Coding Education

Why Are We Pitting Coding Against Foreign Languages?

Education as a whole is in a crisis in this country. Throughout the globe, other countries are racing past us, especially in the areas of math and science. This has led to the necessary push for more coding education.

In Silicon Valley, one entrepreneur is taking this to the “Hunger Games” level. Consider a recent article for TakePart titled “Can the ‘Hunger Games’ of Coding Solve America’s Tech Worker Shortage?” Joseph Williams of TakePart writes, “It seems like the perfect solution to a national crisis: At a time when the United States needs a million computer science graduates within the decade—and college costs are spiraling upward—a French telecom billionaire is about to open a state-of-the-art, tuition-free computer coding academy in the heart of Silicon Valley. The innovative school, simply called 42, doesn’t care about secondary school grades or SAT scores and provides free dorms for up to 300 low-income students. Although it has a goal of educating 10,000 coders over the next five years, 42 won’t have faculty or a syllabus, but it will have classrooms stocked with the latest Apple computers.”

In other cases, there are arguments for whether coding should count as a second language. While making coding a necessity is a good idea, we have an obligation to prepare our students for a globalized economy. Part of being able to succeed in a globalized economy is providing our children with all the tools to communicate and collaborate with people from all throughout the world. For the most part, these future partners come from different backgrounds and life experiences. One of the best ways to create a path for communication is being able to speak other languages. Why would we want to replace that skill when we could invest in both?

In many cases, this means investing in programs outside of the school system where children can receive mentorship from qualified, experienced teachers. If you’re looking for the best of these programs, CodeRev Kids is the place for you. At CodeRev Kids, we offer customized coding education that focuses on computational thinking. Our programs allow students to engage in robotics, website creation, and app making.

In addition to offering immersive coding programs, we also put an emphasis on having fun. As a result, our students stay engaged while they learn.

If this sounds like the place for your child, sign up for one of our classes today!

Coding Education

Coding Coming to the Aid of the Homeless

While it would be easy to dismiss coding as the trendy thing right now and more of a buzzword than a solution, the reality is that it is one of the great equalizers. Coding jobs are the future for many, and they could solve some of the problems of the present for a number of people throughout the country.

One of these major, epidemic level issues is the homeless crisis. From city to city, state to state, more and more people are finding themselves living in shelters, couch surfing, and even on the street because they don’t have any other options. While it is certainly important that we need to provide more resources to serve this growing problem, that is ultimately a survival strategy. It addresses the immediate needs. The real question is, how do we help people move forward and reverse this horrible trend?

Coding could be the answer for some. WCVB takes a look at this in a recent article titled “Boston homeless shelter empowering teenage girls through coding.” The author of the article writes, “A homeless shelter in Boston is empowering its teenage girls in an unprecedented way: by teaching them how to code. During the past school year, a dozen or so girls have been coming together one night a week to take coding classes in the humble basement of Brookview House, a homeless shelter and affordable housing complex in the Dorchester Center neighborhood of Boston. The girls, ages 13 to 18, learn how to code small programs, apps and video games in Scratch and Python, according to Deborah Hughes, the shelter’s executive director. She explained that all the girls in the club are either homeless or at risk of homelessness. ‘We decided to start this club two years ago because we believe in all the beautiful possibilities for these girls,’ Hughes told ABC News Wednesday. ‘We know getting girls into the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) field is a challenge, but we know what are girls are capable of and that they can overcome any challenges.’”

If you are looking to help others gain coding skills, the first step is to gain that knowledge yourself. The best way to do this is to start young.

At CodeRev Kids, we offer customized coding education for youth. Our programs include robotics, app making, and website creation. Get your child signed up as soon as possible so he/she can learn and have fun in one of our many exciting programs!

Skills

The Robotics World Championship Brings Together Kids from Around the World

It’s no surprise to us that teaching kids robotics can help improve their lives in a number of ways but the recent Robotics World Championship was a particularly inspiring event. A recent article titled Mexican, Central American kids show off robotics talents in Austin does a great job showcasing what was so special about this contents.

“Ana Sofía Orta is only 8 years old, but she’s already decided she wants to do when she grows up: robotics. The little girl from Tamaulipas, Mexico, is on the right path. On May 21, Orta was among 860 children who traveled from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala to participate in the Robotics World Championship 2016, an international competition held at Circuit of the Americas to promote the talent and technical skills of kids from countries that are more commonly associated with gangs, drugs and violence.

