Friday, June 29, Cedar Rapids, IA – NewBoCo and the Cedar Rapids Linn County Solid Waste Agency have partnered to create “Tech Trash or Treasure?” summer camps for students in grades 2-5. This partnership was first formed at a Westfield Elementary STEM event when NewBoCo K-12 Coordinator Samantha Dahlby met Solid Waste Agency Director of Education Jason Evans.
“We love partnering with other community organizations to provide new and unique opportunities for students! They get to see what our community is already doing, and it takes them out of their day-to-day bubble to think about bigger concepts,” Dahlby said. “They also get to flex their creativity and come up with ideas on how they would solve problems, an innate skill that our children have, but one that can get suppressed.”
This camp aims to teach kids about the impact of new technology and devices entering the market faster than we can wear out our old equipment.
“Electronics and E-Waste are a rising concern environmentally. We all have these devices and are consuming them at alarming rates. Education is paramount in managing these resources,” Evans said. “The increasing amount of E-Waste and the fact that oversees markets aren’t accepting this waste in the quantities they have in the past means we have to learn to manage the end life of our products.”
Evans will lead the students in coming up with ideas of how to reuse and reimagine this technology. The students will get to see firsthand what our community is doing to address this problem when they visit the Solid Waste Agency Resource Recovery building.
Registration is open for NewBoCo’s 2018 Summer Challenge STEM Camps. The camps focus on coding, entrepreneurship, and leadership for 2nd-10th graders. You can register here: http://newbo.co/summer-camps
About NewBoCo
The New Bohemian Innovation Collaborative (NewBoCo) is a nonprofit with the mission to accelerate world-changing ideas, from Iowa. The organization aims to create impactful startup businesses that grow here through its entrepreneurial programs; to foster world-class technical and creative talent via innovative educational programs for kids and adults; to assist thriving, innovative companies in developing new products and attracting the best talent through corporate innovation programs; and to make an outstanding social impact and make the world a better place. Since 2014, the nonprofit has expanded dramatically, helping thousands of children learn to code and hundreds of startups get off the ground and grow.
Media contact: Jessalyn Holdcraft, Director of Marketing
jessalyn@newbo.co