Cacti Council Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded by a group of educators whose main mission is to promote critical and creative thinking concepts and disciplines in education, industry, commerce, civil service, and other areas of public and/or social import through STEM activities and related disciplines. IRS EIN # 81-2649694
New to STEM? See our informational: What is STEM?
We use custom and existing materials for all grade levels (including university) and run in-school and after-school programs to teach kids STEM topics including computer science and coding. We also foster open-source development with these same principles in mind (visit our GitHub repositories). Cacti Council was founded in 2016 by educators and practitioners, and it works closely with local schools, the tech community and universities throughout Central Florida in order to build resources and recruit volunteers.
In classrooms we plan fun activities and use accessible resources for teaching STEM topics. For computer science and coding, we have used Google CS First (a tutorial wrapped interface for Scratch), Code.org Hour of Code activities, and Pencil Code as coding education platforms. Beyond classrooms we provide opportunities for advanced programming activities for students, such as our bot coding extension of id’s DOOM 3 engine, BuddyBots. We are always investigating new resources to share with students as we come across them. We provide professional (soft skill) guidance to students, promoting proper business etiquette, good teamwork, and communication skills. When appropriate, parents are encouraged to join their children at our workshops, working along side them as they learn. We have presented workshops at various schools and neighborhood centers under Orange County Public Schools, the City of Orlando Family, Parks and Recreation Division, and the Orlando Science Center.
But why CACTI Council? Because cacti survive and thrive in harsh conditions…