116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
NewBoCo: Funding the future
Tuesday event to showcase computer science programs for students, businesses
CEDAR RAPIDS — Samantha Dahlby has headed education programs at NewBoCo for the past six years, providing training for students and teachers alike.
Things have changed a lot during that time.
“People are starting to get it,” Dahlby said. “Parents, students, teachers — they are all starting to understand that every company is a technology company, no matter what their product is. People see the need for computer science and the relevance.”
Dahlby and her colleagues at NewBoCo want to get that message out even more. For that reason, NewBoCo is holding a Fund the Future event on Tuesday.
Taking place from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Geonetric Building, 415 12th Ave. SE, Fund the Future aims to showcase all its education programs. Those range from Tiny Techies and CoderDojo for kids, to K-12 curriculum for students and teachers, to adult career programs like DeltaV.
“We want people to get an idea of what students in our variety of education programs experience,” Dahlby said. “And we want to share hands-on components, as well as things that students have produced in our programs.”
Celebrating education
NewBoCo’s Melissa Silver said the idea for Fund the Future was born out of Computer Science Education Week in December.
“As that was coming together, I felt it was important to celebrate our people in education and the future that we want to create for them,” Silver said.
Silver is the director of student services for NewBoCo’s DeltaV program, which helps students get a fresh start to their careers. Designed in a bootcamp-style learning environment, DeltaV takes students from beginners to full-stack junior developers in just six months.
“We were thinking about how we can celebrate the people that have gone through Delta V, as well as other ways that we can fund the future with computer science,” Silver said.
During the evening, NewBoCo will highlight some of the success stories behind DeltaV students over the past few years. Those highlights will include:
- Winners of the Future City regional competition. NewBoCo coordinates the annual event in Iowa, in which teams of middle schoolers design cities of the future and how they will work.
- The CoderDojo program, a free event on weekends that allows younger students to experience hands-on activities like drone piloting, electrical circuits, microscopes and more.
- Girls Who Code clubs, which allow students from third to 12th grade explore computer science.
- The Tiny Techies professional development program, which supports PreK through second-grade teachers. Tiny Techies offers training on foundational computer science concepts without actually using computers and screens. Instead, Tiny Techies workshops allow teachers to work with “Squishy Circuit” materials, basic robotics, pattern recognition and more.
Dahlby said that hands-on booths at the Fund the Future event will highlight student work and experiences across NewBoCo's programs. Attendees will be able to explore creations, talk with participants and understand what the costs are in order to continue those programs.
Making an impact
Abby Stoll, a former teacher in the Springville Community School District, taught two sections of computer science to seventh-grade students last fall, using curriculum she had learned from NewBoCo.
“This past year, I have been a part of two classrooms — one with my peers learning about CS (computer science) concepts, and another with my students teaching the CS concepts.” Stoll said. “The best part was having colleagues that had the same questions or concerns, and others that processed information differently. I could both consider the content as a student and observe different ways of thinking as a teacher.”
Stoll said those lessons are critical for Iowa’s business community, and for the students who will grow up to work in it.
“This program with NewBoCo provides the support, the resources and the knowledge beyond what any one teacher can achieve alone,” Stoll said.
Sharing stories
Dahlby is eager to share more success stories at Fund the Future on Tuesday.
“Working with districts and educators to understand their needs and barriers is how we have been able to grow this program in Iowa,” she said.
“I really love engaging students who have maybe lost their excitement in the world. Maybe they’re really bored or they feel like they’re left behind. And computer science and STEM really provides a different way for them to engage with the world and highlight their strengths.”
To learn more, visit newbo.co.
Rob Merritt is director of communications at NewBoCo. Comments: rob@newbo.co
If you go
What: NewBoCo “Fund the Future” Computer Science Education Night
When: 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 6
Where: Geonetric Building, 415 12th Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids
Tickets: $10 at https://newbo.co/event/fund-the-future-computer-science-education-night-2/
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