Is there a way to make human life better and planet sustainable for current & future generations ? We believe by aligning tech towards socially and environment friendly way it can be achieved.
The projects which we can create and make the change
In the projects, learners are introduced to 5 of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with an environment focus:
- Affordable and Clean Energy
- Responsible Consumption and Production
- Climate Action
- Life Below Water
- Life on Land
Technology, science, maths, geography, and design all play a part in the projects. Following along with the digital making projects, young people learn coding and computing skills while drawing on a range of data from across the world. In this way they will discover how computing can be harnessed to collect environmental data, to explore causes of environmental degradation, to see how humans influence the environment, and ultimately to mitigate negative effects.
Where does the real-world data come from?
To help us develop these environmental digital making projects, we reached out to a number of organisations with green credentials:
- We accessed open data compiled by the International Energy Agency.
- We asked the team behind the Ecosia search engine, profits from which get invested in sustainability projects, for their guidance on growing trees. You can watch Ecosia software engineer Jessica Greene chat to us on our weekly Digital Making at Home live stream for young people.
- We collaborated with the Shuttleworth Foundation who have developed inexpensive electronic tags that can be safely attached to real sea turtles to track their movement. You can watch Alasdair Davies, who is part of this wildlife project, chat to us on another round of our Digital Making at Home live stream for young people.
Inspiring young people about coding with real-world data
The digital making projects, created with 9- to 11-year-old learners in mind, support young people on a step-by-step pathway to develop their skills gradually. Using the block-based visual programming language Scratch, learners build on programming foundations such as sequencing, loops, variables, and selection. The project pathway is designed so that learners can apply what they learned in earlier projects when following along with later projects!