Girls Who Code – Ally L
Talon began our second annual Girls Who Code summer camp last week. This event is made possible by partnering with Girls Who Code (GWC), an international nonprofit organization working to help improve diversity in STEM education and teach girls about STEM. They supply free resources and curriculum for us to run our camp! Talon members turned the curriculum into lesson plans and materials for each day, and advertised the camp for months. We had 17 girls in sixth through twelfth grade register for our camp, which is more than last year. Every day, we have had more than 10 girls attend!
Scratch
On the first two days of camp, the girls began projects in Scratch. Scratch is a simple block-coding language that has become the standard for anyone learning the basics of programming. Everyone started to get to know each other, and then the girls learned how to make different games in Scratch! Talon members taught how to make a game where you had to catch a magical frog, called The Wizard’s Wish, as well as a game about recycling. Thank you Charlotte for such engaging lessons!
Data and AI
The third day of camp was Data and AI day. The activities for the day were found or designed by Talon students, rather than using the GWC curriculum, based on feedback from last year. Students learned about iterative design and how AI works, and then put that into practice by training their own AI models! Through this project, they also learned about data and implicit bias in AI. To end the day, we learned about generative AI and what it can do. We used it to make a unique dance party animation with the block coding skills we taught on the first few days. Thank you Viki for the amazing and new content!
HTML
Girls got to work on very individualized projects on the fourth and fifth days of camp! We were learning HTML, which is the standard language used to create and format content on the World Wide Web. Each girl got to make a website about anything they’d like, and it was amazing. There was a website describing different varieties of potatoes. Many were centered around favorite books or shows. One was dedicated only to cheddar cheese.
“These are my favorite websites in the world” – Talon Volunteer
It was a great ending to a very fun week. Thank you to our mentors who made running this camp possible!
The Future
Talon’s Girls Coding Camp continues next week, with projects about animation, creative coding, and cybersecurity! It’ll end on Friday with a showcase of the girls’ unique projects they’ve made throughout the camp. If outreach opportunities like this interest you, be sure to watch our upcoming events page to stay up to date!
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