FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
STRATHCONA COUNTY, AB: December 17, 2019: Over 150 students from Elk Island Public Schools and Elk Island Catholic Schools will learn in-demand digital workforce skills – including coding, computational thinking, and data literacy – at a hackathon being hosted by Callysto, a federally-funded learning program. Starting at 9:00 a.m. in the Strathcona County Community Centre (Agora), students will use data provided by Strathcona County Open Data to solve a variety of challenges.
They will be running their data analytics and resulting presentations on Callysto, a curriculum-based learning and skills development platform for teachers and students in Grades 5-12.
“Digital workforce skills don’t just apply to information technology jobs – we’re seeing coding and data science applications in many different sectors and careers,” says Callysto ambassador David Hay, a teacher from Sherwood Park’s Westboro Elementary who is on sabbatical to promote and develop the free learning tool. “It’s important that students develop these skills to be competitive in the job market, but more importantly to become critical thinkers and productive members of society. Hackathons are a fun way for us to introduce these concepts.”
David Kai, a teacher from Rudolph Hennig Junior High School, is attending the hackathon with his students. He runs a computer coding program at the school and says the event presents many learning opportunities.
“This event will deepen their understanding of computational thinking and problem solving, while participating in an open-source competition,” he says. “It’s these types of experiences that give teachers an opportunity to see their students excel outside of the classroom environment.”
About Callysto
Callysto is a free, interactive, learning and skills development program for Grades 5-12 students in Canada. The program is part of a two-year pilot project by Cybera and the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, who received funding from the federal government’s CanCode program to build and employ new technologies that promote digital literacy, and help Canada’s youth develop the foundational skills required to become the future drivers of innovation.
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For more information please contact:
Byron Chu, Callysto Project Manager
byron.chu@cybera.ca