Experience with CTY remote, and QubitxQubit
June 8, 2021 7:48 AM Subscribe
Teen alms is making some last minute summer plans. Among the options are CTY remote classes and quantum computing with Qubit x Qubit. Do you have experience with these programs? Are they good?
CTY is the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. Their in-person and residential programs have been around for a long time and have a good reputation. I'm specifically interested in how well they've done putting together remote programs. The descriptions look great, but they aren't cheap, so it would be a shame if the class was a real clunker.
Qubit x Qubit is run by codeConnects, so experience with their programs would also be relevant.
Thanks!
CTY is the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. Their in-person and residential programs have been around for a long time and have a good reputation. I'm specifically interested in how well they've done putting together remote programs. The descriptions look great, but they aren't cheap, so it would be a shame if the class was a real clunker.
Qubit x Qubit is run by codeConnects, so experience with their programs would also be relevant.
Thanks!
Response by poster: Teen alms is hoping to have an enriching academic experience. They want classes taught at a high level by engaged teachers, with students who want to be there and want to learn.
In the case of QubitxQubit, they want to actually learn something about quantum computing: how it works at both the hardware and software level, what it's good for, and how to write code for execution on a quantum machine. (Granted, there are limits to what you can cover in 2 or 4 weeks -- but suffice to say they want more than handwaving and science reporting. They want to do actual coding, and understand the code they write.)
posted by alms at 9:06 AM on June 8, 2021
In the case of QubitxQubit, they want to actually learn something about quantum computing: how it works at both the hardware and software level, what it's good for, and how to write code for execution on a quantum machine. (Granted, there are limits to what you can cover in 2 or 4 weeks -- but suffice to say they want more than handwaving and science reporting. They want to do actual coding, and understand the code they write.)
posted by alms at 9:06 AM on June 8, 2021
My kid is much younger (just finishing up second grade), but did a session-based CTY class last summer and will do one again this summer. She had a good experience last summer. She took a literature class and over the course of the summer read three books with her classmates and had a variety of creative writing assignments and forum discussions about them. The class was focused on books about dragons (a passion of hers) and she was excited to communicate with other students as passionate about dragons as she is.
It is not a highly *social* experience, at least not for younger kids. I think she was hoping for more friendly banter, but with kids that young a lot of them are not strong typists and they're not really looking to do a ton of socializing online compared to older kids. But she got really thoughtful, detailed feedback from her teacher on each of her assignments, and both her confidence in her work and her writing abilities grew dramatically over the course of the summer - like, if you read the work from the beginning of the summer and compared it to the end, you might question if it was even the same kid writing it. She was that inspired by the course and the writing prompts. I think she was also really inspired by the other students in the class, some of whom came in with much more advanced skills. TBH I think it hadn't occurred to her before she started the class that a kid her age COULD write like some of these kids. She really upped her game to try to compete.
So, we're going for it again this summer. She has been in a much more challenging school this past year, so I doubt the improvement will be so dramatic - but we'll see!
posted by potrzebie at 11:50 PM on June 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
It is not a highly *social* experience, at least not for younger kids. I think she was hoping for more friendly banter, but with kids that young a lot of them are not strong typists and they're not really looking to do a ton of socializing online compared to older kids. But she got really thoughtful, detailed feedback from her teacher on each of her assignments, and both her confidence in her work and her writing abilities grew dramatically over the course of the summer - like, if you read the work from the beginning of the summer and compared it to the end, you might question if it was even the same kid writing it. She was that inspired by the course and the writing prompts. I think she was also really inspired by the other students in the class, some of whom came in with much more advanced skills. TBH I think it hadn't occurred to her before she started the class that a kid her age COULD write like some of these kids. She really upped her game to try to compete.
So, we're going for it again this summer. She has been in a much more challenging school this past year, so I doubt the improvement will be so dramatic - but we'll see!
posted by potrzebie at 11:50 PM on June 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
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posted by mskyle at 8:01 AM on June 8, 2021