If you were standing outside the classroom and heard a dozen giggling girls, your first assumption might not be that they were writing computer programs. First assumptions are often incorrect. The goal of Saturday Academy’s Girls Engage Technology program is to provide pre-middle school girls with a positive programming experience so that they have confidence to take the next step in technology learning.
Girls write programs to illustrate a story (two shown below) and share their results with the group. Giggles per hour is one measure of program success. We also use pre- and post- program evaluations. The girls 92% of the girls identified as “I am kind of person who works well with computers” after their sessions (starting at 61%; with 187 participants in FY16.)
