Help us hire a contractor to maintain our learning tools
All software requires upkeep and maintenance.
What you’re funding
All software requires upkeep and maintenance. Help us keep the learning going for kids around the world by raising funds for a contractor to do the following work:
Objectives
- Fix the following issues under https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar/issues/: 996, 463, 462, 417, and 945; - To continue testing and working on Sugar on a Stick (SOAS) images and packages; and - Fix outstanding problems with the latest update to Sugar Labs Wiki.
Scope
- Port sugar and sugar-toolkit-gtk3 to Wayland; - Test anaconda issue on Fedora (the issue has been fixed upstream, but it hasn’t been tested to ensure it no longer affects SOAS); - Research porting telepathy-salut to libsoup 3 as Sugar still depends on it for collaboration; and - Fix issues in Sugar repo (see above for list of specific issues).
Deliverables
- Complete and merge all of the above listed issues; and - Report of research into releasing a new version of Sugar and its core dependencies after merge.
Got a question — or an idea — for the team?
Send a note and we’ll pass it along to Sugar Labs Inc.
About Sugar Labs Inc
Sugar Labs makes free, open-source learning software and curricula for children who learn best by doing. With tools for programming, computational thinking, music, math, and problem-solving, it gives learners a place to make, test, and share ideas, often with help from volunteers, teachers, and other learners. If you care about education that leaves room for curiosity and student voice, this is the kind of work that holds up in the real world.
What sets Sugar Labs apart is the way its tools are built for collaboration, journaling, and what it calls hard fun. The software is made for children to create with, and it can run in a browser, from a USB, on desktop machines, and on Raspberry Pi. That flexibility makes the learning environment feel practical, not precious.
About this work
In their own words — what they do, who it reaches, and what your dollars actually fund.
Mission
Sugar Labs is dedicated to creating learning tools that transform how children learn and explore technology, and it creates quality software and curricula under a free/libre/open-source license that encourages collaborative learning and creativity.
Who they serve
Children, youth, teachers, and budding developers around the world.
Their impact
- 3,000,000+ kids whose lives have been enriched by using the Sugar Learning Platform
- 344+ projects for teaching and learning created by Sugar Labs students and teachers
- 1,450+ problem-solving tasks completed by students ages 13-17
- 11,531,321+ activities downloaded
- 170 languages the educational software has been translated into
- 50% of updates to the latest release came directly from users
- Created over 300 tools for learning
- Mentored students for thousands of hours
How your donation helps
- Create and maintain innovative tools for teaching and learning
- Mentor budding developers from around the world
- Support the development and distribution of activity-focused software for children
Programs
Sugar Learning Platform
The core learning environment, with tools and curricula designed for collaborative, project-based learning.
Sugar on a Stick (SoaS)
A USB version of the Sugar platform that can boot temporarily or be installed on a computer.
Music Blocks
A browser-based visual programming environment for exploring music, math, and programming together.
Turtle Blocks
Snap-together coding blocks for creating colorful art, geometry, graphics, and math explorations.
Google Summer of Code (GSoC)
A community development program that brings student developers into free/libre/open source software work.
Ways to help
Current needs
- Sustained volunteer help in education, communication, advocacy, research, and technical roles
Volunteer opportunities
- Use Sugar software and lesson plans in a classroom and try the Constructionism learning tools
- Test software and give educator feedback
- Create lesson plans for other teachers to use in the classroom
- Share student or former student stories in blog posts or videos
- Create and test translations
- Help spread awareness by following and sharing the organization's social media messages