With school out for the summer, one local hang-out for kids is keeping Dawson County's students engaged in learning.

Next Generation Youth Development will be one of the 500 sites around the country to offer Maker Camp, a free summer camp for building, tinkering and exploring what's available online and in local neighborhoods.

At Maker Camp, young inventors and artists around the world will be given the opportunity to make projects, participate in virtual field trips and meet other makers around the world.

Over the past two years, more than 2 million young makers around the world have built robots with NASA, found their inner artist with Pixar, launched space balloons with Google and even traveled to the White House.

"But there's a bigger upside for affiliates beyond DIY electronics and T-shirts. For public libraries trying to reinvent themselves, Maker Camp gets teens back into the library and provides an educational experience outside the typical curriculum of a school," said Vickie Welch, vice president of marketing for the event.

"For a 4-H club volunteer last year, it resulted in a grant from Cognizant and special recognition by his local community."

Throughout the six weeks, kids can pick and choose themed projects, and build things like soda bottle rockets, as well as going on webcasted field trips with the likes of Lego, Google's self-driving car and Blue Man Group.

For those kids who cannot access the Internet or want to "do-it-together" with other kids in their community, locations such as libraries, schools and museums to join the camp, including Next Generation.

The camp will run from July 7 through Aug. 15.

For more information about Maker Camp, contact Next Generation at (706) 429-0110.