This is a personal blog post written by Deborah Carter, Founder and Managing Director of NewTechKids. Feeling proud but a bit apprehensive. I just sent my high schooler son off to a pre-university course which happens to be in COMPUTER SCIENCE 😁! (Students in the final three years of his high school can take courses at Dutch universities alongside their regular subjects.) I'm proud because he and his peers were largely the reason why I
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NewTechKids has taught tech education and computer science classes for more than nine years and we've taught kids from all types of backgrounds with differing exposure to tech. Based on our observations, there are some key factors which increase the likelihood that kids will take an interest in tech beyond just using it and actually want to invent, create, make, experiment and prototype with it. These factors considerably increase the likelihood that they will choose
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Due to generous donations from our donors, NewTechKids is able to offer more kids from low-income families heavily-subsidized spots in our summer bootcamps. Already this year, NewTechKids has taught more than 600 kids from low-income families and communities and we're happy to continue this outreach through our subsidy program. We've partnered with teachers, schools, the Amsterdam Public Library and the content moderators of popular social media pages for kids in Amsterdam to spread the word.
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NewTechKids is pleased to announce that we collaborated with Atlas Workshops, a company which organizes international learning experiences around the world for students and educators and which partners with creative organizations around the world. On Saturday, June 17, we hosted a group of American high school students and teachers in Amsterdam and taught a robotics and coding workshop focused on 'the future of farming and tech'. The Dutch backdrop makes a lot of sense. Despite
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Yesterday was hot in Amsterdam! It rose to 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit) in the classroom where we teaching and there is no air conditioning. We had planned a digital literacy lesson for four classes of students ages 6-8 focused on software: how the app store works and the role that branding and logos play in online usage. Students were supposed to use iPads to make a series of sketches during a series of
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NewTechKids is honoured to have kicked off the second edition of a Maker education initiative in Amsterdam called 'Plusklas voor Elk Kind' (Gifted Class for Every Child). Spearheaded by the Mokum Maakcoalitie, a group of maker education organizations led by the Amsterdam Public Library and its Maakplaats021 team, the initiative provides all students in groups 5, 6 and 7 at the Burgemeester de Vlugtschool with a year of Maker classes. This school is located in Amsterdam
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NewTechKids is collaborating with Metis Montessori Lyceum, a high school in Amsterdam, to plan a student trip to Silicon Valley in February 2023. Thirty-five students in Metis' Coderklas will be visiting Big Tech companies as well as companies in different industries which are being transformed by technology. Students will visit Google, NASA, Blue River Technology and other organizations where they will meet leaders and technologists. This is another great way in which students can learn
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Yesterday, Deborah Carter, NewTechKids' Founder and Managing Director, had the chance to tell NewTechKids' story to people who work at Schuberg Philis (known as 'colleagues'). Schuberg Philis has been supporting and collaborating with NewTechKids since December 2021. Schuberg Philis colleagues are who we hope our students will be in the future: technologists as well as business developers, salespeople, tech recruiters, engineers, account managers and people who care deeply about kids and tech education. The event
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NewTechKids is happy to announce the themes of our six, week-long summer bootcamps for kids ages 8-12. Kids will become tech inventors and dive into designing, building and coding with LEGO Mindstorms along with art supplies and props. (There will also be breaks for outdoor play time.) All bootcamps will take place at the Amsterdam Public Library from 10:00 - 14:00. Bootcamps will be taught in a combination of Dutch and English by professional teachers. July
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Why should kids participate in tech innovation classes and bootcamps? To understand the science of tech (computer science)? Yep! To learn how to code? Yep! For NewTechKids, it's even more simple than that. It's to instill an innovator's mindset and show them, from an early age, that they can become tech inventors. They can identify problems, then develop solutions and create new opportunities with tech knowledge, skills and materials. They can design, build and code
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