Celsius and Beyond

Our two daughters have been joining summer camps at Celsius and Beyond since five years now. Like the other years, this year «Celsius and Beyond» is on top of the list of their favorite camps. From dissecting sharks to creating amazing catapults, they always come home super enthusiastic about their day and ready to share their incredible discoveries & inventions. Auritte, the camp director is fantastic. She assembles outstanding programs with a perfect balance between learning and playing. Each camp focuses on a very contemporary scientific question and is lead by staff with highly relevant scientific background.
So, we love the very nurturing environment of Celsius and Beyond, the spirit of the camp, and the amazing staff. Thank you, Celsius and Beyond, for giving our daughters the excitement of discovering and encouraging their curiosity.

Our 6^th grader and 4^th grader just attended the Jewelery making and surgery camp for the first time this week. They both loved it and said it was one of their most favorite day camps in the city. We were very impressed by what they learned, coming home each day to tell us with great enthusiasm what they learned that day and what they were to do the next. They have already asked if they can go again the next time we need a camp.

My 3 children attended Celsius two years ago and since then our family become fervent followers and participants of this quality program. Their instructors are professionals and hold advance degrees and connect well with kids. Their classes are geared to teach kids real science that follows a curriculum, not just play-​based stuff. The Director of the program is a woman with a deep understanding of child-​behavior. She has an innate ability to read a child’s personality and make necessary adjustments to keep the children engaged and interested. I was completely blown away when my children came home from their first day at camp and enthusiastically discussed DNA and described in great detail the parts of a chromosome. All the camps have similar impact on them.
I can say with all confidence that if your child loves science and attends this camp once, your child will become a life-​long Celsius and Beyond camp participant. Celsius and Beyond is truly beyond any one’s expectations when it comes to teaching real science in a fun way.

Our 6 year old daughter attended the surgery camp, summer 2014. Wow!!! This camp met all expectations and more! Our daughter has an interest in all things medical & surgery. This camp gave her a real life opportunity to be a surgeon at an age appropriate level. The best part of the camp was seeing and hearing the excitement she had each day at learning and developing her passion.
She did sutures on a pig, dissected a frog and learned all sorts of gory stories of hospital life that further ignited her interest in medicine. She also showed us all how to properly scrub in for surgery! 5 star camp & well worth the cost.

My eleven-​year-​old son loves the camps offered at Celsius and Beyond. He has attended camp at Celsius since he was six years old. Auritte runs a thoughtful and fun operation. The camps are small in size and large in fun and learning, all of which I view as a big positive. Every camp my son has attended at Celsius and Beyond has featured an enthusiastic instructor with a genuine passion for the particular subject he or she is teaching. Celsius and Beyond is one of the few (if only) camps in San Francisco that really appeals to my son’s intense interest in math and science.

My son attended the lego minstrorms camp in the summer of ’14.
The class was supposed to be for 4 – 6 graders, yet there were a bunch of 2^nd graders in it.
The teacher made the kids do push ups if they didn’t listen
The 2 teachers for every 14 kids ratio was not held. My son said they usually only had 1 instructor and there were 14 kids in the class.
2 stars because at least he was in a safe place, and the food was good. I would not send him here again.

My 10 year old daughter really enjoyed both Chemistry and Robotics and my 8 year old daughter really enjoyed her 3 camps, with Fractions and Fashion winning out over Surgery and the Survival camp. But all were so fun that we’ve been asked to attend more weeks next summer! It is amazing to see and hear how much they really soaked up in the week-​long sessions — we were at a friend’s place yesterday and my 8 year old was telling us about the tree outside and how the Native Americans used that particular tree. Great stuff.

I have sent my children here for the past 5 – 6 years and my children love this camp. My kids have dissected sharks, made perfumes and soaps, and visited various locations, including several beaches, Golden Gate Park, the zoo, the aquarium, and the SFSU planetarium. I love the variety of programs and the fact that the camp not only teaches science, but independence and responsibility. My kids have taken city buses to different locations and one was taken to a Japanese restaurant on the final day of camp. Plus, in the afternoon, the kids walk to the park to play. My kids have attended a variety of camps in the past seven years and this has been one of our favorites!

This camp fills up fast and many really like it. Not a positive experience for us though The staff bad mouthed the other people there and the founder/​director («just send email don’t call)» is disorganized. We were due a (small) refund at the end of the camp and it took them weeks and many reminders to refund it and they were stingy about the amount of the refund. I have multiple children (some grown) and lots of experience with day camps and this one I will not go to again, for sure.

