The push to promote coding amongst kids continues as edtech start-up Bitsbox commits to donating coding kits to children all over the world this December.
To celebrate Computer Science Week (7-13 December), as well as its recent $500,000 funding round, Bitsbox is training 1,000 teachers worldwide to give an Hour of Code event for 30,000 students.
Bitsbox works by providing a subscription of monthly projects for kids to work through, with founders Scott Lininger and Aidan Chopra’s aim being to keep kids interested. If kids are interested, the duo claims, they will keep at it.
They currently ship their products to 56 countries, with these donated kits heading to the likes of the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and more.
“Our mission at Bitsbox is to teach every kid to code, and the Hour of Code is a critical introduction for so many children,” said Lininger. “By offering free classroom kits to teachers, we’ll be able to reach tens of thousands of kids.”
The kits will basically be materials for up to 30 kids each, with teachers able to sign up here.
Hour of Code projects have a history of being hugely successful. Last winter, for example, 10-year-old European Digital Girl of the Year Lauren Boyle gave Taoiseach Enda Kenny his first lesson in coding in Ireland.
Come on lads
However, Ireland remains one of the countries yet to add basic coding to the curriculum in schools.
“We don’t teach kids English to become authors,” said Lininger, which says more in a few short words than you probably thought possible.
Hour of Code is a project run alongside Computer Science Week, taking in lessons for people aged from four to 104, with more than 180 countries hosting events. In Ireland, it is taken quite seriously, with CoderDojo sure to promote some activities in the coming weeks.
Here is Lininger and Chopra in a video from their Kickstarter campaign last year:
Main image via Shutterstock
