NewTechKids was pleased to be invited by NEMO to participate in its inaugural Codestarter event on May 28th. In case you haven’t heard, Google Netherlands donated $1 million to Science Center NEMO in Amsterdam to stimulate interest in coding, technology and computer science amongst primary school children.
NewTechKids’ teachers taught two of our popular ‘Robot Boogie’ workshops at the event. Rather than focusing on hardcore programming or more technical activities, the workshops exposed kids to a structured design process and computational thinking. Both are regular features for professionals working in technology.
During the workshop, kids designed a robot head and then used it to experience what goes into programming a robot. Kids discovered concepts such as programming, automation, variables and input-output.
By designing robot heads to take home, we hope that the kids will integrate computational thinking into their play by programming their parents, siblings, friends and other people while inventing new and more complicated codes to run.
At NewTechKids, we believe strongly in helping kids develop technology-related thinking skills as well as technical skills. We’re honoured to be part of the technology education ecosystem being developed in Amsterdam and the Netherlands.