The all-day event was organized by the Asociación Américana de Robótica y Tecnología, AAROBOTEC, a group that has been promoting robotics competitions among Latin America schools over the last twelve years, said Pedro Bello, president of the organization. Promoting robotics in classrooms encourages children to choose tech-oriented fields and gives them an opportunity to explore their creativity, said Bello, who is also the principal at a private school in Querétaro, Mexico. Robotics “integrates math, physics and computers,” he said. “And through competitions, children learn in an easy, simple and pleasant way.”

One objective of AAROBOTEC is to encourage the creation of robotics programs in more public and private schools, which could increase the number of students who enter technology fields, said Bello. AAROBOTEC had more than 150,000 students who participated in local competitions in Latin America in the last year. The finalists won the trip to Austin to compete in the championships. “We have to invest in education, in robotics” Bello said, emphasizing that the participating countries have. “There is a lot of talent. They are good people.”

Of course, kids don’t have to live in Mexico or Central American to take advantage of the benefits of learning robotics at a young age. At CodeREV we are here to teach kids essential skills and give them tools to move forward with an interesting hobby that could turn into a lucrative career. Check out our after-school programs or tech camps for more information.

Coding Education

How Prince Quietly Launched a Coding Program for Youth

People throughout the country and the world are still reeling from the news of Prince’s passing. They are also finding out about all the things the man touched that were never previously made public. One thing that the famed artist had a passion for was coding. Consider a recent article for Quartz titled “Prince quietly helped launch a coding program for inner city youth.”

Olivia Goldhill of Quartz writes, “Though many would say Prince changed the world through his music, the artist also took a hands-on approach to changing the world beyond music. The global superstar was the inspiration behind YesWeCode, an Oakland nonprofit, which works to help young people from minority backgrounds enter the tech world. The idea for the program came from a conversation between Prince and his friend Van Jones, who heads Rebuild the Dream charity, following the 2012 shooting of teenager Travoyn Martin. ‘Prince said … ‘A black kid wearing a hoodie might be seen as a thug. A white kid wearing a hoodie might be seen as a Silicon Valley genius. Let’s teach the black kids how to be like Mark Zuckerberg.’’ Jones told CNN. The program is aiming to teach 100,000 low-income non-white teenagers how to write code, and was launched at the 20th Anniversary Essence Festival in New Orleans in 2014—which Prince headlined on the condition that YesWeCode was included in the event. The organization now has 15 technology companies working with youth to help prepare them for Silicon Valley Jobs. Currently, the nonprofit’s website has a page dedicated to thanking Prince. ‘When you think about how great he was as a musician, just please understand that’s a part of the greatness,’ says Jones in a statement. Since Prince’s death, Jones, a former White House advisor on green jobs, also revealed that Prince helped fund environmental group Green for All, another nonprofit founded by Jones, which aims to bring solar panels to Oakland.”

When it comes to customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our camps today!

Coding Education

16-Year-Old Takes Coding to the Next Level

When you learn coding early on, you can impact your community in a variety of ways, even at a young age. Consider a recent article for the San Jose Mercury News titled “Coding: 16-year-old Fremont student writes AP test-prep book, creates online course.”

Sharon Noguchi of the San Jose Mercury News writes, “Moksh Jawa, 16, captures the essence of Silicon Valley startup thinking and energy. ‘Why not?’ might be his motto. As a seventh-grader, he studied up on the Internet and taught himself coding. As a freshman, after studying on his own, he passed the AP Computer Science A exam with a 5, the highest score possible. As a sophomore, because his Fremont high school didn’t teach coding, he developed his own online course and shepherded classmates through it. As a junior, he distilled those lessons into a 450-page test-prep book, now sold on Amazon. What’s next? Lots more. Jawa is a young man on a mission to spread the wonders and dispel fears of computer science. Quickly. On Tuesday, leaders of tech, government and education petitioned Congress to invest in computer science education. Even if Congress responds, it could take years for schools to see any funds, juggle schedules, hire teachers and enroll students — even as the University of California steadfastly refuses to credit computer science as anything other than an elective course, a stance that discourages high schoolers from enrolling. But Jawa is in too much of a hurry to wait for institutional action. ‘I’ve never met a Mark Zuckerberg or a Sheryl Sandberg, but that’s the type of drive Moksh has,’ said Mike Jan, who advises the computer science club that Jawa started at Washington High. His interest started in middle school, when his father gave him a link to Codeacademy, an online coding boot camp. He learned Python, an intermediate programming language. ‘I just fell in love with computer science,’ Jawa said. He found everything he needed to know online: ‘Every time you encounter a problem, the chances are that someone else has, too, and has figured it out.’”

