February 11, 2022 For Immediate Release
Baltimore City, MD - Baltimore City Public Schools has announced “Baltimore City Family Code Night,” a live online family learning experience at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, February 23rd.The program is funded by Amazon Future Engineer, Amazon’s global philanthropic education program.All Baltimore families with K-5 children will be invited to this event, at which children and their parent or guardian pair up to do their first hour of coding, together. Families can sign up to attend at bit.ly/BaltFCN.
“We are very pleased to be working with Amazon and the Family Code Night team to bring our City the Family Code Night program," said Dr. Sonja Brookins Santelises, City Schools chief executive officer."This event offers an important learning experience to all Baltimore City K-5 students, schools and families, featuring a fun and inspiring introduction to coding and computer science. Kids and families will love this event, and it helps build awareness and support for computer science programs in our K-5 schools. We greatly appreciate Amazon’s support for this important program.”
Featuring a personal welcome by City leaders, the one-hour livestream event will show Baltimore child-adult pairs how to solve fun coding puzzles from Code.org as they learn six “Big Ideas” about coding and computer science. Families can participate from home, and no coding experience is required—just a shared tablet, computer or laptop and an internet connection. The event features a live drawing for special prizes from Amazon, and all families will receive a Code@Home Family Pack of free online games and activities to learn more.
“Baltimore City Public Schools shares our commitment to helping students explore a world of possibilities through computer science,” said Victor Reinoso, Global Director, Amazon Future Engineer. “We are thrilled to partner with Baltimore City Schools and CS is Elementary to help students discover coding through real-world-inspired virtual and hands-on computer science project learning.”
“Family engagement can be a defining force in digital literacy,” said John Pearce, Executive Director of CS is Elementary, creators of the Family Code Night program. “Coding and computer science are empowering skills for a lifetime, and like any literacy, they need to be taught in the K-5 years. We are grateful for this collaboration with Baltimore City Schools and Amazon to build support for K-5 computer science education.”
About Baltimore City Public Schools
Serving nearly 78,000 students, Baltimore City Public Schools is committed to providing world-class education through the Blueprint for Success which addresses the critical areas of student wholeness, literacy, and staff leadership. The goal of City Schools is to create learning communities where our students will learn, grow, and graduate from our high schools college and career ready, and equipped to succeed wherever their life may take them.
About Amazon Future Engineer
Amazon Future Engineer is a childhood-to-career computer science education program intended to inspire and educate millions of students globally, including hundreds of thousands of students in the U.S. each year. Students explore computer science through school curriculum and project-based learning, using code to make music, program robots, and solve problems. More information is available at www.amazonfutureengineer.com.
About CS is Elementary
CS is Elementary is a non-profit national movement and program to inspire, celebrate and enable computer science education for all K-5 children. More information is available at www.CSisElementary.org.