PROVIDENCE – IntraCity Geeks is running ClassFWD, a 10-week after-school program, for middle school students in an effort to increase their interest in technology.
“Our goal in teaching coding and entrepreneurial skills to urban kids is to ignite an unprecedented era of economic growth, enhance diversity in the technology job sector and reduce income inequality,” Arnell Milhouse, IntraCity Geeks’ executive director, said in a statement.
The program launched on Jan. 21 at Nathan Bishop Middle School, through partnerships with the Providence After School Alliance and the Brown Computer Science Department. Williams said they are using one of the middle school’s existing computer labs for the program.
According to information from IntraCity Geeks, the program will culminate in a four-hour Jr. Hackathon on the Brown University campus.
“The program is going very, very well. First, I have to say that the students love the class and its innovative approach to teaching computer programming. Secondly, the feedback from PASA (Providence After School Alliance) has been positively amazing,” Williams wrote in an email, adding the program was so popular there was a waiting list to join it.
Williams said IntraCity Geeks is working with PASA to expand this initiative to all of the middle schools in the district. The plan is to eventually also offer it at the high schools, Williams said.
“As the program grows, we will even include basic and introductory classes for elementary school students,” Williams wrote.
Robert J. Randall, the After School Alliance director of middle school initiatives, said 26 students are enrolled in the program, and they are all from Nathan Bishop.
“I had a chance to see the program in action a couple of times. The instruction was really great. They were doing high-level coding,” Randall said.
At the start of the fifth week, students began working on their final project, which they will enter into the Jr. Hackathon during the program’s last week. The ClassFWD group also will go on a field trip to Brown University to visit the Computer Science Department and tour the Robotics Center. They will also visit Brown STEAM, Hack@Brown and the Brown Entrepreneurship Program.
The Brown University students helping with the program are nicknamed “heroes,” as they provide a critical mentor role that enables the middle schoolers to envision what their own technologically-engaged futures might look like, he said. Similarly, the college students can learn and benefit from these interactions with the middle school students, Millhouse said.
The majority of the learning is centered on developing video games, robots, social apps and social websites. Students work with computer programming languages including JavaScript, C, RobotC, Swift, HTML and CSS. Students will learn to write 50 lines of code per day, he said.
Randall said the After School Alliance works with about 75 different community groups that offer programs in everything from arts and sports to culinary education.