If you’re looking for quality, customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our camps today!

Coding Education

How Election Season Demonstrates the Need for Coding Education

If there is a big takeaway from election season, it’s that substance is severely lacking, even amongst those who consider themselves informed. This is especially problematic because if adults can’t be counted to dig beneath the surface and truly explore the mechanics of their political system and justify their choices with more than catch phrases and canned arguments about likeability that don’t address policy, how can we expect the youth who take after them to do the same with their studies.

What does this have to do with coding? Everything actually. Coding requires substantive and creative thinking. It requires understanding how things work and being able to think deeply on your feet.

In addition to this, coding also offers plenty of opportunity for people to build lucrative careers as the nation and the world moves to a more digitized age. If adults aren’t doing their jobs, then it is clear that the only hope is the children and those that can educate them to appreciate what things like coding have to offer.

If you don’t want to take this author’s word for it, listen to a successful CEO. Yahoo News provides this insight in a recent article titled “This CEO says every kid needs to study coding.” Rick Newman of Yahoo News writes, “Accenture, the large consulting firm, has partnered with Code.org, the nonprofit that promotes better computer science education, especially among women and minorities. But that leaves many individuals out of the technology loop. When asked if every student today ought to study coding, Sweet says, ‘Absolutely. Not because they all need to be computer scientists, but because coding is a basic skill required to be digitally fluent.’ There’s a big gap, however, between the skills companies want and the skills schools teach. Sweet cites research showing 92% of jobs today require some degree of digital fluency. Yet coding is not taught at all in many high schools, and those that do teach it often offer just one course. Virtually all of the young workers Accenture hires are digitally aware, Sweet says, ‘but not all are digitally savvy.’”

At CodeRev Kids, we provide the immersive coding education that prepares your child for success as an adult. Our customized curriculum is geared to keep your child engaged while he/she learns the ins and outs of computational thinking.

Don’t miss out on this fun and educational opportunity. Sign up for one of our classes today!

Uncategorized

On Immersive Learning

One of the major benefits of CodeRev Kids is that it immerses your child in coding. EdSurge explores immersive learning in a recent article titled “The Benefits of Immersive Learning: From the Eyes of a Coding Bootcamp Student.”

Rex Salisbury of EdSurge writes, “I went to a selective liberal arts college and studied economics. Over the course of four years, I spent about 1,000 hours to get an economics degree. Four years after graduating, doing work I found unfulfilling, I went to a coding bootcamp where I spent 1,000 hours learning to code in around 14 weeks. At this point, you might be thinking, ‘Wow, 1,000 hours in 4 years versus 1,000 hours in 14 weeks—that’s a big difference.’ You also might be wondering about the utility of each of these programs. Am I more of an expert in economics—or coding? Becoming an expert in something isn’t easy. It takes work—a lot of work, in fact. Writer Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours. But just doing anything for 10,000 hours isn’t enough. It has to be rigorous, self-reinforcing learning that continually challenges you. While most coding bootcamps fall quite short of Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule, these programs will get you 1,000 hours of some of the most rigorous, self-reinforcing learning that you could ever imagine in an incredibly short period of time. How are bootcamp students able to learn so much, so quickly, you may ask? It’s simple—for 14 weeks, you don’t do anything else. You immerse yourself in coding as deeply as possible… Immersion is nothing new. We’ve known for years that it’s an incredibly effective way to learn. Consider, for example, learning a foreign language in that language’s country of origin. Learning coding at a bootcamp is similar to studying abroad when you want to learn a language; it’s immersive, it’s exciting, and there are tons of people surrounding you and supporting your learning every hour of every day.”

If you’re looking for quality, customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our camps today!

Skills

7-Year-Old Displays Coding Skills on “Steve Harvey”

Coding recently got a major platform on the Steve Harvey show. A young child showed off his skills for the comedian-turned media titan. Consider a recent article for the Morning Call titled “Lower Nazareth 7-year-old to talk computer coding on ‘Steve Harvey.’”

