Code Girl 2017

Computers are everywhere, but computer science classes in schools, unfortunately, are not.  Although we live in a world surrounded by technology, few of our students really understand how the technology works.  What’s more, girls and minorities are severely underrepresented in the computer science field.  The good news is, we’re changing this one “byte” at a time in Stark County, Ohio!

STEAMM girls and Akron NIHF girls learning computer science together!

Code Girl is an annual event hosted by STEAMM Academy@Hartford Middle School in collaboration with other local school districts and this year the University of Akron hosted our event.  Code Girl is an event where middle school girls are given the opportunity to learn about computer science alongside female professionals and peers from other schools.  The event coincides with the national Hour of Code each December.  Girls from around Stark and Summit  Counties come together at the University of Akron with volunteers from area businesses and universities to learn about computer science.  Follow this link to see our article in the Canton Repository: http://bit.ly/codegirl2016 .  

Today, we welcomed 202 girls from Edison Middle in Perry Local Schools, STEAMM Academy in Canton City Schools, National Inventors Hall of Fame School in Akron Public, Lake Middle School in Lake Local, Alliance Middle School in Alliance City schools, and Oakwood Middle in Plain Local Schools! Wow!

We could not have done this without the assistance of the University of Akron. Lynne Pachnowski, Karen Plaster, and Annie Hanson were awesome in creating schedules, space, and goodie bags for our girls. Thanks to a $500 donation, we were able to buy ozobots for each school and a few Hidden Figures books for door prizes. Facilitators from Stark County Educational Service Center, Battelle, the University of Akron, Goodyear, Women Who Code, and Timken were critical components of ensuring that these sessions ran smoothly. I am just amazed and humbled by the generosity of these individuals, to take time out of their day to volunteer for the benefit of our young girls! I'm further amazed that we pulled off a fabulous event with only $500 in donations. Amazing things can happen with a little determination and a whole lot of teamwork!

Goals

1. Expose middle school girls to the computer science profession and to empower them to pursue a career in the field of computer science and engineering.
2. To do our part within our local community to close the gender gap in computer science.

I'll add more pictures as they come in from other facilitators. In the meantime, here's a picture from our event last year hosted at STEAMM Academy.