With a mission to make coding and development accessible and straightforward for learners across Africa, Stem Code Africa has developed user-friendly and engaging educational materials designed for children to easily grasp the understanding of coding, web 3.0, artificial intelligence, and machine languages.
Stem Code Africa strives to consistently produce and enhance course content, equipping African youth with the essential coding skills they need for future technological advancements that will benefit Africa’s progress.
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The initiative is the newest by NGO-Run EdHub App in partnership with teachers from the Khula Education Foundation and aims to introduce children to the world of coding through Scratch programming and similar coding practices developed by the organisation.
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Brandon Wilson, a Cape Town-based app developer, first began his NGO work in 2019 when he introduced the EduHub Android app in response to the educational challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The app was designed to assist South African schools with math, science, and english, and offered a centralised repository of educational materials, including explanatory videos, past papers, memorandums, marking guidelines, worksheets, and textbooks in video or PDF format.
Wilson’s vision was to provide learners with access to a wealth of information and resources to support their studies. His EduHub work has since evolved to exclusively support 22 schools in partnership with the Khula Education Foundation.
The newly launched STEM Code Africa project is an online platform that grew out of Wilson’s work on EduHub and offers simplified and interactive coding course materials tailored to children.
It aims to make the learning process accessible while presenting it in a kid-friendly manner with modules like ‘Dancing Letters’ and ‘Guess the Secret Number’.
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The STEM Code Africa ethos is that coding and development should be accessible to all children across Africa. The platform serves South African children and youth from other African states by providing free courses to help students grasp the fundamentals of coding, web 3.0 A.I., and machine languages.
Ultimately, the organisation believes their work with children will contribute to Africa’s technological future. Learning to code at an early age not only prepares children for future careers but also enhances their logical and creative thinking skills.
However, many families find it challenging to navigate the world of coding education for kids, often wondering where and what programming language to start with.
For children between the ages of 8 and 11, Scratch is the recommended choice from STEM Code Africa. It is a visual programming language developed by the MIT Media Lab in 2007, featuring a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface with colourful blocks.
Unlike traditional coding languages that require typing out code, Scratch empowers children to create interactive games and programmes by connecting code blocks, making it a perfect choice for young learners.
While Scratch is primarily designed for ages 8 to 11, it is versatile enough to be used by older children and adults with minimal computer science experience. In fact, universities like UC Berkeley use block-based languages like Scratch in their introductory computer science courses.
‘As someone who was educated through quintile schools in the Western Cape, my goal is to make a difference in educational accessibility through projects like EduHub and STEM Code Africa, ‘ said Wilson.
Visit STEM Code Africa to learn more about the initiative.
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