A few months back, Deborah Carter, Founder of NewTechKids, had an interesting conversation with a Google executive responsible for the company’s computer science education initiatives worldwide.
The executive remarked that there are huge discrepancies in student knowledge amongst first year students enrolled in university and college computer science courses. Those who have taken courses, participated in school clubs and extracurricular activities, and/or explored programming with parents or other adults have a huge advantage. Those with no prior experience face significant challenges and often will never catch up in knowledge or experience.
While a few high schools in The Netherlands (such as Metis Montessori Lyceum) offer dedicated coding tracks, most high schools here do not offer mandatory computer science or programming classes. (Informatica is a different subject.)
To bridge this gap and start preparing students in The Netherlands to thrive in post-secondary programs, NewTechKids is offering computer science and programming courses for students ages 13-18, beginning in September 2019. The courses will take place at the main branch of the Amsterdam Public Library (Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam) and will be taught in a combination of Dutch and English.
The first will be “The Tech Innovator Bootcamp” which will consist of five, weekly workshops on Saturday afternoons in September and October 2019. Register here.
The second will be “Intro to AI and Machine Learning Bootcamp: which will consist of seven, weekly workshops on Saturday afternoons in November and December 2019. Register here.
These courses will challenge students to think critically about technology and its implications while giving them first-hand experience designing, building and programming robots and prototypes. Our goal is to expose them to the fundamental computer science concepts which define all technology and never change, even when software, hardware and networks do.
Please help us spread the word to high school students and their parents!