Being able to learn constantly and apply knowledge and skills throughout one's life will be the key to achieving success in the 21st century. It also reflects a mindset which needs to be nurtured from a young age, especially for future innovators. But how do you get to this point. Turns out that there are tried and true effective learning and studying techniques which are backed by science. Unfortunately, most people aren't using them. Which
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Starting this week, NewTechKids is teaching new programs at schools in Amstelveen, a city just outside Amsterdam. We're teaching students at Amity International School Amsterdam and Kindercampus King. Amity is an English-language private school which opened in February 2018 and offers education for students ages 3-18. Students are multicultural, with students and teachers coming from all over the world. We were approached by one of its science teachers who was interesting in augmenting their current curriculum
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It's that time of the year. When students in group 8 in Dutch primary schools receive their definitive 'advies' on the type of high school they will attend and the type of secondary education they will pursue: pre-vocational, senior general or pre-university. This advice is based on a combination of their marks from groups 6-8, the results of standardized tests they take in group 8, and the advice of their group 8 teacher. In some
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We reached out to Leah Plunkett, author of the book "Sharenthood: why we should think before we talk about our kids online", and she had this advice for parents, caregivers and teachers engaged in social media activities. "Use a holiday card rule of thumb to decide whether, when, how, why, and with whom to sharent: if you would put the photo or news update into a hard copy letter, print and mail out hundreds of copies
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NewTechKids is pleased to announce that in 2020, we are expanding our line up of programs focused on teaching kids ages 7-12 about technological innovation. We've hired new teachers with different specializations in order to continue developing innovative ways to teach kids ages 4-12 about computer science, programming and design while helping them develop critical thinking about technology and its implications. Some of the big changes: We will introduce kids to basic, on-screen programming using the
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During our Fall school vacation camp (October 21-25, 2019), kids ages 7-12 explored the theme of climate change while learning about computer science, programming, design and digital fabrication. NewTechKids' strategy was to highlight this topic which is on everyone's mind and constantly in the news, showcase how technology is being used to solve climate change problems, teach basic computer science concepts and challenge kids to design and prototype their own solutions. We partnered with Maakplaats021,
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On Wednesday, October 30, 2019, Deborah Carter, NewTechKids' Founder, will speak at the WiT (Women in Tech) Regatta in Amsterdam. She'll be participating in a panel discussion on the theme "Busting the Myth: Why Girls Don't Participate in STEM and How to Cruise Ahead". The panel will explore if it's true that girls are less interested in technology and pursuing technology-related studies and if so, what can be done to change this. She'll draw on
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A few months back, Deborah Carter, Founder of NewTechKids, had an interesting conversation with a Google executive responsible for the company's computer science education initiatives worldwide. The executive remarked that there are huge discrepancies in student knowledge amongst first year students enrolled in university and college computer science courses. Those who have taken courses, participated in school clubs and extracurricular activities, and/or explored programming with parents or other adults have a huge advantage. Those with
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"This world is what you make of it. So go ahead and leave your mark, starting right here." This was the message on the front cover of the notebook given to each of the 2000 middle and high school students from North America and Europe who attended last week's EF Tours Global Leadership Summit in Davos, Switzerland. The students explored the theme 'The Power of Communication' through design thinking while enjoying an impressive line-up of
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Yesterday, NewTechKids hosted 120 middle and high school students from Colorado, Nevada, Iowa and Minnesota during our programming and robotics workshops in Amsterdam. (A special thanks to the Amsterdam Public Library for hosting the workshops.) Our workshops were part of EF Tours' 2019 Global Leadership Conference under the theme of "The Power of Communication". We led lively discussions about the evolution of communications from no tech to digital, with students talking about how social media
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