Since 2017, Saturday Kids has managed Code in the Community (CITC) – a large-scale free multi-level coding programme for disadvantaged kids.

With the help of public and private partners — including Google and Infocomm Media Development Agency (IMDA) — and over 1000 committed volunteers, we’ve reached over 3500 kids from disadvantaged families in Singapore.

The programme was delivered virtually aligned to the SMMs in the past year, but with the ease of restrictions in early 2022, we brought back the face-to-face course for Scratch and Python Level 2 classes which require hardware uses. While the online classes enabled learning continuity of CITC students during the pandemic, we are happy to bring back the face-to-face course through continued partnership with the National Library Board. 

In the video, we asked Code in the Community students and volunteers what they like about Code in the Community! 

Take a look at what they have said… 

Big thanks to all the students and volunteers who joined us and shared their answers!

The post What do you like about Code in the Community? appeared first on Saturday Kids | Coding, Digital Literacy for Kids & Parents.

Hey big kids! Could you introduce yourselves and share how you work together to create products as Saturday Kids?

Fong Yee (FY):

“In terms of curriculum, I usually manage the camps for preschoolers and for kids ages 7-10. Damar, being more technical, runs Minecraft camps and the camps for kids ages 11-14.

But our strengths are very different!”

Damar (D):

“I’m more restrained than the average person and carefully think out options before acting on them.

Fongyee complements me by being more of a freethinker who comes up with great ideas and thinking outside the box. I keep her on the ground if she thinks of something that is not very feasible.

FY:

“That’s quite true! Damar is very systematic and reminds me to think through of all the factors for consideration.

Our skills are so different.

It sounds cheesy, but we both share the spirit of Saturday Kids.“

Could you unpack that? What is the spirit of Saturday Kids?

D:

“To me, a Saturday Kid is someone who likes to ask questions. Remember how as a kid you’d keep asking “why”? Unfortunately, a lot of us lose that quality as we grow up. 

The spirit of Saturday Kids is to embrace and connect with kids’ curiosity.”

FY:

“Apart from curiosity, it’s also about adaptability.

We’re always on the lookout for that in instructors. But they don’t just have to be curious and technical; they have to be adaptable and really internalise the idea that we are not a coding school.

The tools that we teach kids to use are tools to exercise their imagination.

Of course instructors are there to teach the class, but it’s so important that they’re not bogged down by the technicalities of this. The curriculum is just a guide.

As an instructor you’re going to meet so many kinds of students – students who’ll finish everything, who’ll finish 80% of things. What students present on the last day of class is not the end goal at all.

An instructor’s goal is that a child’s first experience with learning how to code should not be a traumatic one. It’s not about coding, it’s about cultivating their mindset towards learning.

We’ve all had that experience of growing to hate math or playing the piano because of a teacher who taught us to internalise that we’re not good at it; that I can’t do it because I’m just not a math person or that I’m just bad at art.

It sounds like an exaggeration, but that initial experience potentially really changes your life. 

I always tell instructors, not completing the curriculum is not an indicator of how good an instructor you are; your job is to match your students’ pace.”

What inspired these convictions about how kids should or should not learn?

FY:

“It stems from personal experience, and recognising both that it take so much to unlearn harmful mindsets and that it’s possible for kids not to go through that at all. 

That’s why we’re passionate about creating a better environment for kids’ learning, so they don’t have to grow up having to unlearn all these learning traumas that come with being constantly judged and assessed.”

D:

“I can definitely relate to some of the kids I teach. There were times in my childhood when I felt a little suppressed and didn’t always get to express myself in the ways I wanted.

As an instructor, maybe I can help other kids to express themselves, to have fun while learning, and have fun doing things that they like.

Coding is just a tool, right? It’s a relevant tool that helps kids learn how to learn, logical thinking, how to decompose problems and how to solve them, in addition to technical skills.”

What can we look forward to from Saturday Kids in 2022?

D:

“Better products from us…  improvements everywhere! As a curiosity school, I think it’s important for us to go beyond developing kids’ technical competencies and to equip kids with other skills like public speaking and design thinking.

I’m excited about the launch of Meta Tinkerers – I can’t wait to see what kids will create using Viviware.

