Math and Coding is a non-profit organization that runs peer-to-peer coding workshops for secondary schools.
As with languages, young people are often able to pick up coding more easily than adults, so it is no wonder we have seen a huge number of initiatives that teach kids as young as five about coding and programming. There are coding delivery boxes, coding storybooks and even programmable bracelets for children.
Math and Coding is an NGO run by schoolchildren, which is furthering the cause through peer-to-peer workshops. Based in San Francisco’s Bay Area, Math and Coding was set up by 15-year-old school friends Nikhil Cheerla and Vineet Kosaraju. It has already provided hands-on training for over 1,000 students. The charity recruits teachers aged 13-plus to teach their peers Java programming, visual programming, robotics and more. Through free courses and workshops, students can learn the skills they need to produce websites, advanced games and smartphone apps. Math and Coding are also inviting students elsewhere in the United States to launch chapters in their community, for which the charity provides all the resources.
The first class was held at Mountain View Public Library and was a coding for kids workshop for elementary school students. After the huge popularity of the class spread by word of mouth, many others began to invite Nikhil and Vineet to host workshops in their libraries.
After realizing that they could not be present in all the libraries at once, they decided they needed to recruit and teach more teenagers to train others. Over the course of three years, they expanded their team from two to 50 volunteers. The volunteers helped them expand and add many more workshops. The pair have received commendations from the mayors of San Jose and Cupertino for their efforts to teach kids coding and other technology skills.
The programme makes an effort to reach out to underrepresented youth from minority neighbourhoods. As part of this effort, workshops were offered in libraries in less privileged areas such as at the Alum Rock, Biblioteca Latino Americana, Bascom and East Palo Alto libraries.
As part of a collaboration with LinkedIn, Nikhil and Vineet went to its campus to introduce young kids to coding. More than 250 students attended their six-hour-long workshops across two campuses. They have since been invited once more by LinkedIn to prepare a curriculum to teach in its outreach programme for secondary school students from low-income neighbourhoods.
Math and Coding also operate extremely popular summer coding camps. Each summer it organizes more than 20 summer camps, each with three to five sessions that include day camps, technology days and weekend camps.
Although most of their workshops teach coding, Nikhil and Vineet also conduct periodic maths camps for underrepresented youth. Their Green Math camp at the Alum Rock Library taught maths to a group of first to fourth-grade students from the East San Jose neighbourhood. The camp used a fusion of online maths and worksheets to get maximum productivity.
Using Google Chat and WebEx, the pair trained librarians and young volunteers from outside the Bay Area who were unable to attend training in person. Libraries in Fortworth, Gilroy, Roseville, Mendocino and Atlanta started coding for kids programmes with training from Math and Coding.
The incredible initiative shown by these two youngsters has demonstrated the power of peer-to-peer learning and the huge interest from young people in coding and computer programming.
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Website: www.mathandcoding.org
Contact: mathandcoding@gmail.com
Innovation name: Math and Coding
Country: United States
Industries: Education / Non-profit & social cause