YSI – Youth Science Institute

My sons (ages 4 and 6) just finished several weeks at YSI summer camp at Vasona. We were thrilled with their experience. The staff are well trained in their areas of specialty and my boys had fun learning so much. But the counselors are also well suited to working with young children and were kind, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and energetic. I felt that my kids were genuinely cared for and that the counselors liked them as people. I haven’t felt this at some camps. Counselors paid attention to food allergies, reported back on stained clothing or funny observations, and created personalized «franks» which were decorated clothespins with goggly eyes. When one experiment at the end of camp scared my older son (it involved an egg and a lit match), his favorite counselor sat with him and comforted him until I got there. While some adults try to dissuade kids from their feelings, he let my son know it was okay to be scared. If positive discipline is important to you, then this would be a great camp for your children. I saw behavior positively redirected every day. The adult/​child ratio is fantastic and my kids each had 3 adults with their group (the largest group was close to 20 one week). The camp director is phenomenal, and is actively involved. She knew my sons by name after the first day and understood their introverted temperaments. Her patience paid off and now my boys adore her. The access to resources here is another highlight. Mine loved visiting the nature center and using the microscopes, looking at the animals, and investigating the bones. After camp we would wander in so they could show me what they had studied that day, and everyone always welcomed them warmly. One of the counselors brought out a beetle for them to observe and made the hissing cockroaches hiss for us, all after a long day of teaching camp. Her enthusiasm has rubbed off on my children. My youngest decided today that he is going to work at YSI when he grows up. I’m so grateful for the experiences they’ve had this summer and for the confidence they’ve gained. They are so proud of themselves! We’ve done other camps in the past, but this has been the best by far.

I had rented the Youth Science Institute at Sanborn Skyline County Park to get ready for my wedding. We had signed and paid for the agreement, and 6 business days prior to our wedding, they call us at 5pm on a Thursday to inform us their new lease will not allow us to use their space.
They suggested I get ready for my wedding in the park bathroom, they broke their agreement with us, and left us scrounging to find a place, they gave us no explanation, no help, and were unresponsive on phone calls.
I am so horribly upset and disappointed they would and could do this to us. For A WEDDING ARE YOU KIDDING ME.
They blamed the county parks and the county parks blamed them.

The summer science camps here are great. My 3 nieces and 2 nephews have participated in these camps for several years. YSI gives a better «camper feeling» compared to other day camps, which I feel are more like summer school. These camps are non profit, so they are very affordable. The camps are part time and end at 1 PM, but extended camp is still available for working parents up until 6 PM. The day time camps have a variety of different camps from preschool aged all the way through 6^th grade age. I’m a science teacher myself, and I still literally cannot think of a branch of science that this camp hasn’t had. They have camps on animals, crime solving, tech, physics, chemistry, biking, engineering, earth and space, and other camps too. The staff are friendly, approachable, and well-​organized. Many of the camp counselors are credentialed science teachers and/​or post-​graduate students in science. They really know their material. The kids have come home with crafts that they were proud of and a certificate at the end of the week.
I’m a middle school science teacher, and have invested several field trips with YSI. They have field trips, in which teachers can take their students to the park, but there is also the option of having a representative from YSI bring the animals straight to the students’ classroom for the schools where arranging a field trip would be more difficult. I have utilized both options several times and was very pleased with the results.
The staff members are very professional and knowledgeable. They know how to handle the animals, as well as manage a group of young students. I’ve done this for middle-​schoolers, but they have other activities for students of different age groups, even preschoolers. I’ve recommended them for several of my teacher friends, who also had positive experiences with YSI.

Both my kids just finished a week of summer camp at YSI. This was their first time there. My son did the Bike Explorer’s Camp. In this bike camp, he learned trail etiquette, bike maintenance, and biked several miles a day on the Los Gatos Creek Trail. One afternoon, the kids learned about animals and after I picked him up he said he knew how to tell the difference between a coral snake (poisonous) and a milk snake (non-​poisonous).
Several weeks before the bike camp, we took our son on trails to teach him about trail etiquette and have him practice riding using his new geared bike. Bike Explorers is for kids entering 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th grade. There is Bike Hike for younger kids, entering 2^nd and 3^rd grade. For Bike Explorers camp, you really need a geared bike to help get up some hills. Trek, Giant, Marin, Novarra (REI) have geared bikes starting from 20″ wheels and up. You can find less expensive geared bikes at Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us but they only start at 24″ wheels and those bikes were too big for our son.
The bike teacher was a recent college graduate who was going to be a teacher. He was assisted by two aides.
Our daughter took the Curious Chemistry camp. She didn’t have the stamina for the bike camp so she got to stay behind at the YSI institute and do experiments. There were many camps going on at the same time and were separated by tables for each camp. Her instructor was a graduate student studying geochemistry, so the instructor was not just a high school student, she actually had knowledge of what she was doing. During Curious Chemistry, there is a lot of mess so my daughter’s nice YSI tshirt was terribly stained by the end of the week, so perhaps having aprons provided for the kids or asking the parents to bring aprons would have been a good idea.
The only minor complaint about YSI at Vasona Park is that you need to park down at the Circle Lot, then walk up an unpaved hill to the meeting area. There was a parking lot on the same level as the institute but it seemed only staff were allowed there. Vasona Park is littered with goose poop everywhere! Yes, there are a lot of geese which the kids loved, but I didn’t care for. So watch where you step!

My 5-​year old just finished a week at the YSI Summer Camp at Vasona Park. He also did a week at YSI Vasona last June 2 months after he turned 4. He loved YSI so much last year we made a point to register early this year and he and his 2 ½ year old brother will both go next year!
The staff that we’ve encountered at YSI Vasona these 2 years have all been well-​organized, friendly, motivated and truly interested in offering fun and interesting nature oreinted camps to children. The activities range from crafts to experiments and they’re age appropriate meaning that the children actually do the activity, they don’t sit by while the instructors do the project for them. Hikes in to different areas of the park, nature hunts and play activities are part of each day. The check-​in and pick-​up procedures are simple but designed to keep safe track of each child.
YSI Science Camp at Vasona gets «two thumbs up» from all of this family! (Note: We have friends who have experience with the YSI Science Camp at Sanborn and they were not as pleased with it as they have been with Vasona. The cost is slightly higher at Vasona but well worth it.)