New Tech Kids | education

2 nov 2017

First NewTechKids Program with Maakplaats 021

NewTechKids is excited to announce our first collaboration with Maakplaats 021, the Amsterdam Municipal Library's maker space initiative: a 10-week computer science bootcamp for kids ages 8-12 which will take place in the Maakplaats 021 Reigersbos location in Amsterdam Southeast. Set to begin in January 2018, the bootcamp will be for kids ages 8-12 and provide an introduction to computer science, programming and computational thinking. Our partnership with the Library is strategic and we'll use

1 sep 2017

New Times Require New Teaching Approaches

By NewTechKids

This summer, NewTechKids taught a new round of computer science bootcamps to children ages 7-12. We've been reviewing how and what we teach and how to engage a broad range of students, including kids with no previous exposure to computer science education, girls, minorities and children from low-income communities. We concluded that in addition to teaching computational thinking skills and computer science concepts, our job is to inspire kids and to cultivate curiosity about technology:

4 sep 2017

5 Tips: How to raise successful technologists

By NewTechKids

This week, primary school children in Amsterdam head back to school. Like so many previous academic years, most of them will not have any computer science or computational thinking lessons as part of formal school curricula. As long as education systems here in the Netherlands and around the world don't integrate these, we urge parents to take matters into their own hands. Intervening early will ensure that children acquire 21st century skills and prepare them

4 sep 2017

Bring NewTechKids to your school in Amsterdam

By NewTechKids

NewTechKids works with primary schools in the Amsterdam area to help introduce computational thinking and computer science programs as part of formal school curriculum. Our programs integrate pedagogy, didactics, teaching approaches and classroom management and are based on the curriculum, lesson plans and teaching materials that we've developed, tested and taught over the last three years. Below are some of the schools where we've taught: Leonardo da Vinci School, Amsterdam NewTechKids teaches computer science programs

7 jun 2017

NewTechKids Teacher Training Workshop on Scrum

By NewTechKids

NewTechKids hosted a teacher training workshop on June 6th, 2017 as part of the 'Learning Fair' event organised by Projectenbureau Primair Onderwijs Zuidoost (PPOZO). Projectenbureau Primair Onderwijs Zuidoost (PPOZO) is the organization which coordinates after-school activities for primary schLearnool students in Amsterdam Southeast, one of the city's most economically-disadvantaged communities. It works with 10 school boards representing 29 schools in the area and 7017 students. Scrum: an important teaching tool to help students develop 21st century skills Scrum

13 mei 2017

NewTechKids Returns to United Arab Emirates

By NewTechKids

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

16 mei 2017

The Case for Specialist Computer Science Teachers

By NewTechKids

In our quest to introduce computer science and technological literacy education in primary school, we often hear the same excuse as to why this is difficult to impossible: teachers already have enough on their plate. Introducing a new subject will overwhelm them, causing their overall teaching to decline in quality. So many countries find themselves in the same position: we know that we need to prepare children to function in a world filled with technology

14 mei 2017

NewTechKids collaborating on DigiLeerKracht initiative

By NewTechKids

NewTechKids has been invited to contribute to VHTO’s new teacher training initiative, DigiLeerKracht. The initiative will focus on providing free training and support for primary school teachers in the Netherlands who are interested in teaching computational thinking in the context of programming. The initiative aims to train 2000 teachers from 2017 - 2019. The initiative is supported by Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google. VHTO is the Dutch national expert organization focused on the participation

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,

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