In partnership with Meta, we are thrilled to offer Meta’s Engineer for the Week (EFTW) for students ages 11-18. Designed by Meta, EFTW introduces learners to coding by building fun games with real impacts in their communities. This unique beginner-friendly program includes:
15 hours of fun learning, hands-on coding, and game creation
creating a capstone project for a social issue students care about
meeting and getting their project reviewed by Meta employees, and receiving a Certificate from Meta!
having the opportunity to be selected to earn a $1000 donation for their favorite charity. You can see projects from recent winners here. Our students have won the award twice.
To join free online EFTW classes taught by experienced Create & Learn teachers, enroll below. No prior coding experience is required. We especially want to bring this program to historically underrepresented learners in STEM who identify as Black, LatinX, Native/Indigenous, and Female-Identifying. Please share with your community!
If you are a school teacher or from an education nonprofit, we can set up dedicated classes for your students. Email eftw@createandlearn.us to learn more.
All teachers and parents can get free access to the EFTW curriculum as well. Simply fill out this facilitator form. Any teacher and parents may guide their children through this free curriculum anytime.
EFTW Full Program - Create Game with Purpose
- Grades 5-12
In this series of classes, students will start with learning Scratch coding and general game development. We will build a project every time to pratice on the coding concepts. We also cove engineering concepts such as what a sprint is, brainstorm social impact issues to address, and of course, spend a lot of time building and providing feedback on games. We will go through multiple iterations to improve our games - just like how real engineers do it. And finally, we will submit each team’s project to Meta to be part of the coding challenge and for a chance to win $1000 for your favorite charity!
- 75 minutes per session12 Sessions
- 2-19 students group class
- Students need to be ages 11-18. The class is most useful for students who are relatively new to Scratch. For students who know Scratch well already, we will offer a shorter version in the future to cover the game design process. Create an account at www.create-learn.us if you don't have one already to receive future updates about this free program.
Explore Our EFTW 2023 Live Online Classes Program
In partnership with Meta, we are thrilled to offer free online EFTW classes. This one-of-a-kind coding program includes 15-20 hours of instruction in a virtual small group setting led by live expert teachers. Students learn Scratch coding, game design process, and then apply their new skills to create a unique project to improve the world.
The EFTW program is designed for all students ages 11-18. We are especially excited to serve historically underrepresented learners in STEM who identify as Black, LatinX, Native/Indigenous, Female-Identifying, and students who are in low-income communities. No prior coding experience is needed.
How to Join Our Free EFTW Classes
Just pick a class time below to reserve your spot, and enter a reference. Your reference needs to be a teacher or staff/officer from the student's school who knows your child well. Each student can only sign up once, so please sign up only if you are confident that your student will be able to join all the sessions.
If you don't see a time that works well for you, create an account to receive our email newsletter updates. We will release new class schedules every few weeks. This program will run throughout 2022.
We also offer these free classes for schools and nonprofits for groups of 10 students or more. If you are interested in learning more about how to set this program up for your students, just email us at engineer_for_the_week@createandlearn.us.
How to Teach EFTW
Do you want to encourage your students to learn coding or take their skills one big step further? Are they passionate about making a positive impact in the world? Wouldn’t it be cool to meet a Meta engineer and get coding tips from an expert?
Sign up to become a facilitator of Meta's Engineer for the Week, and help take your students' interests to the next level! As a facilitator, you or an adult 18+ can get free access to the full coding curriculum, and enable your child and their friends to participate in this one-of-a-kind program that empowers kids to learn coding and create projects for social change.
The program is available year-round and registering takes less than 3 minutes. You'll get immediate access to the free program materials, lesson plans and other resources! To get started, click here to create an account as a facilitator, select a project and start implementing the program.
Meta's Engineer for the Week FAQ
Who can serve as a reference? And what does my reference need to do?
The reference needs to be a teacher or staff/officer from your child’s school. During the sign up process for this program, we will ask you to provide the school information and email of your reference. You must submit the school work email of your reference. After you have signed up, your reference will receive an email. It should take them less than 1 minute to complete the reference information. Please give your reference a heads up to look for an email from engineer_for_the_week@createandlearn.us . Your reference has 5 days to confirm. We will reach out to you if there are any issues.
I can't do all 15 sessions, can I still sign up?
Missing 1 session is OK. If your child needs to miss more than a couple of sessions, please sign up later when your child becomes more available. Each person can only sign up once, so as to give as many students opportunities to sign up as possible.
My schedule has changed, can I reschedule my class?
If you need to reschedule a couple of sessions, you can do so on your account page. If you need to reschedule a major part of the series, we will do our best if there are seats available. We do anticipate the classes to be quite popular, so try to pick the most suitable time in the beginning.
Tell me more about about what students will be learning
Learners will build a working tech prototype and explore key engineering concepts that they can carry forward in their lives. We’ll start from the basics of the game development process and Scratch coding, so no prior coding experience is needed. Students will learn core coding concepts such as sequence, loop, and conditional. They’ll move onto important computer programming concepts such as variables, messaging, and events, and build their critical thinking and problem solving skills. Finally, learners will work on developing a game to highlight or address issues that truly matter to them. Some examples of past projects are wild animal protection, pollution, online bullying, community health, and equity.
My child is familiar with Scratch already, can he/she still sign up?
This program is most suitable for students who are new to Scratch coding. In fact, we will spend more than half of the sessions learning Scratch. It is not a good use of your time to take this class if you know it well already. You, your parents, or your teachers can always sign up to become a facilitator and receive full program information to help you join EFTW for free.