Sunset Spark helps new Americans of all ages use science and technology for fun, family, and the future. We offer free high quality classes for kids, adults and families in a wide variety of modern science and engineering subjects, including robotics, coding, neuroscience, and physical computing.
We want every family attending a school in Sunset Park to have free access to the best creative technology classes in the city. To help make this happen, we work with most schools in the greater Sunset Park neighborhood, including P.S. 24, 516, 971, 172, 131, 169, 896, and M.S. 136. You can also find us at the Sunset Park, Bush Terminal Park, the local library, the Muslim Community Center, Voces Ciudadanas, and other neighborhood centers.
With a staff of two, an educator and an engineer, we teach thousands of kids every year. In the 2018-2019 school year, over 2,500 students in Sunset Park took part in our robotics, coding, and computer engineering programs. We taught multi-week programs in 35 general education classes, 15 ICT classes, and 3 self-contained classes. Over 100 teachers have attended our free monthly workshops on computational thinking.
Learn about computing—past, present and future—through our free curriculum that mixes social studies and futurism to teach K-5 kids about the world of computer science. Kids learn about mechanisms from ancient Greece and the Islamic Golden Age, turn of the century computer scientists, and the future of tech with coding and hands on unplugged CS activities.
Investigate the birds living and passing through the neighborhood while enjoying the outdoors. Kids explore and inspect nature with high and low tech to learn how to identify birds by appearance, sound, and environment. We combine community science and tech to create a kinship with all of nature's inhabitants.
Middle school students learn how to keep their online activity secure while learning about the professional and underground world of computer security. Kids look at how their privacy is exposed, secured, and sold online. This course teaches kids how to live securely online and introduces them to paths in computer security.
Study the neurological and cognitive development from conception to the teen year. Parents explore the growth of your child's brain starting from just a handful of cells all the way through to middle school. Parents learn how babies learn, grow a better understanding of the neurocognitive stages of infancy and childhood, and discover scientifically-backed ways to nurture your child's growing brain.
Look at the development of mathematical thinking in our youngest learners. Parents learn games and techniques for encouraging mathematical thought in toddlers and young kids. Parents then learn how to make their own math manipulatives using 3D modeling software and print on 3D printers. Everyone leaves with a set of customized parent-made math toys.
Students learn how to create their own video games using code. We offer versions of this class for 3rd through 8th grade classes and students. Younger grades learn how to code using tablet coding environments to create games and interactive stories. For older grades, students learn how to program in JavaScript and use professional tools to develop web and mobile games.
We 💖 Sunset Park schools. We have ongoing partnerships with P.S. 24, 516, 971, 172, 131, 169, 896, and M.S. 136. If you'd like to add your school to this list, please contact us. Each school receives a variety a services and support, including push-in classes, after school clubs, parent workshops, and teacher training around our core subjects: robotics, neuroscience, coding, and computer engineering.
We offer push-in classes for K-8, including dual language, ICT, and self-contained classes, in robotics, video game design, coding, and computer engineering. Our classes draw from a variety of influences to bring high quality, creative, and culturally aware lessons and activities to every level of learner. Making sure every student receives creative technology classes is important to us, so when we partner with schools, we work with entire grade levels, including self-contained classes.
Teachers are an important part our mission by helping us expand the reach of our work in Sunset Park. Our professional development workshops provide teachers with the skills needed to design and implement their own lessons in robotics, coding, or computer engineering. We focus on hands-on, classroom-ready skills and strategies based on our own classroom experiences. Based on our post-workshop surveys, 98% of teachers would recommend our training to their colleagues and feel "fun and creative" while learning from us.
We started our first robotics club at P.S. 24 eight years ago. Currently, we offer clubs in robotics, video game design, and fashion technology. Like our classes, our clubs provide students with creative and culturally aware projects for learning more about robotics, coding, and computer engineering. Many of our clubs also hold public events in the form on a competition or expo for students to show off their projects to families and friends in the community. Previous events include sumo robots, robot pet show, music bots, and robo olympics. If you'd like to see one of our clubs in action, contact us to schedule a visit to one of our robotics clubs at P.S. 24.
As parents ourselves, we know how important it is to engage parents in support of education. We run parents workshops in coding, robotics, and neuroscience in English and Spanish. Our coding and robotics classes help parents code and build with their kids at home. Our neuroscience workshops focus on age-aware brain development,teaching parents about how diet, sleep, and exercise affect their child's growing brain. Additional workshops teach parents about cognitive milestones, including the development of language and math skills and the adolescent brain, with a focus on the current ages of their children.
Sunset Spark needs your help. Like many, 2020 has been a financially difficult year for Sunset Spark. Without donors like you, we will not make it to 2021. As a 501(c)3 org, your tax-deductible donation will help us teach families in-person and online and provide much needed tech support and assistance for immigrant families.