About Us
Learning Through Play is What We’re All About
Participants get a safe place to play, explore, take risks, make mistakes, and turn failures into successes in a supportive and educational environment.
The Third Workshop is an education center for ages 8 and up to play, explore, and learn about technology: writing code, building robots, and controlling electronic devices. This unique center was founded to provide a space for participants to learn how to solve interesting problems with cutting-edge, awe-inspiring technology learning tools. Here there is no worry about “studying” or “test taking.” Participants are self-guided and self-paced with one or more mentors available for assistance at all times.
Technology is changing at an incredibly fast rate. We believe learning methodologies must also change to keep pace. Our informal, inquiry-based learning approach is designed to help participants develop skills and knowledge that go beyond the nuts and bolts of hardware and software. At The Third Workshop, we unite kids with projects they are passionate about and engaging them in ways that help develop skills and abilities they can use in “the real world.” Participants get a safe place to play, explore, take risks, make mistakes, and turn failures into successes in a supportive and educational environment. In addition, our mentors endeavor to seamlessly weave lessons in leadership, critical thinking, time management, budgeting and ethics into the exploratory play and interactions at The Third Workshop.
This informal educational balance is known to have positive impact in overall learning outcomes and is the kind of opportunity that stands out on a college application - something we are more than happy to support with recommendation letters for active participants.
There are no gender boundaries here and we encourage youth from all backgrounds to play at The Third Workshop.
We want The Third Workshop to benefit ALL young people – we have a particular interest in working with those members of society who don’t have resource availability. Just because someone can’t afford computers at home doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have access to learning at The Third Workshop. You never know where the next Steve Jobs is coming from. There are no gender boundaries here and we encourage youth from all backgrounds to play at The Third Workshop. We know some of the sharpest people are those who don’t have access to mentors to guide them toward useful technological skills. We want to be part of the solution to that problem.
At The Third Workshop, we are actively studying how students learn and how we fit into that progression. We believe that when kids come here that they will retain more knowledge of computer science and possess a greater zeal to dig deeper than if they had received formal classroom instruction. It’s a new frontier we are conquering, and it will only be successful if we have the broadest sample of students possible.
Participation in The Third Workshop is entirely FREE for members. Operating expenses for the workshop are supported by contributions made to our GoFundMe site.
Glenn Sugden, Founder of the Third Workshop
“Let’s revolutionize the world of computer science.”
Glenn Sugden brings decades of computer science experience in his role as founder and chief mentor of The Third Workshop. It is his passion for trying a new kind of experiential learning for students that motivated him to start this inimitable facility.
Glenn began developing his skills as a young man in Wyoming. “I learned most of my computer programming on my own, beginning at an early age (BASIC language at 9),” Glenn said. “I was lucky that computer programming, as a hobby, was a really good choice for a future career.” Education wasn’t originally top of mind for Glenn – yet. “After working as a programmer for a few decades, I decided that I wanted to teach computer science. I went back to school for teaching credentials … and was frustrated that computer science isn't yet in the public high school core curriculum.”
“Being frustrated, impatient, and realizing that kids were retaining a lot more in hands-on labs than in lectures, I decided to create something independent of, and complementary to, our educational systems.”
An organic idea was developing, one that surprisingly wasn’t being pursued in the same fashion anywhere. “Being frustrated, impatient, and realizing that kids were retaining a lot more in hands-on labs than in lectures, I decided to create something independent of, and complementary to, our educational systems.” The Third Workshop was born. It has become a labor of love for Glenn and a template for enhanced education. Glenn hopes to mentor many young minds across Northern California – and beyond – in the years to come.
For a more detailed resume, please check here: LinkedIn - Glenn Sugden