhelming.

The essential skills theme was leadership and collaboration. For the application exercise, all 20 students joined the same Minecraft Education survival world. The goal was to work together and survive as long as possible while the time was tracked. During free time, most students chose to play Minecraft in between other activities. It was noticeable that by the end of the week, students had collaborated more effectively as compared to the first day.

A fun project was creating custom designs for their own t-shirt. Students used Canva to create a custom design, and the Cricut Explore 5 then imprinted each design onto a shirt. Every student took home a shirt they designed themselves.

Circuits and Robotics

Students learned about basic circuits using an Arduino microcontroller, a resistor, and an LED. They first simulated the circuit in TinkerCAD and wrote code to blink the LED. Afterwards, they built the circuit on a breadboard and tested it.

They were also introduced to robotics with the Unitree Go 2 Air robot dog. It can perform tricks, climb stairs, and use a LiDAR sensor to map its surroundings.

Martial Arts

In the middle of the week, students visited the taekwondo dojang for a session filled with drills. Dojang is Korean for training hall. The session was offered by Douglas Martial Arts with instructors Master Nathan Douglas and Mr. Charles Colenutt.

The lesson was that taekwondo is not only about kicks and punches, but also about building character. During the mat chat, participants learned the five tenets of taekwondo, which are integrity, indomitable spirit, courtesy, self control, and perseverance.

Guest Speakers

Guest speaker, Kaleigh, In School Facilitator from Skills Canada Saskatchewan, joined the camp on the first day. She shared her educational journey and the opportunities available in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

On the final morning, Krystal Nieckar, Executive Director of Skills Canada Saskatchewan, also spoke about career paths in skilled trades and technology. She asked each camper what they want to do when they grow up. The answers included construction and design, illustration and writing, marine biology, martial arts and game design, mechanical engineering, biomechanical engineering, and heart surgery. That is a wide range, and what these careers have in common is STEM.

In the afternoon of the final day, Eugene Kilochek joined online to present to the students. Eugene is a manufacturing engineering technologist at Calian in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He spoke about his journey with Skills Canada and in the tech field. Students were inspired, and they asked good questions about the projects he works on.

Special Thanks

It was an incredible week, and many friendships were formed among the students.

Thank you to the teachers, Mrs. Daphne Yates, Mr. Thayne Winder, and Mr. Michael Lamothe, and to the assistant teachers, Colten Cushing and Ranie Garnes.

Thank you as well to the partners who made the week possible, Skills Canada Saskatchewan and Holy Trinity Catholic School Division.