According to the author of the article, “There’s a ‘Little Big Shot’ in Lower Nazareth Township and his name is Kedar Narayan. The 7-year-old is so talented at computer coding that the ‘Steve Harvey’ daytime NBC talk show asked him to appear on the program at 2 p.m. Monday when Harvey kicks off a week of celebrating kids. Kedar will explain to Harvey, who also has an NBC Sunday primetime show called ‘Little Big Shots,’ what computer coding is and talk about the program he invented called ‘Storibot.’ ‘Storibot’ is a 3D board game that teaches coding to children and includes tactile elements so that visually impaired children can use it. Harvey is showcasing kids with incredible talent, some who have been on ‘Little Big Shots’ and some who are getting their big break on the ‘Steve Harvey’ stage. Kedar, who is homeschooled, has been writing computer code since he was 5. He started when his parents became frustrated that he was spending too much time playing video games and fibbed to him that his Wii was broken, says his mom Anita. They said he needed to learn how to create games. He learned with a program called Scratch, created at MIT, and from YouTube. His mom, Anita, is a former coder. His father, Kartik, is a biochemist for Sanofi Pasteur. Kedar won an award in November at the Chicago Toy and Game Fair, where he was discovered by Steve Harvey’s people. Anita says the show contacted them two weeks ago and flew them to Chicago, where they taped the show April 12.”

When it comes to customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our camps today!

Skills

Computer Coding: The Workforce Silver Bullet?

Many policymakers throughout the country are wondering how to create more equity in the workforce. Coding is one avenue many are exploring. Consider a recent article for the US News & World Report titled “Is Computer Coding the New Silver Bullet?”

Lauren Camera of the US News & World Report writes, “Deborah Berebichez remembers marveling last year at the throngs of girls working in teams at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. They were writing computer coding to categorize and analyze all sorts of artifacts from the museum. ‘It was brilliant what they were doing,’ said Berebichez, the chief data scientist at Metis, a coding boot camp provider affiliated with education and test prep company Kaplan. But then she approached a group of girls who had written code to analyze statistics about turtles. In a column that showed each turtle’s weight were big numbers, like 120 and 200. ‘I asked them what measurement of weight that was,’ she explained. ‘And none of them knew.’ The education arena loves silver bullets, and right now it has its eyes set on getting girls to code as a way to close the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and math – or STEM – fields. Dozens of programs have sprouted up across the country, and the White House has made investing in computer science a major policy priority. But without also providing critical thinking skills, many say, the potential solution is just the latest shiny object in a series of now-tarnished baubles. ‘It makes me a little bit sad,’ Berebichez said at the annual Arizona State University Global Silicon Valley Summit, held this year here in California. ‘Coding programs are sprouting like broccoli all over the country, but it’s just a language. What we really should be teaching them is critical thinking skills.’”

If you are looking for the best in customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our camps today!

Coding Education, Skills

Coding to Detect Hidden Explosives

 

When we talk about coding, the conversation is often abstract. We talk about available jobs but we don’t put a face on these employment opportunities. IHS Electronics 360 takes a look at one of these opportunities in a recent article titled “Computers and Coding Skills Can Help Detect Hidden Explosives.”

Nicollette Emmino of IHS Electronics 360 writes, “Traditional mass spectrometers are quite large, about the size of an oven, which makes them hard to use outside of a laboratory. However the Duke researchers have now figured out how to implement a technology called ‘coded aperture’ in order to shrink the devices and make them usable in the field to detect environmental or safety hazards. ‘In a typical mass spectrometer, the charged molecules pass through a thin slit, which defines your resolution,’ says Jeff Glass, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke. ‘When you try to shrink the instrument, you have to shrink the slit too. That means the number of ions (charged molecules) passing through is going to drop and you’re going to lose signal intensity. We got around this issue by using several slits, which code the ions.’ The key to making it work is knowing the pattern (code) of the array of apertures. The team worked with fellow engineers to implement the coding and computational aspects necessary. ‘This idea was actually mentioned in a short article from 1970,’ said Jason Amsden, a research scientist and manager of the project. ‘But nobody since then has had all the parts to put it together.’ Now the team is testing its coded aperture technology on different versions of mass spectrometers to see which versions will be best when scaled down for mobile use. The team members are also working to show the devices have potential applications in detecting trace amounts of methane to spot leaks in infrastructure and various explosives to prevent terror attempts. The technology can also have a more immediate impact in research laboratories around the world due to its higher resolution capabilities, an asset for medical applications.”

When it comes to customized coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our camps today!