What do a social robot, strings and crayons, and popular computer game Minecraft have in common? They all are among inspiring ways to teach youth more about computer science!
The high energy SpeedGeeking workshop at the Microsoft Enabling Opportunities Summit 2016 gave attendees a chance to experience some of the technology resources and tools available in the Asia Pacific region that can be used to provide high quality computer science education.
The summit gathered top policy makers, educators, and nonprofit partners in Singapore to discuss the challenges, opportunities and ideas required around building an ecosystem to bring the benefits of technology to their local communities. The SpeedGeeking workshop was one of many sessions to inspire attendees to develop ambitious and innovative projects in their programs for underserved youth.
Partnerships with nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are key in Microsoft’s mission to bridge the youth opportunity divide and increase access to computer science education. For example, through the Microsoft YouthSpark program, NPOs in the Asia Pacific region are supported with the resources and the tools they need to bring computational thinking and problem-solving skills to local communities, which are important capabilities to help them succeed in today’s tech-fueled economy. This past year, Microsoft supported 29 nonprofits in Asia with community investments, training more than 566,000 young people on computer science education.
Check out the technologies and exhibits at the SpeedGeeking session below:
1. Imagine Cup – presented by Team Yuuy, Winners, Imagine Cup Singapore 2016;
2. Arduino Kit – presented by Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences
3. M-Powered – presented by YCAB Foundation, Indonesia;
4. DreamSpark– presented by Microsoft;
5. Minecraft – presented by Quest Alliance, India;
6. Touch Develop – presented by Microsoft Student Partners, Singapore;
7. Kodu Game Lab – presented by American Innovation Center, Taiwan;
8. CS Unplugged – presented by Microsoft.
Team Yuuy demonstrates their project called Ruth, a social robot designed converse and help keep the elderly company as well as remind them on medications and appointments.
The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences from Sydney Australia giving a hands on introduction to Arduino starter kit, an open-source electronic prototyping platform that allows users to easily start picking up the basics of creating interactive electronic objects.
YCAB, a non-profit organization that focuses on youth development in the field of promoting healthy lifestyles, education, and economic empowerment showcasing the M-powered employability portal that was launched in partnership with Microsoft Indonesia.
Microsoft’s DreamSpark program supports technical education through access to Microsoft software and developer tools free of charge.
Minecraft: Education Edition is an open world game that promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem solving in an immersive environment while helping educators to motivate and inspire every student to achieve more, and ignite a passion for learning.
Learn how to code through touch friendly and interactive software. Touch Develop is a visual programming language being developed at Microsoft Research that allows users to create apps everywhere and on all devices.
Kodu lets anyone (even without design or programming skills) create games on the PC and Xbox via a simple visual programming language. It can be used to teach creativity, problem solving, storytelling, as well as programming.
CS Unplugged is a collection of free learning activities that teaches Computational Thinking through concepts such as binary numbers, algorithms and data compression, separated from the distractions and technical details of having to use computers.
