For kids and teens who love the performing arts, computer science, programming and design combined with digital skills can take them in many interesting directions. Case in point: Miral Kotb, Founder of iLuminate, a light dance and technology company. iLuminate came in third on 'America's Got Talent', has worked with artists including Chris Brown, the Black Eyed Peas and Christina Aguilera, and is launching a Vegas show. Miral is also a study in perseverance and resilience as

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https://vimeo.com/408410161 JP van Seventer is passionate about all things related to online gaming. JP is Co-founder and Managing Director of Dutch Game Garden, a game incubator and business centre for small gaming companies and independent game designers located in Utrecht, the Netherlands. In this interview, JP talks about his own experience in game development. He also shares his thoughts on: the kind of people who thrive in the gaming industry and their knowledge, skills, characteristics and mindset

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Starting this week, NewTechKids is teaching new programs at schools in Amstelveen, a city just outside Amsterdam. We're teaching students at Amity International School Amsterdam and Kindercampus King. Amity is an English-language private school which opened in February 2018 and offers education for students ages 3-18. Students are multicultural, with students and teachers coming from all over the world. We were approached by one of its science teachers who was interesting in augmenting their current curriculum

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How are school systems in the Netherlands dealing with teacher shortages, teacher burnout and the shrinking number of people choosing to become teachers? Some Dutch primary schools in Amsterdam are considering an emergency measure: shifting to a four-day teaching week. Why? Amsterdam has been hit particularly hard by teacher shortages. At the beginning of this school year which began in August 2019, the city was short 280 teachers. This shortage has now grown to almost

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On June 4 and 5, 2019, NewTechKids organized an 'Intro to Programming' bootcamp in Amsterdam for 50 students from Lagos, Nigeria. We partnered with Metis Montessori Lyceum, a high school in Amsterdam which is one of the only high schools in the Netherlands to offer a specialized programming track. Theme: Programming in the Context of Automation Since most of the Nigerian students (ages 10-12) had no previous programming experience, we focused on the theme of

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Next week, NewTechKids will be hosting a delegation of primary school students from Lagos, Nigeria in Amsterdam. We're hosting the bootcamp at Metis Montessori Lyceum Amsterdam, a high school with specialized coding and design/technology academic tracks. We'll be teaching a 1.5 day bootcamp during which we'll introduce them to programming in the context of automation and give them hands-on programming experience with a variety of physical computing and robotics tools. We interviewed Kemi Soetan, Skyways

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NewTechKids spent the day in beautiful Haarlem, teaching students at the Beatrixschool. Our challenge: teaching students in two classes about programming in the context of automation with LEGO Mindstorms robots. One class developed appliances aimed at reducing the workload of families while the other reimagined robots who could take over monotonous or dangerous farm work. While one-off classes aren't our preferences, these classes serve an important purpose. They allow us to teach kids who have

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(Photo by NESA by Makers on Unsplash) On June 4th and 5th, NewTechKids will welcome a delegation of approximately 50 students from Lagos, Nigeria to Amsterdam. We'll be teaching a 1.5 day programming bootcamp for students ages 10 - 12, encouraging them to think critically about programming and robotics in the context of automation and to apply design and programming concepts in order to develop a series of tech prototypes. We're collaborating with Skyways Travels

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Next month, NewTechKids will head to the United Arab Emirates to teach a week-long series of computer science workshops for primary school students. We'll be teaching kids ages 4-12 during the 2019 Sharjah Children's Reading Festival, an annual mega-event dedicated to learning, reading and discovery. Themes will include algorithms and algorithmic thinking, computer and programming logic, and rapid prototyping and best practises in the field of technology design. Students will come from a mix of

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From February 9-12, 2019, Amsterdam will host one of the most exciting events focused on new approaches to learning and education. Hosted by the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam (the Amsterdam Public Library) in partnership with the eLearning Industry Group (ELIG), the 'Brave New Learning' conference will bring together experts from around the world to tackle four main themes: 21st century skills, learning by making, learning communities and augmented learning. NewTechKids Workshop: 'How to Raise a Tech

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