DevTech’s pedagogical approach can be found in Marina Bers’ latest book Coding as a Playground: Programming and Computational Thinking in the Early Childhood Classroom. Visit this book guide for activity suggestions for hands-on play, prompts for reflection and discussion and opportunities to take the concepts discussed in each book chapter further with additional resources.
Professional Development
DevTech will be hosting a series of professional development workshops this year in collaboration with the Office of Professional and Continuing Education at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development. These workshops will target preK-2 teachers who are interested in integrating computer science, computational thinking, and robotics into their early childhood classrooms with a playful, developmentally appropriate approach created by the the DevTech Research Group led by Professor Marina Umaschi Bers. For more information on available workshops or to host a course for your organization, contact lynchschoolpce@bc.edu.
DevTech also offers a self-paced online PD course, specific to the CAL-ScratchJr curriculum. To learn more and get started, visit this link.
Curriculum Resources
Computer programming is becoming an essential skill in the 21st century. Through developmentally appropriate platforms such as KIBO and ScratchJr, DevTech has created comprehensive coding curricular resources to enable teachers to help young children start learning about programming and develop computational thinking skills.
There is no prior coding experience necessary!
Our lesson plans and classroom activities are designed to support both you and your students! We’ve developed engaging educational content that uses KIBO, ScratchJr, and the Coding as Another Language (CAL) approach using both KIBO and ScratchJr. Additionally, funded by the The David Lear Sulman Computing, Science, and Engineering Fund for Jewish Day Schools, we’ve also developed a Jewish Curricula Series that integrates coding, robotics and computational thinking with Judaic Studies.
Grant Resources
There are different ways to receive funding for materials like KIBO or tablets for ScratchJr. The following is a list of grants for teachers and educators. DevTech is not associated with any of the following organizations, but we want teachers to have a resource that helps them know of opportunities for funding.
- Adopt-a-Classroom
- DoDea Grant Program
- DonorsChoose
- Get Ed Funding
- Grants Alert
- Grant Watch
- Grants.gov
- Inside Philanthropy
- Lockheed Martin’s STEM Education Grants
- Mass.gov
- Motorola Innovation Grants
- National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
- National PTA Grants
- National Science Foundation Grants
- NEA Foundation Grants
- PledgeCents
- Rural Technology Grant
- Savvas Grant Resources
- Spencer Grant Library
- Scholastic Librarian Grants
- STEMfinity
- Teach
- THE Journal
- Toshiba
- US Department of Ed
- WK Kellogg Foundation
- Philanthropy News Digest
- Youth Service America
- VOYA Unsung Heroes Award