New Tech Kids | prototyping

17 Jun 2022

NewTechKids 2022 Summer Bootcamp Themes

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

28 Jan 2022

Prototyping: the Skill Most Kids Are Lacking

By NewTechKids

We often tell our students that technology, whether devices or software, wasn't invented in a day. The phone, TV or gaming console that they use was developed over years by multiple people and is still being improved upon now. All invention processes start with protototyping. Inventors create a quick and dirty object and then test and refine it. There's often a lot of failure involved and inventors need to develop resilience to keep trying and

21 Jan 2019

Who is joining our evening class? Why?

By NewTechKids

Ten days left until NewTechKids' 'How to Raise a Tech Innovator' evening class for parents on January 30th. The class takes place from 19:00 - 21:00 at the central branch of the Amsterdam Public Library. Register now! We thought we'd share some interesting findings from the registration information provided by parents who will attend the class. 100%: parents of boys (The fact that no parents of girls have signed up for the class is unfortunate.

22 Dec 2018

New focus for NewTechKids in 2019

By NewTechKids

For more than four years, NewTechKids has focused on teaching computer science bootcamps to children ages seven to 12. We're very proud to have been one of the first companies to focus on this age range in Amsterdam and in the Netherlands. But we're moving into a new era where we need to take active steps to influence and re-shape the technology industry we have. For us, this means taking a long, hard look at

3 Nov 2017

Tips for raising successful technologists: girls

By NewTechKids

Like most technology education academies, NewTechKids struggles to attract equal numbers of girls and boys to our programs. There are a lot of reasons for this. Most of the time, parents don't even present computer science and programming activities as options for their daughters. They conclude that computer science 'isn’t a fit' for their daughters although it's often 'perfect' for their sons. Girls themselves have told us that learning about technology is hard and often

29 Aug 2016

New Lessons on Smart Energy Systems

By NewTechKids

Last week, we engaged our students in some serious challenge-based learning in order to understand systems thinking and how computers are embedded into all kinds of systems. We challenged the 7-12 year old kids in our 'Computers and How They Work' summer bootcamp to work in teams to design and program a smart energy system which could respond to different temperatures and activate a heating system when the room temperature dropped. In the process, they learned about conditionals and if-else statements.

19 Aug 2015

Technology education by age

By NewTechKids

NewTechKids sees technology education as a means to help kids develop 21st century skills: problem-solving, critical thinking, logic, pattern recognition, creativity and communication. It doesn't matter if children don't create the perfect code, design a popular app or create a beautiful 3D printed product. We are happy as long as it's obvious they are thinking, experimenting, designing, failing, collaborating and learning. Most kids don't receive any technology, programming or computer science education in primary school. This is