Austin Kids Can teaches coding for free

Austin Kids Can is offering after-school coding classes for Heart and Harris elementary schools for about 100 children, said Donna Raskin, executive director of the nonprofit.

“What our classes are doing is empowering students to build self-confidence and resilience and to do things like work on themselves, work on their social skills,” Raskin said.

Austin Kids Can provides after-school science, engineering, math and technology classes, while helping them be better people, she said.

During the pandemic the nonprofit had to offer online classes but has since reopened to in-person learning.

She said the nonprofit focuses on social-emotional learning, meaning it prioritizes helping children work on good community skills through the STEM lessons. She said one example is teaching children patience when they debug a code.

She said the program is important for economically disadvantaged students because they might not otherwise have an opportunity to participate in similar activities.