InkSmith Partners with Taking IT Global to Equip Educators with Coding Skills and Tools through CanCode 3.0

The partnership will see 5,200 educators engaged in a free webinar series that will consist of two-parts, with each registered attendee receiving a free Climate Action Kit and micro:bit for participating.  

Waterloo, ON – May 17th, 2022 - Following last year’s success, InkSmith and Taking IT Global (TiG) have teamed up again to offer a completely free webinar series funded through the Government of Canada’s CanCode 3.0 grant. The webinar series, entitled, “Coding for Climate”, is a free professional development opportunity for Canadian educators. 

The series will use InkSmith’s Climate Action Kit and a micro:bit to explore the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 13 (Climate Action) in combination with Goal 13 (Life on Land) or Goal 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) through interactive, inquiry-based learning activities as well as coding and physical computing.  Through investigating climate change issues, through coding and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals lens, the Climate Action Kit will develop students’ critical thinking, computational thinking, and coding skills, while building their empathy and character.  

The overall goal of the webinar series is to inspire purpose-driven learning in the classroom while developing critical digital skills among both students and educators. This webinar series is ideal for educators who are completely new to STEAM and coding or for experienced teachers looking new hands-on coding activities for the classroom. 

Last year, InkSmith and TiG hosted the “Land Ed” webinar series which saw over 540 of educators attend and was so highly demanded a waiting list had to be added. This year, InkSmith and TiG have expanded their capacity to host more webinars over the course of CanCode 3.0 to allow for the most possible participants.  

Two different series will be offered, one focusing on learning with the Land-themed Climate Action Kit and one other with the soon-to-be-released Energy-themed Climate Action Kit. Educators may attend both event series, or one or the other. 

The webinar series is split into two parts, Part A: Background and Context, and Part B: Coding & Physical Computing. In Part A, the InkSmith team will lead participants through one of the modules in the Climate Action Kit. During this session educators will discover how climate change issues can be explored in the classroom through the Global Goals, while also setting the stage for the Physical Computing portion of the series.  

Just like last year, all educators who participate in the webinar series will receive a free Climate Action Kit and micro:bit. After attending Part A of the webinar series, participants will complete an exit survey and provide their mailing information. InkSmith will then ship out one Climate Action Kit and one micro:bit to every participant who completes an exit survey. After receiving their kits, participants will be invited to attend Part B of the webinar series where they’ll learn how to use their new Climate Action Kit. During Part B, participants will use their Climate Action Kit to build a working micro:bit project related to the climate change topic they learned about in Part A. 

Dates & How to Register

Please note, the 'Coding for Climate' webinar series is split into two sessions: Part A & Part B. You must register for both a Part A and a Part B session. You can mix and match the dates to fit your schedule.

Part A (Choose one of the following):
Monday, May 30th - SESSION FULL
Tuesday, May 31st - SESSION FULL
Wednesday, June 1 - SESSION FULL

Part B (Choose one of the following):
Monday, June 13th - SESSION FULL
Tuesday, June 14th - click here to register 
Wednesday, June 15th - click here to register 

About the InkSmith Climate Action Kit 

Developed with a Universal Design for Learning approach, our Climate Action Kits have been created to support educators in embedding digital learning in their teaching so they can provide an interactive and engaging experience for their students in-class, remotely, or in a hybrid learning setting. Through investigating climate change issues, through coding and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals lens, the Climate Action Kit will develop your students’ critical thinking, computational thinking, and coding skills, while building their empathy and character.   

Our goal is to not only develop an understanding of issues surrounding Climate Action, but also help learners to understand how the technologically advanced world around them works. Learners will develop empathy as they deepen their understanding of land-based and/or energy-based issues facing our planet and will apply this learning to create tangible solutions using the Climate Action Kit, micro:bit and digital literacy.