Three years ago, as part of the National Education Project and the Regional Digital Learning Environment Project, the IT Cube Center for Digital Education of Children was opened in Kanash. The Kanash Pedagogical College of the Chuvash Ministry of Education served as its support platform.
The IT Cube is an innovative, practice-oriented site where students can master popular programming languages, learn to write applications for mobile devices, work with neural networks and machine learning, and create virtual reality. All education is free, but access to it is granted through a competitive selection process.
To date, 416 children from Kanash town and Kanash district have been taught Python, Java, and C-family programming languages, system administration, VR/AR application development, digital hygiene, and Big Data under the guidance of practitioners.
On September 15, 2021, the Ministry of Education and Youth Policy of the Chuvash Republic, EKRA Research and Production Enterprise, and the administration of Kanash town signed a trilateral letter of intent on cooperation in supplementary education for children. The parties intend to pool their efforts to form a new system of extracurricular work aimed at the intellectual development of children and teenagers in information technology and electronics, introducing new forms of vocational guidance and creating an educational space.
“We have reached agreement to provide information, methodological, and financial support to the production process. There will be a number of joint activities, such as Olympiads, competitions, and additional online classes,” Konstantin Doni, CEO of EKRA, said.
On November 24, 2021, the IT-ENERGY class was officially opened by EKRA in Kanash at the IT-Cube Center and the first lesson was given. Two groups of 14 children have already been recruited to learn basic microcontroller programming skills under the guidance of experienced tutors. In class, children will learn how to use MicroPython, operate the simple and powerful MakeCode block-based encoding environment, and create their own microcontroller-based project.
There is also a plan to go on an excursion to EKRA Research and Production Enterprise.
