Girls Who Code at the Ashland Innovation Center

Recently, a few of us here at AIC decided to start a chapter of Girls Who Code for high school students at Ashland High School. Girls Who Code is a national movement started by Reshma Saujani, and the goal is to increase the number of women in Computer Science and STEM. Even if a club member doesn't decide to pursue computer science in the future, coding is still a valuable skill to have in many different fields today.

Meetings 

We officially started the club just a few days ago, and it's a lot to take in! At each meeting, girls discuss examples of women in technology and learn how to code. I found it really impressive how Girls Who Code provides each club with a full curriculum, so that no one in the club has to have prior experience in coding. I also like being part of the creative and supportive environment that Girls Who Code helps foster.

Computer Science Impact Project 

Every club works on a Computer Science Impact Project, which is a final project that addresses a problem that club members care about. Clubs can create a game using Scratch, build a website, build an app, or design projects with MakeyMakey. We plan to focus on HTML and CSS to make a website for the Ashland Innovation Center. Currently, we have this blog and a twitter account, but it would be awesome for AIC to have a student-built website as well. We hope to make this website helpful to the public and the students that use the makerspace.

In the weeks to come, we are looking forward to becoming more familiar with the Girls Who Code community and learning how to code.

If you would like to learn more about Girls Who Code, visit their website.

If you would like more information, please email Ms. Henry, the club advisor, at thenry@ashland.k12.ma.us