While Amazon may still be open and operating throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the company realizes that schools are not as lucky and are experiencing “disruption” at this time. Amazon has been an active company in giving back and supporting the local community. The company is committed to both students and teachers accessing a computer science education through its Amazon Future Engineer program, and according to a press release, “Now that mission is more important that ever.”
The press release stated, “Amazon Future Engineer is a four-part childhood-to-career program intended to inspire, educate, and prepare children and young adults from underrepresented and underserved communities to try computer science.” The description continued, “Each year, Amazon Future Engineer aims to inspire hundreds of thousands of young people to explore computer science, awards dozens of schools Amazon Future Engineer Robotics Grants, provides over 100,000 young people in over 2,000 high schools access to Intro or AP Computer Science courses, awards 100 students with four-year $10,000 scholarships as well as offers guaranteed and paid Amazon internships to gain work experience, and forms unique partnerships with trusted institutions to bring new coding experiences to students.”
Amazon Future Engineer is currently granting students in sixth through 12th grade free sponsored computer science classes in the United States as well as the instructors who teach the age group.
Does your child have an interest in computer science? If your answer is yes, then sign your kid up for the free online courses that Amazon is offering throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. If your answer is no, consider opening their mind to new things while they stay at home.
Amazon Future Engineer also offers a virtual robotics program through CoderZ, a partner. This class is intended for second graders (with block-based coding) to high schoolers (with text-based coding).
Maybe your child has a deeper interest in music. EarSketch is another free program that Amazon Future Engineer is providing access to. This course helps students learn to code through music. Studio-quality music STEMs have been provided by Grammy-award winning artists Ciara and Common. The students will be allowed to remix those music STEMs using code from their own home.
Check out www.amazonfutureengineer.com/free-courses to see all of the available classes Amazon has to offer.
