My son Tuvia loves coding.
He comes home, does his homework, practices his piano (well, on most days...) and then... AH! His favorite... he starts scripting in C# (said "see-sharp").
His ultimate goal is to create games (I will let you know when his first one is available) and in order to achive that goal, he has created his own curriculum - a veritable PBL case study! As a matter of fact, he is now so confident in his coding expertise that he has started a summer programming camp! For three weeks, he will be running a two-hour-a-day camp for students age nine through thirteen to learn beginner's C# - and the camp has filled up in less than 3 days!!
Oh, by the way, did I mention that he is 11 years old?
In many schools, the introduction to coding comes through a robotics class. This is a great idea as it involves the coding with a real-world result - the robot carries out a task. Tuvia started this way with a Lego robotics club. The problem always was that there were not enough robotics sets so students had to team up in groups of 3 or 4. Great for collaborative learning, not so good for building programming and problem solving skills. The other issue was that while Tuvia could come home and still work on his robot (I took my robotics instructor training from Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Academy about 9 years ago and have all sorts of Robo parts around the house) the other students could not. This was a real problem for some of Tuvia's peers. But not any more...
Enter CoderZ (pronounced Code - erz) with an amazing, fully curricularized program! I will let their video explain it all...
What do you think? It looks pretty cool, right? I know that it solves the "one-kid-per-device" problem and expands that ability for all students to fully participate in all aspects of a coding/robotics program.
Now, I know that when I see new products like this, I want to have a hands-on tour... and that is exactly what I am trying to arrange!
Now, I know that when I see new products like this, I want to have a hands-on tour... and that is exactly what I am trying to arrange!
The folks from Coderz are trying to make it to the April 30th STEM/STEAM & 21st Century ED day. If they can, I will have them give a full demo during the lunch break.
Of course, this means that you need to book your ticket to the event! There is no charge, so all you are spending is your time to come down and attend some fantastic workshops/sessions and great networking opportunities!
Here is the link to book your attendance. The list of events is available through the link.
See you all on Sunday, April 30th!!
Yossie
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