By Rama K. Ramaswamy
Leading up to this year's Wellesley STEM Expo 2019, the Wellesley Education Foundation (WEF) and its Expo planning team have launched a brand new initiative: Computational Thinking Workshops.
These days, parents and students alike are noticing an increasing overlap between STEM and other disciplines. Qualities such as on-the-spot adaptability, algorithm assembly, and data assessment are becoming the new foundations for many traditionally non-STEM jobs. In other words, computational thinking is about problem solving: the ability to break a problem into parts or steps, recognize and find patterns or trends, develop instructions to solve a problem or steps for a task, and generalize patterns and trends into rules, principles or insights. These aren't just the talents of a strong programmer - they are attributes of a quality, future employee.
WEF is a strong supporter of STEM and 21st Century Learning in the Wellesley Public Schools and as such, has already invested in some of the more established, research-based K-12 initiatives, closely aligned with computational thinking, such as project-based learning.
“We [WEF] believe that students of today need to build these critical skills and we are pleased to partner with Code Ninjas to offer some fun, free workshops for kids ages 7-13,” said WEF Co-Presidents Victoria Ostler and Maria Chase. “All sessions [are] held at the new Code Ninja location at 161 Linden Street, Wellesley.”
The programs are listed as follows:
Robotic Friends and Unique Monsters
Ages 7-10
Wednesday, February 27, 5-7 p.m.
Saturday, March 2, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Packing Game and Evo Ice Hockey
Ages 11-13
Thursday, February 28, 5-7 p.m.
Sunday, March 3, 1-3 p.m.
WEF is also offering a new Zombie Challenge: "save your squad from the zombie apocalypse.” The simulation, which is available online, is not designed to work on tablets, phones or Safari browsers. Users are asked to utilize a computer to perform the challenge; those using a Mac should use a Chrome or Firefox browser.
Pre-registration is required, and space is limited. To sign up for any of the above mentioned items, visit https://www.wellesleyeducationfoundation.org/computational-challenge.
The Wellesley Education Foundationis able to continue to offer free STEM programming due to the generosity of their donors.
