University of Dayton • CPS 491 Capstone

Camp AI

A summer AI literacy camp for middle school students. Hands-on activities that turn curious kids into confident, critical AI users.

Try the activities Preview a day
Audience
Grades 6–8
Format
Multi-Day Camp
Platform
Canvas LMS
Client
Dr. Poor
🎯

Project Overview

Spring 2026

Camp AI is a summer camp at the University of Dayton designed to introduce middle schoolers to artificial intelligence in a way that's hands-on, low-pressure, and genuinely fun. Instead of treating AI as a magical black box, campers learn to use it as a tool — and just as importantly, learn when not to trust it.

Our team built a full multi-day Canvas course from scratch, with paced modules covering prompt engineering, fact-checking AI hallucinations, AI detection limits, and creative AI use. Every day mixes slides, videos, quizzes, breaks, and interactive activities so campers stay engaged the whole time.

The two interactive activities below — an Escape Room and a Defense Lawyer simulation — are playable right on this page. Try them yourself.

🎯 What campers walk away with

The ability to write better prompts, recognize when AI gets things wrong, and use AI tools to make creative work they're proud of — without losing sight of their own ideas in the process.

⭐

Key Features

Click any card to expand
🎮

Gamified Learning

Lessons framed as missions, challenges, and games instead of lectures.

Game mechanics like timers, points, and progression are wrapped around real concepts so campers stay engaged without losing the learning underneath. Built specifically for middle school attention spans.
✋

Hands-On Activities

Every concept is tied to something campers actually do, not just watch or read.

Interactive in-browser simulations let campers practice prompting, evaluate AI output, and make decisions in low-stakes scenarios. Learning by doing instead of by listening.
🔍

Critical AI Thinking

Campers learn that AI confidence does not equal AI correctness.

Activities directly address hallucinations, detector errors, prompt injection, and the limits of AI reliability. The goal is to graduate campers who can question AI output, not just use it.
📚

Canvas LMS Integration

The full camp ships as a deployable Canvas course with paced, sequentially locked modules.

Modules unlock as campers finish prerequisites, keeping the cohort moving at the same pace and giving instructors less to manage in real time. Drop-in ready for any Canvas instance.
📝

Instructor Guides

Every activity has a paired instructor sheet with facilitation tips and answer keys.

Scripted talking points, redirect strategies for off-track campers, timing buffers, and material checklists. Built so an instructor who has never run the activity can pick it up and lead it confidently.
🛠️

Build Guide + Claude Skill

A how-to guide and a Claude skill so future instructors can build their own Canvas activities.

The build guide walks instructors through setting up a Canvas course in the same style as Camp AI. The Claude skill packages the design patterns and content rules so instructors can generate new activities with AI assistance instead of starting from scratch.
📅

Day Content Preview

Day 1 modules

A peek at what's inside Day 1's Canvas course content. This shows the learning modules only — full camp days also include breaks, lunch, recess, group time, and other unstructured activities not listed here.

CAMP AI · DAY 1

INTRO TO AI
🎮

Featured Activities

Playable below

🚪 AI Escape Room

Trapped in Marianist Hall by FLYR-9000, a rogue AI who only releases prisoners that prove they can prompt correctly. Six rooms, 45 minutes, five clues to escape.

Prompt Engineering Hallucination Detection Prompt Injection Temperature 45 min
Open Full Page ↗

⚖️ AI Defense Lawyer

Maya Chen is an 8th grader falsely accused of using AI on her essay — flagged by a detector reporting 94% confidence. You're her lawyer. Read the evidence, interview witnesses, pick a strategy, and write the closing argument.

AI Detection Limits Critical Thinking Evidence Evaluation Writing 45 min
Open Full Page ↗
✅ A camper succeeds when they can
  • Write a prompt that gets a useful answer on the first try
  • Recognize an AI hallucination in real output
  • Defend a decision about when to use or not use AI
❌ A camper struggles when they
  • Accept the first AI answer without checking it
  • Confuse what AI did with what they did themselves
  • Say "AI is always right" or "AI is always wrong"
🎬

Video Demo

Project walkthrough

Demo coming soon

Replace this placeholder with your demo video embed

A walkthrough of the Camp AI Canvas course, the activities, and the brand system that ties them together.

👥

The Team

CPS 491 • Spring 2026
Edward Kramer IV

Edward "Quad" Kramer IV

Developer
Click to learn more

Description coming soon.

View LinkedIn
Khagendra Mishra

Khagendra Mishra

Developer
Click to learn more

Description coming soon.

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Brock Hensley

Brock Hensley

Developer
Click to learn more

Description coming soon.

View LinkedIn
⚙️

Tech & Tools

Canvas LMS HTML / CSS / JS docx-js Anthropic Claude Microsoft Word Google Docs Adobe Illustrator GitHub Pages