"I personally hate to code. I understand how beneficial it is but to me, if engineering was projected as coding and robotics, it wouldn't be something that suits me." In this PreparationTech interview produced by NewTechKids, Danielle Geathers, a third-year Engineering student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the first black, female President of the Undergraduate Association at MIT (student government) in 159 years, advises parents, teachers and school counsellors to focus on teaching
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Parents, teachers, school counsellors: do you know a kid who is obsessed with electronics, tinkering and making things? Engineering and inventing tech is a great study path and career opportunity for her or him. In this PreparationTech interview, Deborah Carter, NewTechKids' Founder and MD, interviews Isaac Sesi, a young Ghanaian man who was named by Massachusetts Institute of Technology as one of the top 35 innovators under the age of 35 in 2019. Isaac talks about
Read moreParents, teachers, school counsellors: do you know a kid who is fascinated by inventions, inventors and technology? In this PreparationTech interview, Deborah Carter, NewTechKids' Founder and MD, interviews Natalie Raffoul, Managing Partner at Brion Raffoul and one of Canada's top Intellectual Property (IP) and patent lawyers. "I'm Managing Partner of a law practice called Brion Raffoul. We have a group of really great professionals here with technical backgrounds who advise innovative companies on how to
Read moreParents, teachers, school counsellors: do you know a kid who is crazy about the giant animated robots at theme parks? Or who is fascinated by cyborgs and human-like robots? Studying robotics can lead to a career in many areas, including but not limited to animatronics, engineering, design, game design, medicine and education. Sculpture, animation, cognitive science, material science, computer science, AI and programming are just some of the fields which intersect with robotics. David Hanson,
Read moreSuper happy to announce our newest NewTechKids advisor: Phil Rynearson (aka Mr. Phil). Phil is a technology teacher in Early Childhood Education at the American School of The Hague in the Netherlands. He gained valuable experience as a classroom teacher for 17 years before devoting the last eight years to supporting students and teachers in finding authentic and empowering methods of integrating technology into school settings. He has worked in public schools in the United States
Read moreNewTechKids is proud to announce that our non-profit arm, Stichting NewTechKids (NewTechKids Foundation), has launched a new online teacher training platform for primary school teachers around the world who want to introduce computer science, technological literacy and computational thinking to students ages 4-12. Share to Teach, the online platform, has been developed by Stichting NewTechKids' team of computer science education specialists, teachers and innovation experts especially for teachers. The platform offers a variety of online training
Read moreLast week, I had the privilege of giving one of the keynote talks at IPON 2018. IPON is the Netherlands’ leading conference/trade show devoted to innovation in education and ICT applications and services. The event showcases teaching methods, learning materials and tools, hardware and software. During my talk, I renewed my call for computer science to become a mandatory subject, starting in primary school and continuing through secondary school. Here are some of my thoughts
Read moreNewTechKids 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
Read moreIn 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
Read moreNewTechKids 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
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