I’m also really looking forward to launching Ready, Set, Python! It should be lots of fun – we’re trying a lot of new things – from computer vision, data science, to artificial intelligence using Python programming. Kids can learn how to use these as tools to create in the future. This new programme’s not just about learning how to code, but also discovering how the world uses Python.”

Kids are innately curious, but as we grow up it can be hard to protect and nourish our curiosity. How do you stay curious as adults?

FY:

“Spending time with kids helps! Working at Saturday Kids really keeps me young – being with kids is very grounding. Kids are the most original thinkers.

Even as much of my time is spent designing new camps and curriculum, teaching regularly helps me stay in touch with my inner child.”

D:

“I have to agree with Fongyee on that! I feel very thankful and blessed to be able to do this as a job – to interact with kids who come up with these wonderful ideas and who have all this imagination.” 

Read more from Fong Yee and Damar, and get to know the rest of the big kids. If our approach to learning resonates, we’d love to hear from you – come experience why #SaturdayKidshavemorefun online or in person or say hello.

The post “The Curriculum is just the Guide” – Behind the Scenes with the Saturday Kids Product Team appeared first on Saturday Kids | Coding, Digital Literacy for Kids & Parents.

And through the interdisciplinary programme, we hoped to point kids towards using tech as a tool for addressing big questions – to expand their worldview, use web-based technologies to explore their curiosities, and communicate their ideas and concerns through code, without prescribing what they should or should not create. It felt like an open-ended adventure – if you’re curious to find out what kids learned over a year of Code Meets World, read on:

Learning about how things on the internet really work. 

Sanjit: 

“I really enjoyed learning about dark patterns – I’ve been tricked by such websites before unknowingly, and was able to recognise them as dark patterns after we learned about it in class.”

Janelle: 

“Code Meets World really teaches you about how things work. You get to understand what’s happening in the process of using Chrome or Wikipedia, in terms of both the coding and design. 

Learning how to make a website surprised me. It was like “wow” – this is complicated. But also easy.”

Connecting the dots between code, themselves, and the world.

Aiden: 

“I see coding’s relevance to the future – everything might be operated by robots in the future! I would like to be a pilot, and this means I’ll get to monitor all the robots at work and data as well.”

Gabriel: 

“I used to think that coding was for fun and enjoyment.

But I’ve become more interested in coding and computer science after Code Meets World. It’s made me feel like I’d like to pursue a career in this industry. Perhaps in software engineering, or as a data engineer where I could combine coding with my interests in car performance.”

Learning how to learn, and leanin’ into the future.

Aiden: 

“Coding is fun, don’t give up! Pay attention and be curious.”

Janelle: 

“Code Meets World really teaches you about how things work. They might look hard at first, but you’ll realise that they are easy and you’ll feel very accomplished once you’ve completed the projects in class.”

Curious about what the curriculum for an interdisciplinary approach to creative coding looks like? Learn more about Code Meets World: Applied Coding for Big Ideas.

PS: As part of our mission to democratise digital literacy, 50% of students from our first Code Meets World cohort are graduates from Code in the Community – Singapore’s largest free coding programme for disadvantaged kids – whose spots in the programme were made possible by donations by individuals, companies, and Saturday Kids. Find out more about our social mission and the Pay it Forward scholarship programme, and shoot us an email to get involved.

The post Pay Attention and Be Curious: What happens when Code Meets World appeared first on Saturday Kids | Coding, Digital Literacy for Kids & Parents.

As an impact-driven organisation, we’re on a mission to inspire kids to create a brighter future with technology. And we recognise that in order to do that, we’ve gotta go beyond coding.

While we’ll always be a kids’ school for creative coding (for a number of reasons… but also because it’s just way too fun not to teach and learn this stuff), starting this September Holiday, we’re psyched to roll out new learning experiences that’ll empower kids to make their big ideas come to life, beyond the screen.

What does that look like?

Joining forces with our friends in progressive education internationally, we’re harnessing the power of play-based learning, channeling it towards real world problem-solving, and building kids’ capacity to navigate the vagaries of the future in the process. 

