How to Prepare for Day Camp

Below you will find helpful information for your upcoming session at Project Ember. Don't see your question below? Contact us with your inquiry, and one of our Directors will be happy to answer your questions.

Synapse School
3355 Edison Way
Menlo Park, CA
building 1

You can find us in the Synapse School Changemaker Space, which we’re very excited to say we designed and built ourselves! Look for the roll-up garage door on the western side of the parking lot.

  • A water bottle labeled with your camper’s name

  • Lunch and a snack

  • Closed-toe shoes (required to participate in the shop)

  • Clothes that can get dirty or damaged

  • Prescriptions required in an emergency such as Albuterol or Epi-Pens (All medications must be signed in and held by our site director.)

  • Layers for changing or inclement weather

  • Sunhat and sunscreen*

*We will provide sunscreen at camp, but we ask that you provide extra for mid-day application if you have a preference about what sunscreen your child uses.

Program Schedule:
Monday - Friday: 9:30 am - 3:30 pm

Drop Off: 9:15 am - 9:30 am
Pick-Up: 3:30 pm - 3:45 pm

Our days are very full at Project Ember, and our first circle will begin at 9:30 sharp. We appreciate your prompt arrival.

+ Click for a Sample Day at Camp


9:15 am - 9:30 am | Drop-off Window
9:30 am - 9:45 am | Full-camp morning circle, followed by working group review/planning sessions
9:45 am - 12:00 pm | Build Session A
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm | Lunch: we'll eat outside as long as the weather is good!
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm | Park break! Organized games and self directed play
1:30 pm - 1:40 pm | Afternoon group meeting before work begins again
1:40 pm - 3:15 pm | Build Session B
3:15 pm - 3:30 | Closing Circle: Gratitude and Reflections on the day
3:30 pm - 3:45 pm | Pick-up Window

DROP-OFF

We will continue to run contactless drop-off and pick-up on campus to decrease traffic back-up in the school neighborhood. A staff member will greet you and your camper(s) at your vehicle. Please remain in your vehicle until our greeters have verified your camper's test results on testing days.

To aid an efficient drop-off process on the first day of camp, please confirm all emergency contact information in your UltraCamp account ahead of arrival. (Make sure your phone number is free from typos and a secondary contact is listed in case of an emergency.) If you have additional questions for our team, we suggest reaching out by phone or email ahead of time.

PICK-UP:

Please remain in your vehicle and pull up to the Project Ember warehouse. Our team will send campers out as their parent/guardian arrives. We use codewords as a secure yet convenient way of ensuring a given person has your permission to pick up your child. Our greeters will verify your codeword on the first day of camp. If you can't make it to pick-up one day, simply share the codeword with the person picking your camper(s) up without having to update your account's authorized pick-up list. 

Campers who bike or take public transportation to camp are welcome to sign themselves in and out so long as we have received advanced written permission from their legal guardian. Please email us should you have any questions about pick-up and drop-off.

Friday Project Demonstration

We are excited to welcome visitors back to Project Ember’s end-of-session project demonstration! Guests are asked to arrive at 2:15 to join our campers for a closing circle followed by Project Demonstration at 2:30. After the demonstration, visitors may also stick around to help our campers deconstruct their projects - just make sure to wear closed-toe shoes!

Need to make a payment or finish filling out your medical forms? Head to your UltraCamp account to make any changes, verify your reservation details, or to make an additional reservation.

If you’re new to Project Ember, you’ll need to create an account in order to sign up for any of our programs.

Having trouble logging in? First, make sure you are using either a link directly from our webpage or from your email to access UltraCamp. Many camps use UltraCamp for their registration platform, and each camp has a unique URL. If you’ve forgotten your password, you can reset it here.

If you’d like to verify any of the details of your reservation, log into your UltraCamp account; your upcoming reservations are listed on your account homepage. You should also have received an email confirmation from info@projectember.org when you registered along with a receipt. We recommend adding info@projectember.org to your contacts/whitelist to ensure you receive important registration emails.

We are happy to help you switch your reservation to another session so long as the new session still has space. There is no fee for transferring sessions. If the session you would like to move into already has a waitlist, you will need to join the waitlist and see if a spot becomes available. Should a spot open, you will receive an automated email notifying you that you may now register. We recommend calling us to register so that we can process it as a transfer instead of a new reservation.

In order to cancel your reservation at any time, please call or email our team. Our refund policy is outlined here.

Didn’t find what you need?

For any questions or concerns not addressed on this page, please reach out to us by phone or email. You’ll be able to speak with one of our Directors to get all your questions answered.