On March 22, the Fairfield Co-lab was especially crowded over the lunch hour. Local entrepreneurs had been gathering there for months for Traction Thursday, a new networking program for members of the Fairfield business community. Today, however, there was some extra buzz. Participants wanted to hear about Kiva Iowa.
As computer science becomes a greater focus in Iowa classrooms, educators want young students to get as much of a head start as possible. Two programs from NewBoCo – Tiny Techies and CoderDojo – help with that goal.
Looking at the numbers, coding is still an industry dominated by men.
With Girls Who Code, NewBoCo looked to even the playing field. In 2023, NewBoCo had over 50 local students between 3rd and 12th grade in our Girls Who Code clubs. Taking place every Saturday for 10 weeks in the spring and again in the fall, Girls Who Code focuses on coding, learning about career opportunities, building positive relationships with peers, and doing projects throughout.
We know Iowa needs more computer science teachers for every child to have the opportunity to learn future ready skills.
Thanks to NewBoCo’s Code.org Partnership, you can train your existing teachers who want to begin teaching computer science here instead of finding and hiring a new teacher.
Last weekend, the regional level of the national Future Cities competition was held at Maple Grove Elementary School in Cedar Rapids. More than 30 teams of middle school students from across the state competed.
Every year, there’s a theme for students to build around. This year it was “electrify your future,” with teams challenged to create their cities specifically with renewable energy in mind.
People see the need for computer science, and the relevance. At NewBoCo, we want to get that message out even further. So we held a Fund the Future event Feb. 6. Taking place from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Geonetric Building, 415 12th Ave. SE, Fund the Future showcased all of our education programs. Those ranged from Tiny Techies and CoderDojo for kids, to K12 curriculum for students and teachers, to adult career programs like DeltaV.
Thirty-four Iowa teams competed in Cedar Rapids; winner advances to national competition in Washington, D.C. More than 30 teams of middle school students from across Iowa competed at Maple Grove Elementary School on Saturday (Jan. 20) in the annual Future Cities contest. Their goal? To show how to design a
Artificial Intelligence programs have arrived in our schools in a big way. And while we can debate all day about the pros and cons of students using AI in school, one thing that ISN’T up for debate is this: AI will continue to have a huge impact on our lives.
We really can’t stress this enough: Computer science matters. That’s certainly not a secret here in Iowa. Code.org has ranked our state 7th in the nation for providing computer science education in schools. In the past six years, the number of states that have dedicated funding to computer science programs
Attention, all PreK-12 Educators, Counselors, Instructional Coaches, and Administrators in Iowa: Join us for Iowa’s Computer Science Professional Development Week happening from June 12-16, 2023, on the University of Northern Iowa campus in Cedar Falls, IA. This FREE professional development program aims to support the state and K-12 district CS