This starts with working with fellow startups tackling the future of education – like Galileo, Ender, Vivita and others – to curate and co-create camps, workshops, and opportunities to apply what they’re learning in impactful ways that are meaningful and relevant to them.

Big questions about the future of learning are never far from our mind.

How might we equip kids to thrive in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous) future? How might we enable kids to be stewards of their mental health? How might we motivate them as curious, self-directed learners to take on the biggest challenges of our time? 

Thankfully we’re not taking on these questions alone. 

To kick things off this September, we’re collaborating with the US-based team from Ultraspeaking to pilot two play-based public speaking courses for kids ages 11-14. Introducing Ultraspeaking: Be Yourself with Improv! and Ultraspeaking: Finding Your Voice.

Why public speaking? Whether you’re trying to entertain an audience, convince your schoolmates to recycle, or stand up to the class bully – creative and confident verbal communication can open doors to bring your ideas to life, advocate for yourself, and speak up for causes you care about.

What does the future of education hold? There is no normal future except for the one we’re creating together, and how kids learn will define that.

The post Beyond Coding: The Future of Education at Saturday Kids appeared first on Saturday Kids | Coding, Digital Literacy for Kids & Parents.

“The best part about teaching kids Coding the Impossible is being able to let our kids experience what it means to come up with an idea – no matter how crazy – and bring it to life on a screen.”

At Saturday Kids, our mission is to inspire kids to create a better future with technology. So what really gets us excited is creating new learning experiences that expand kids’ potential, challenge our ideas of what is possible, and build towards ambitiously meaningful outcomes. It’s that energy that drove the creation of Saturday Kids Greenhouse – our structured coding programmes for kids.

How might we design a fun, beginner-friendly learning experience with solid technical outcomes that gets kids excited about applying their skills and interests in a way that creates ripples beyond themselves?

When we started the ideation process for Coding the Impossible, our priority was to meet kids where they’re at. And while there’s not much we know with total certainty – we know that kids (big and little) love games, and that play is the best way to learn.

And that’s how CTI was born. Inspired by the games that have defined play and childhood over the years, the programme starts with kids learning to recreate and subsequently reinvent classic games, before going on to code their own social impact games aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Go behind the scenes of the programme as we hear from Rocket Launcher and Product Designer Vinitha, who shares her experience of designing and piloting Coding the Impossible.

Designing with a beginner’s mindset

“I graduated from university with a degree in Linguistics, and didn’t have much experience in tech education or coding. But I was very passionate about working with kids, and drawn to Saturday Kids’ take on education and learning – and I wanted to be a part of it. 

Learning to code was fascinating. Like our 7-10 year old kids, I started with Scratch. Learning to code was like learning a new language. 

I think that having first hand experience of what it might be like for my kids to learn coding for the the very first time is valuable, and actually allows me to design better curriculum.“

The power of learning through games

“While teaching the programme, I found that my students were video game enthusiasts. Being able to recreate games that they already know and love was pretty thrilling for them.

Designing a curriculum that allows them to have the space to be creative while learning something meaningful and fun is what I strive to achieve in the process of designing this curriculum.

“I’m inspired by my kids’ curiosity and their desire to learn.”

The best part about teaching kids Coding the Impossible is being able to let our kids experience what it means to come up with an idea – no matter how crazy – and bring it to life on a screen.” 

Using code to create ripples

“In the final module of Coding the Impossible, kids take game creation a step further to explore how games can be used for a greater good. We introduce them to the UN SDGs and to the idea of social impact games as a framework we refer to in each lesson, building towards a capstone project of coding a game for good.

“Ultimately, we want to show kids that a game can be so much more than a game – it can be a tool to create awareness about an issue that matters, and a medium for education.”

And just like anything they learn in school or outside the classroom, they can apply their skills and knowledge to make an impact that goes beyond themselves.”

Coding the Impossible: Foundations in Block-based Code is a year-long foundational coding programme inspiring kids ages 7-10 to design and develop impactful, fun-packed digital experiences through games. New intakes take place every term through Saturday Kids Greenhouse. Come find out what it means to play for the future at Saturday Kids, with code as our medium.

The post Behind the Scenes of Coding the Impossible: Games for Good appeared first on Saturday Kids | Coding, Digital Literacy for Kids & Parents.