New Tech Kids | Amsterdam

13 May 2017

NewTechKids Returns to United Arab Emirates

NewTechKids has recently returned from the United Arab Emirates where our teachers (and one child assistant) taught computer science bootcamps during the Sharjah Children's Reading Festival (April 19-29, 2017). Everyday, we taught children ages 7-12 about systems thinking (computers, their main parts and how these parts work together) and technology design (function, requirements and user interface). The children who attended were very enthusiastic and engaged. The United Arab Emirates is a fascinating country, with innovation and technology everywhere, from

3 Apr 2017

Bringing Themes and Tech Literacy to Computer Science Ed

By NewTechKids

The way that computer science education is promoted to primary school-aged children can make all the difference. NewTechKids learned this lesson during our latest round of after-school computer science bootcamps which ran from January - March 2017. Previously, we had marketed our bootcamps as 'Discover Computer Science' or 'Explore Computer Science' and listed all of the wonderful computer science concepts that children would learn about: loops, algorithms, if-else statements, sequences, Boolean data, etc. This may have been great marketing to reassure parents

4 Apr 2017

NewTechKids Joins CSTA’s International Committee

By NewTechKids

The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) has invited NewTechKids to serve on its International Committee. Deborah Carter, NewTechKids’ Co-founder, has become one of the Committee's members and will contribute to CSTA’s global strategy, specifically international membership growth, diversity issues and information exchange. CSTA is a membership organization which supports and promotes the teaching of computer science from kindergarten to grade 12. CSTA represents more than 25,000 members from more than 145 countries. Its members include elementary,

NewTechKids at Wittenborg University

By NewTechKids

Last week, NewTechKids became the subject of Wittenberg University's Project Week in Amsterdam. For five days, business students dove into NewTechKids' business model and selected a country where we could expand our business: curriculum, lesson plans and teacher training programs. (We discounted the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Finland, Australia and New Zealand as these countries already have thriving computer science education in place.) Their challenge: select a country, prove that computational thinking and computer

8 Feb 2017

Computational Thinking in EU School Curricula

By NewTechKids

In December 2016, the European Union published the report “Developing Computational Thinking in Compulsory Education: Implications for policy and practice”. Click here for a definition of computational thinking and how it helps students solve problems, understand the world around them and become inventors. The report is useful to compare the EU's action to other places such as the United States which launched the 'Computer Science for All' initiative which will bring computer science education to all students in America, beginning in primary school.

7 Feb 2017

From Coding to Computational Thinking

By NewTechKids

We hear a lot of reasons why parents register their children for our computer science bootcamps. These range from: - my kid knows how to use a computer and smartphone but they should learn how technology works - my kid wants to learn to code - I want to boost my kids’ academic performance - I work in technology and I realise the importance of having some exposure to computer science - I need a way

New Teaching Tools: Arduino and Micro:bits

By NewTechKids

This December, NewTechKids added Arduino as a new teaching tool during our 'Discover Computer Science' bootcamp for 10-12 year olds. Kids received multiple lessons as an introduction to Arduino. With its open source platform and active community of developers, Arduino is a great teaching tool. Kids received a basic introduction to programming in JavaScript but that's not the main reason we are teaching Arduino. Arduino offers another learning environment where kids can identify and creatively apply the fundamental computer

24 Oct 2016

New Artificial Intelligence (AI) Lessons

By NewTechKids

With artificial intelligence (AI) all around us, NewTechKids decided to teach a special AI bootcamp during last week’s Fall school vacation in Amsterdam. Our goal: to kids what AI is, the thinking behind it, how it’s being used in everything from self-driving cars to customer service and Siri, Apple’s ‘intelligent’ personal assistant, and the pros and cons of this technology. Developed by Stichting NewTechKids and sponsored by Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam (Amsterdam Municipal Library), the course

15 Oct 2016

NewTechKids joins ‘Coding for Amsterdam’ Project

By NewTechKids

NewTechKids is one of the partners chosen for the City of Amsterdam’s ‘Coding for Amsterdam’ project which will bring coding lessons to students in groups seven and eight in Amsterdam primary schools. From September – December 2016, NewTechKids is teaching unplugged coding lessons (involving no computers or technology) at Dutch and international schools. The project’s goal is to reach students in 200 schools. On October 28th, NewTechKids will teach a special ‘Coding for Amsterdam’ lesson

14 Oct 2016

New 21st Century Skills Club

By NewTechKids

NewTechKids is pleased to announce that we have established a new 21st Century Skills Club at Nelson Mandela School in Amsterdam East. We're teaching computer science to kids in the school's AMOS UnIQ program for gifted children for the 2016-2017 school year. Our Club will cover computational thinking, algorithmic thinking, programming, systems thinking and technological literacy. We look forward to exposing kids to a new way of thinking that they can use to understand how and why technology works and to start