We are big fans of Celsius and Beyond. I have a daughter entering 6^th grade. She has attended Celsius and Beyond camps for several years now and consistently enjoyed them so much that she is willing to attend without a friend. She attends public school and doesn’t get enough hard science as part of that curriculum. She has taken dissection camp and studied DNA and is presently taking a surgery camp. Each day she returns excited about what she has learned and interested in sharing that knowledge which is not typical for her at the end of most camp days elsewhere.
It is possible she is the youngest in camp this week which was prescribed for 6^th-​9^th graders. Not sure how that effects the others, but I hope not negatively.
We have also hosted a spa products themed birthday party at C&B which was a great success with the girls. They made soap, lavender scrub and lip gloss and left with these as their party favors.
I am always impressed that if I have a concern and send an email that I get a thorough and complete response immediately.

My son has attended camps here on 3 different occasions, and enjoyed all of them. I’ve always been greeted when dropping off or picking up, and have gotten very good feedback about what my son is doing during the day — from Auritte, in particular, who I would imagine has a zillion things to attend to while camp is in session.
The camp themes are interesting and engaging, and I appreciate that there’s so much variety. We have tried many camps in the bay area and this is one of my sons favorites.

My daughter has been taking science classes here at Celsius and Beyond for a few semesters and absolutely loves it. It is her favorite activity of the week. I disagree with other reviewers who claim them to be disorganized. They are a very caring, dedicated staff who are committed to sharing their excitement and knowledge of science.

We had an awful experience with this camp where they way understaffed our class, communicated with parents extremely poorly, demonstrated immense disorganization– all of which led to our child being very frustrated and discouraged. And what we paid was a rip-​off for what they provided. AVOID!

I signed my son up for a week-​long summer camp, but he had an anxiety attack and couldn’t make it through the first day. We decided not to continue. I know their official policy is no refunds but it would have been nice if they would have worked with me a little on this since it was sort of a medical issue. That was a lot of money they decided to keep.

This is in reply to Auritte C. of Celsius and Beyond 4÷5÷2011 in reply to my Unilocal from 2 years ago: I can understand that you are a small operation and don’t check ID… you said that «other camps» have teenagers doing the work but you DID have teenagers near the door to ‘check’ people out, they were busy yapping and paid no attention to me even when I tried to get their attention. The child I was picking up was NOT a returning camper and has not been back since. I was a person you DID NOT KNOW and I came to pick up a camper, NONE of the employees asked for my name or confirmed anything from the pick up list — and believe me, I tried to talk to someone, ANYONE! I walked out with a child, and I could have been anyone, nobody there even wanted to know who I was or what was going on.
Glad you fixed the lunch problem and now make sure that the little kiddies get to eat what their mommy’s packed for them (your attitude before was so lackadaisical «well, they do eat other food while they are here»). I send my kids to Steve and Kate’s Camp, they make sure if anyone, parent or neighbor, etc is picking up a child that they are the proper person. Steve and Kate’s makes is easy and friendly, my kids are safe, they learn cooking, science, film making, clay-​mation, music — lots of fun indoor stuff, and they spend time in the sun playing and learning. You guys are small, as you said, and because you think small you will most likely remain small.
BTW — I would never have commented again on what happened years ago except that you commented on my Unilocal from 2 years ago — with no apology and once again, instead of saying you FIXED the problem you try to justify what happened (oh, you fixed the lunch issue — thanks)

What can I possibly say about this place? It’s a warm environment, where the focus is jointly on fun and learning. The director and her staff are amazing, they made my kids feel right at home from the very first day.
This is like a dream school for my kids — although they do love their own school, they can’t wait for vacations so they can go to Celsius and Beyond! They’ve learned metalsmith, chemistry, biology, and yes… even the science of cooking.
If you are looking for a productive place where you can instill a love for learning, AND a love for fun, I can’t recommend this place more.
Bravo, I wish more places took kid’s education and the fun approach to it more seriously.

I love that this place has such a wide variety of programs available, everything from cooking classes and jewelry making to the study of DNA. This is the only camp we’ve been able to find that seriously tries to make science available and interesting to children. My only complaint is that the programs could be at a slightly higher intellectual level. The classes are broken down by age groups but even so, the classes seem to be dumbed down just a little too much. Kids who voluntarily sign up for a class in robotics or DNA are clearly willing to learn something a little more advanced.