Despite what some naysayers may proclaim, it is imperative that children not only learn to code, but how to work on various aspects of a coding project too. To take it a step further, it is also a good idea for them to understand the virtues of open source ideology. True, sometimes closed source is better from a business perspective, but still, it is important that kids understand both sides.

Google does a great job supporting the open source community, which is appropriate, as the company leverages the code too. The search giant gives back to the community through programs such as "Google Code-in." If you aren't familiar, it is an educational contest which teaches children about open source by having them working on an actual established project. Today, the Android-maker reveals the mentors that will be participating in Google Code-in 2017.

"We're thrilled to introduce 25 open source organizations that are participating in Google Code-in 2017. The contest, now in its eighth year, offers 13-17 year old pre-university students an opportunity to learn and practice their skills while contributing to open source projects," says Josh Simmons, Google Open Source.

ALSO READ: Google Code-in 2017 lets students win prizes while learning about open source

Simmons further explains, "These mentor organizations are hard at work creating thousands of tasks for students to work on, including code, documentation, user interface, quality assurance, outreach, research and training tasks. The contest officially starts for students on Tuesday, November 28th at 9:00am PST."

Google shares the full list of organizations below, including both a brief description and link to their associated webpage. While not all of them are well known, I am sure many kids will recognize Ubuntu at least -- probably the most exciting project on which to work.

Apertium: rule-based machine translation platform

BRL-CAD: computer graphics, 2D and 3D geometry modeling and computer-aided design (CAD)

Catrobat: visual programming for creating mobile games and animations

CCExtractor: open source tools for subtitle generation

CloudCV: building platforms for reproducible AI research

coala: a unified interface for linting and fixing code, regardless of the programming languages used

Drupal: content management platform

FOSSASIA: developing communities across all ages and borders to form a better future with Open Technologies and ICT

Haiku: operating system specifically targeting personal computing

JBoss Community: a community of projects around JBoss Middleware

LibreHealth: aiming to bring open source healthcare IT to all of humanity

Liquid Galaxy: an interactive, panoramic and immersive visualization tool

MetaBrainz: builds community maintained databases

Mifos Initiative: transforming the delivery of financial services to the poor and the unbanked

MovingBlocks: a Minecraft-inspired open source game

OpenMRS: open source medical records system for the world

OpenWISP: build and manage low cost networks such as public wifi

OSGeo: building open source geospatial tools

Sugar Labs: learning platform and activities for elementary education

SCoRe: research lab seeking sustainable solutions for problems faced by developing countries

Systers: community for women involved in technical aspects of computing

Ubuntu: an open source operating system

Wikimedia: non-profit foundation dedicated to bringing free content to the world, operating Wikipedia

XWiki: a web platform for developing collaborative applications using the wiki paradigm

Zulip: powerful, threaded open source group chat with apps for every major platform

If you or your teen child are interested in participating, you can learn more here. While it is technically a contest, and there are real prizes to be had, I would argue that the true reward will be the experience. Heck, not only will you gain major geek-credibility, but both winning and participating should look great on either a college or job application.

Will you or your kid be participating in Google Code-in 2017? Tell me about it in the comments below.

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