Amazon Future Engineers and CoderZ Offer Robotics Training to Title I Schools
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 09/28/20
The
Amazon
Future Engineers
program is providing Title I teachers access to a free CoderZ
robotics course of their choice. The offer is available to the first
1,000 teachers who apply through the CoderZ
website.
CoderZ produces an online platform that helps students learn STEM
skills, including coding, robotics (with virtual robots) and physical
computing. Amazon Future Engineer is a learner-to-earner program
intended to increase computer science education for children and
young people from underserved and underrepresented communities.
To
take advantage of the offer, classes in grades 4-12 must complete an
introductory three-hour
challenge
that introduces them to the basics of computer science (and also how
goods are delivered at Amazon). Students will hear from two Amazon
Future Engineer Scholarship winners who share their own journeys into
computer science.
From
there teachers can move students onto one of CoderZ's more advanced
coding modules. Participating educators will have access to the
course of their choice for six months for up to 150 students.
Teachers may also request access to different courses if they teach
varied grade and/or ability levels. The courses run between 15 and 25
hours and include game-like missions that require students to use the
visual and text code editor Blockly
to develop and test code. The courses include teacher resources, such
as guides, presentations and solution sets.
Teachers
can find out if their schools are eligible to participate in the
program on
the CoderZ website.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.