There have been many catalysts used to get kids interested in science, technology, engineering, art and maths (STEAM) fields ranging from LEGO to toys to videogames.
Now we have SkateHacks, a group that wants to use skateboarding as their catalyst to turn young people onto both STEAM and sports.
As a collaboration between Northern Cape DEDaT Knowledge Economy & Innovation programme as well as Geekulcha, SkateHacks has already taken part in Skateboarding For Hope and the Kimberley Diamond Cup (KDC).
At the KDC SkateHacks hosted maker and science workshops as well as exhibitions and analytics on big data and sports.
If you’re interested in making, hacking or skating, there will be several events this year to tie into them all. Keep checking back to makers.htxt and the new SkateHacks website for more information closer to the time.
- Kimberley Diamond Cup (Skateboard For Hope, Youth Month Tour and the final Skateboarding World Championships)
- Arduino Day South Africa (Official launch of SkateHacks Challenge)
- Skills Exchange partnership with Mozambique and Kenya developers
- GKHack16 hackathon (24th – 26th June)
- NCDevHack 2016 (NC prime hackathon: 19th and 20th August)
- Open Data Quests with Code4SA
- Global Entrepreneurship Week (14th – 18th November): SkateHacks Entrepreneurship drive
If that wasn’t enough, the initiative is also involved with SkatePoint and Sk8t Quiz – quiz apps focused on skating.
The first project we want to see out of this is a skateboard crossed with a Segway to ensure we stop falling off.
[Image – Geekulcha on Flickr]
