New Tech Kids | primary school

28 Mar 2023

NewTechKids Teaches Kids about Generative AI

NewTechKids ended up making some important last-minute changes to our digital literacy programs for primary school students at Wereldwijs Primary School in Amsterdam Southeast. Why? The explosion of generative AI. In their article "Teaching Digital Literacy is a 21st Century Imperative & This is Why", Miah Daughtery and Laura B. Hansen write "In classrooms, digital literacy enables students to access information in new ways and then communicate what has been learned with others, giving students

7 Apr 2023

NewTechKids Kicks off Year-long Maker Education Program

By NewTechKids

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

16 Dec 2022

Teaching Digital Literacy in 2023

By NewTechKids

New year, new opportunity to broaden the scope of our technology education programs. While we can't announce the full details, we'll let you in on a secret. NewTechKids will be teaching a new digital literacy program to all classes at an Amsterdam primary school next year: groeps 1 to 8 (kids ages 4-12). Digital literacy is an important part of a solid primary school education. We love the definition of digital literacy given by Hiller Spires,

6 Nov 2022

Humble Bragging About Our Students’ Tech Inventions

By NewTechKids

Nothing makes the NewTechKids team happier than showing the world what our students invent during our classes. This week, our classes for primary school students focused on space exploration, largely because the topic really ignites the imagination of kids. Plus, there's tons of great multimedia content to excite them: movies, video games, books, etc. We kept our class challenges pretty broad and provided a scenario that like Matt Damon in 'The Martian' movie, they have

10 Jun 2022

NewTechKids takes over teaching at local Montessori school

By NewTechKids

This week, NewTechKids had a dream gig: taking over two classes of primary school students in grades 7 and 8 at the Montessori Kind Centrum Zeeburgereiland for three days and teaching a project-based, computer science bootcamp. We were participating as a member of the Mokum Maakcoalitie, a network of organizations in Amsterdam dedicated to Maker education, which is coordinated by Maakplaats021 and the Amsterdam Public Library. NewTechKids and five other organizations took over teaching responsibilities from the

30 Mar 2022

Launching the Maak Carrousel of Maker Activities in Amsterdam

By NewTechKids

NewTechKids is proud to officially launch Mokum Maakcoalitie activities along with our partners: the Amsterdam Public Library/Maakplaats021, de Waag, Pakhuis de Zwijger, Hogeschool van Amsterdam. NEMO Science Museum, Cinekid, The Beach, Designathon Works, Lekkersamenklooien, Cultura Nederland, Next Nature Network en de W&T kennismakelaars (Science & Technology knowledge brokers) from the City of Amsterdam. Our joint mission is to accelerate the spread of Maker education in the City of Amsterdam through in-school and extracurricular activities for

5 Dec 2021

Make Tech Education Class Themes Inclusive

By NewTechKids

Playing to boys' interests starts early, sadly often in coding and computer science classes at the primary school level. The temptation is to focus on diving into the ultra-geeky, more masculine activities to showcase all of the cool stuff you can do with tech. Race car robots. Monster robots. Space warrior robots. Etcetera. But that's exactly when teachers make the biggest mistakes in terms of excluding many girls who are yet to discover the magic

14 May 2021

NewTechKids featured in Book about Teaching Kids Tech Ethics

By NewTechKids

NewTechKids is featured in a recently-published guide to teaching students about the ethics of technology. The book, "Ethics in A Digital World: Guiding Students Through Society's Biggest Questions", was written by Kristen Mattson and published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). We contributed a case study describing how we integrate critical thinking about technology in our curriclulum. Specifically, we co-developed a six-lesson curriculum module for students ages 8-12 called "Thinking about the

13 May 2021

NewTechKids to offer ‘Try It Out’ Workshops at Library

By NewTechKids

NewTechKids is making it easier for kids to experience computer science and programming education and discover why it's so much more than sitting behind a desk and coding boring stuff. We will organize two, separate 'Try It Out' workshops for kids ages 7 - 12 at the Amsterdam Public Library on Tuesday, March 18th and Tuesday, March 25 from 16:15 - 17:25. During each workshop, kids will discuss technology and then work in small groups

27 Nov 2020

Free NewTechKids Bootcamps during 2020 Christmas Vacation

By NewTechKids

NewTechKids will offer two 2020 Christmas holiday bootcamps from December 21 - 31, 2020. Before Christmas Bootcamp: December 21-24, 2020 Bootcamp between Christmas and New Year's: December 28 - 31, 2020 Part of the City of Amsterdam's Mid-Winter Mokum event series, these two bootcamps are subsidized by Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam (OBA) and are being offered free-of-charge to all children who have an OBA Junior library pass. For kids who don't have the pass, the fee