News, Culture and NPR for Central & Northern Michigan
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
91.7FM Alpena and WCML-TV Channel 6 Alpena are off the air. Click here to learn more.

Google Gives Lansing’s ITEC $100K to Teach Kids Code

flickr user: pictures of money
/
https://flic.kr/p/rqLAHi

STEM education in mid-Michigan is getting an economic boost from one of the world’s foremost technology companies. 

The “Grow With Google” tour happening today and Saturday at Lansing Community College is only the third event of its kind held in the U-S.  At the technology workshop event, Google announced a 100-thousand dollar sponsorship of the Lansing-based Information Technology Empowerment Center.  ITEC director Kirk Riley says the money will pay for STEM programming for students in grades four through 12.

“They often have a phone, they have a computer at home...but they don’t know how to look under the hood; especially how to write computer code, which is a gateway to learning a lot of things.  It’s that digital literacy that’s so important in the 21st century.”

ITEC will host technology camps and classes this spring at the Foster Community Center in Lansing.