Meet Our Team
Ivon Jou
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Rebecca Shao
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at Lighthouse Camps, we don't just teach.
We INSPIRE.
Kids learn how to make MISTAKES, be FEARLESS,
and become innovators geared for SUCCESS in any field.
我們的目標在Lighthouse Camps，我們不單單只是提供教學服務，
更希望能啟發孩子們，教導孩子不要害怕錯誤， 而是如何勇敢無懼地從錯誤中學習， 培養他們在任何領域都能成為一個成功的小小創新菁英。 |
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How it all began |
這一切是如何開始的呢? |
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Mark, a serial entrepreneur, founded Lighthouse Camps in 2018 because he found that Taiwan lacked quality STEM programs for his two young children. Even though there were coding programs for kids in Taiwan, he found that after sending his children to these offerings, they were really “cram” schools in disguise--very didactic and top down.
When he sent his older son to a coding class for the first time, each kid was handed a laptop computer and sat in a typical classroom setting. The instructor then started projecting MIT’s scratch junior website on to the screen and proceeded to lecture to the classroom of four year-olds. The straw that broke the camel’s back, the moment that prompted Mark’s call to action, was when his daughter would bawl her eyes out every time it was time to go to Lego class. When Mark finally accompanied his daughter to class, he finally understood why. Rather than giving the kids a chance to explore, the instructor asked the children (3 years old) to copy block-by-block the Lego set that he had built. To learn more about STEM for kids, Mark first invested in a Singaporean coding school for kids. Seeing firsthand that a quality program made a world of difference, Lighthouse’s first coding classes involved flying in instructors from Singapore to run its coding classes for kids. As Mark and the Lighthouse team became more acquainted with K-6 education, Mark began to expand beyond STEM to offer a broader offering, incorporating best practices that he had observed from taking his two kids to summer camps in the U.S. and Japan. |
Lighthouse Camps的創始者Mark，不僅是一位連續創業家，也是兩個孩子的爸爸。在發現台灣缺乏優質的跨領域理科教育(STEM Program)後，他在2018年創立了「Lighthouse Camps」（萊特豪斯兒童營隊），不只是為了他自己的兩位孩子，也為了全台灣的孩子們。在台灣，其實也有一些針對孩子所設計的程式編寫課程。但是，當Mark親自送自己的兩位孩子參與過這樣的課程之後，他卻發覺：這些課程實際上只是變相的補習班——從頭至尾都是說教式的填鴨教學方式。
Mark第一次陪自己的大兒子去上程式設計課程時，映入眼簾的是，一個中規中矩的教室裡，每位孩子靜靜地坐在自己的座位上，一人發一台筆記型電腦。接著，老師將美國麻省理工大學媒體實驗室（MIT Media Lab）所開發的兒童程式軟體教學網站「Scratch」( MIT’s scratch junior) 內容投影在銀幕上，然後，開始上課；這一切，就跟一般的補習班教學沒有甚麼差別。而壓垮駱駝的最後一根稻草、讓Mark決定採取行動的契機是，他發現自己的女兒每次上樂高積木課前都會嚎啕大哭。當他陪著女兒去上課時，他終於明白了為什麼。上課的老師不僅沒有引導孩子去理解樂高積木的組合構造、給孩子自由探索的機會，反而是讓這些3歲的孩子們，拿著樂高積木一塊一塊地按照指示，複製出他一開始就組建好的樣式。彷彿在告訴這些年幼的孩子們：要做得一模一樣，才是「正確的」。 為了能夠更加了解兒童的STEM教育，Mark首先投資了一所新加坡的兒童程式設計學校。在親眼見證了高品質的課程計畫是多麽的與眾不同後，Lighthouse終於開辦了第一批的程式設計課程，特別請新加坡這間學校的老師，飛來台灣指導孩子。 隨著Mark和Lighthouse團隊越來越熟悉小學教育，Mark也開始一步步地拓展課程的領域，從理科教育向外延伸，藉此提供更廣泛的課程服務。此外，他也將自己孩子參與美國與日本夏令營所觀察到的絕佳做法納入課程中，期望為台灣的孩子帶來更多不一樣的收穫。 |