Teacher training
About it
"Learning from a computer is not as efficient as when it’s done by a skillful teacher... social interaction with a 'More Knowledgable Other' is central to child advancement..."
Lev Vygotsky (Psychologist) Wikipedia 
We do not trust the educational efficiency of the STEM Self-Service Apps (Students learn without the help of the teacher), we believe in the theory developed by Lev Vygotsky and that every valid and efficient educational process must go through a human being and not through a computer. We therefore believe that to teach programming skills to kids we first have to give the knowledge to their teachers.
At galactIQ we know that teaching the rudiments of programming or robotics engineering to primary school students does not require prior knowledge, it only requires a valid educational method and a person capable of transmitting what they have learned to their students. For this goal there are no more qualified candidates in the world than our primary school teachers… in them we trust.
galactIQ empowers teachers around the world. We believe the future of our planet gravitates around them, if we reach all schools, we reach all the children of the world ... If we reach all the boys and girls of the world, the next generations will correctly understand what technology is capable of and will make our planet a fairer and safer place.
galactIQ is committed to ensuring that the basic technological knowledge remains in schools, that it is the teachers who learn first and teach later, that all this knowledge shall not be lost on a web server or a mobile application, we want the power to education remain in the hands of our teachers.
PHYSICAL LESSONS in Maastricht (The Netherlands)*
*Our physical STEM TCT consists of 4 sessions and each session has a duration of 2 hours
From one to 4 teachers: 120€ per session. 480€ for the whole course.
ONLINE LESSONS
Our online STEM TCT consists of 4 sessions and each session has a duration of 2 hours
From one to 4 teachers: 120€ per session. 480€ for the whole course.
About it
galactIQ's STEM Training Course for Teachers (STEM TCT) is a basic introduction to programming, robotics or media literacy. An easy, fun and complete technology crash course designed by our experienced STEM educators to prepare licensed primary school teachers to deliver the best tech education to their pupils.
Our TCT covers all tech rudiments, so no prior knowledge is needed to participate in it. The course is meant for licensed teachers who are interested in teaching STEM at their schools and need a deeper knowledge and understanding about the complex digital world around us.
The course will also be independent of any other products that galactIQ has to offer. It is, therefore, possible to attend one of our courses without having a subscription to galactIQ itself.
Groups
You can attend individually or with a group of teachers from your school. Our physical groups take place only in Maastricht but we organise online groups for you and your colleagues to attend from any place around the globe. If you are interested in registering as a larger group, we can arrange for a course to be held at your location.
Last but not least our TCT courses are taught in English, Dutch or Spanish languages.
What will we learn in the STEM TCT?
The galactIQ team is skilled in the 5 core subjects: game development, web development, media literacy, robotics and digital creativity.
MEDIA LITERACY: You will understand how computers work inside, how the internet works or how to 'talk' to a computer using programming languages. We will also discuss online morals, how to behave online and the risks you have to train your students for.
PROGRAMMING: The Programming language sessions will teach you how talking to a computer really works and we will teach you a bit of 3 different programming languages. This part of the course is not meant for you to teach programming languages in class, but to acquire a good understanding about how we can give commands to a computer.
ROBOTICS: We'll start by explaining how robots work on the inside, how to program them and what are the latest tech discoveries. We will explain many interesting engineering concepts and see some examples using Lego Education.
The STEM TCT will allow you to learn how to use Scratch (www.scratch.mit.edu) Lego Education (WeDo 2.0. and Spike Prime), and the Codepen tool where we will see a few basic web programming languages concepts (HTML, CSS and Javascript),
If there are any other topics besides these core subjects that you would like to have covered during the course, please contact us! The galactIQ crew have a rich expertise in several programming languages, platforms and learning apps.
Format
Our STEM TCT is a 4-sessions course and each session is 2 hours long. The maximum number of attendees is 4 and we recommend you to bring your own laptop but if you do not have one tell us and we will provide you with one.
As for the robotics sets, we will provide them in the face-to-face courses but you must provide your own in the online courses.
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Impressive!
"The video game development episodes are broken down into manageable steps, which allowed all the children in my class to develop a functioning, playable game. What really impressed me though, were the opportunities to experiment with the code; allowing my class to create a truly unique game. I can’t believe how quick we went from zero to hero!"
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A fantastic tool for teachers
"Galactiq is a fantastic tool for teachers. It helps manage the flow of the lesson, get an overview of how students are doing, encourages student participation and collaboration. It is very comfortable to teach using Galactiq!"
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Simple and effective
"The step by step construction and coding instructions on galatIQ were simple and effective, ensuring student success regardless of their ability. Along with the instructions, the online tutorials kept students engaged and encouraged them to grow in confidence over the course of the week. The students particularly were inspired to be ambitious with their designs; creating unique and innovative robots. Overall, it is a brilliant experience!"
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"...the lesson was so well scaffolded..."
We used the first episode in the robotics series and our students thoroughly enjoyed the lesson. The instructions were comprehensive for both the students and the teachers and the children could follow them to build their individual rover and were thrilled to see that the commands they set made the rover move. As teachers, we valued the fact that the lesson was so well scaffolded and it included opportunities for discussion as well as for practising digital skills. We can see the potential of this educational solution and how it could complement a primary school’s curriculum.
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"A practical approach with a lot of creativity ..."
My kids attended the galactIQ Academy for more than two years. During this period, Diego and Gabriel learned many cool things such as programming with Scratch, creating websites with Javascript and HTML, programming Lego based robots, among others.
The staff are kind, professional and always willing to help. The approach is hands on with a lot of creativity involved. It was a very pleasant and rewarding experience for my kids. I strongly recommended it for all kids (and adults) who want to develop programming and robotics skills while applying their creativity and enjoying an entertaining learning environment.
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It's easy and fun
"Galactiq is the perfect way to learn and teach coding and robotics to younger kids, even when having minimal to no coding experience yourself. Before each class, I go over today's lesson to gain an understanding of today's targets and goals. With hands-on information solely available for teachers, you can use Galactiq as a manual to learn everything needed to teach the class."
