Goal: Enhance the learning experience for students with Kidspire by rolling out new a number of new programs.
Background: 168,000 children in Vietnam are orphans or abandoned. Many spend most of their childhood years in government facilities. Few students graduate with basic computing skills, greatly limiting their employment options, and even fewer attend university.
Partner: Kidspire Vietnam is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help children living in orphanages build skills for productive employment after they leave the orphanages when they turn 18. Kidspire Vietnam’s innovative program features a student-centered learning environment and a curriculum focused on coding, circuitry, and robotics. Their program has drastically increased the children’s engagement and interest in learning and career readiness.
Project: In August 2019, a team of employee volunteers from Pure Storage collaborated with Kidspire Vietnam’s staff:
- Reframing Stories: The team supported LeadVN participants in reframing their own stories from a positive perspective. The team provided mock interview sessions for LeadVN participants to practice pitching their personal stories with greater confidence.
- Piloting New Learning Rubrics: The Kidspire curriculum team, alongside Team4Tech volunteers, piloted a new critical thinking & project-based learning rubric. Kidspire Vietnam will be using this rubric alongside their digital portfolios and documentation plan in the new 2019 school year.
- Animating Projects: To further develop students’ digital skills, the team introduced a new online animation software that allows the students to turn their storytelling projects (previously on slide decks) into animations!
- Integrating Design Thinking: Across maker activities, students learned about and were encouraged to utilize Design Thinking in their projects to focus on solving community issues.
- Deepening Science: The team expanded Kidspire Vietnam’s repertoire of science activities.