In the Community Room of the Edenvale Branch Library, pipe cleaners and cardboard scraps become elementary school children’s best friends. While the teachers and volunteers can manage the students’ excitement, they can’t limit their creativity. With funding support from the San José Public Library Foundation (SJPLF), this three-day Digital Discovery Workshop held at eight different San José Public Library branches fosters a fun, hands-on environment for learning about the digital world.
Using iPads and robots provided by the library, the children can dip their toes into aspects of robotics and technology. In a controlled classroom environment, the teacher encouraged his students to let loose and explore. The learners were quick to show off their bites of code with each other, along with tricks their robot companions did.
“I like the hands-on learning. We actually get to play around with the apps. We learned about coding robots and 3D modeling. It’s fun.” -Participant
Recently, the Edenvale Branch invited educators from The Tech Interactive to teach a workshop on gravity-powered cars. The challenge: building a car that can roll down a ramp without glue, tape, or scissors. The materials provided—cardboard, wheel axles, pipe cleaners, and more—were all recycled from past activities. Additionally, elementary-aged children must think outside the box to send their car rolling, using rubber bands to hold together vehicles and wooden planks as makeshift hammers.
For each day of the Digital Discovery Workshop, eight hours morphs into a fun exploration of the vast tech world enveloping the Bay Area while also providing the students with a toolkit to create or code their wildest ideas.
To learn more about how SJPLF prioritizes digital empowerment as a focus area and how you can support the impact, visit sjplf.org/DigitalEmpowerment.
Written by Jillian Cheng, Communications Intern