STEM Reach is a program in which girls from STEM High School (Redmond, WA) mentor middle school girls from around the Lake Washington School District, focusing on teaching basic computer science skills through the use of various programming tools such as Scratch, PyGame, and Kodu. This outreach program will be an internship offered at STEM High School for girls interested in mentoring and will serve as an after-school program for the middle school girls. The program is currently running its second season, expanded from last year’s reach to over 70 girls from 5 middle schools! Most importantly, STEM Reach seeks to introduce girls to the endless opportunities offered by the STEM fields.

With Alice Workshops for Girls, sisters Aleis and Dana Murphy will offer two-week introductory camps on Alice programming this summer. Participants will create stories and computer games using 3D animation. The first week, the workshop covers programming concepts in Alice. The second week, participants work on individual or group projects to be presented in an awards ceremony on the final day. As students at Duke University and Stanford University and daughters of programmer parents, the Murphy sisters offer impassioned leadership and a desire to share their passion with younger girls. This is the second year for this camp.

Participants will learn basic programming skills as they use App Inventor and CS principles as they use CS Unplugged group activities. By focusing on the uses of technology to improve lives, those involved will see a rewarding career in computer science. Using App Inventor, the girls will develop an Android App to help connect volunteers with homebound individuals needing library books. Guests representing various technical careers will be invited to talk about their work -- skills required of them and how they got interested in their careers.

Build IT is a robotics program for girls. Program Leader Vicki Niu has seven years of experience competing in FIRST robotics, and will be working with Girls Inc. of NW Oregon to teach girls to build and program LEGO robots. Participants will learn about the engineering design process and increase their overall technical fluency. At the end of the program, the girls will be well-equipped to join a FIRST LEGO League team or embark on any number of tech-related adventures.  Session one  3-11-14 through 4-14-14 Session two TBA Summer 2014

The Come Code with Codester Club is a series of five workshops for Girls Inc. students. Middle school girls will be introduced to principles of programming through a novel educational app called Codester, developed by the Program Leader Gili Rusak. They will learn efficiency, problem solving, logic, and collaboration through these methods. After gaining these primary skills, they will break up into groups and will create games or projects using Scratch. The girls will gain inspiration and encouragement to engage in STEM education and further their programming skills.

Cyber-Security will provide students with a basic understanding of the fundamentals of cyber-security through interactive lectures, hands-on craft activities, and competitive cyber-security virtualization workshops using VMWare. The lectures will provide students with the preparation needed to complete the interactive workshop aspect of the program. They will learn everything from computer ethics, personal security measures, cyber-security’s relevance, demos of cyber-defensive and cyber-offensive tools, and much more. Through collaboration with another student they will work to secure the vulnerabilities and exploits in a virtual image that we have bugged with viruses, backdoor trojans, cryptographic keys to decipher, etc.

An AspireIT camp, FACT (Females Advancing Computing and Technology) is spearheaded by four Sunset High School students — Jeanie Pearson, Kyra Patton, Ria Chang, and Catherine Ordway — and supported by their teacher, Robotics and Programming Instructor Jason Galbraith, as well as Professor of Computer Science Dr. Jens Mache. This week-long summer camp will invite 30 girls to learn about robotics, game design, app creation, and basic computer science concepts. Participants will take field trips to two corporate IT departments which will incorporate information about careers in information technology. Dr. Mache and his colleagues will provide guidance and mentoring for the camp leaders and participants, and assist with the “Career Discovery” component of the camp. This is the second year for this camp.

Gidget Girls gives middle school girls the opportunity to meet other girls who share their interest in computer science as they learn the basics of computing, utilizing CS Unplugged, SNAP -- formerly known as Build Your Own Blocks (BYOB) -- and Alice. They will participate in Career Discovery day and hear guest speakers from CPCC and IT-ology discuss the role of women in computer fields. In addition, the middle school girls will use DotDiva and App Inventor. At the end of the camp, each girl will create a presentation focusing on the epidemic of obesity and present their projects to a panel of judges who will award a scholarship to the top three winners.

Girl Code teaches the fundamentals of computer programming to middle school girls through the MIT curriculum for Scratch as well as the code.org online institute. Girl Code also introduces the girls to the basics of Python. In the last few weeks of the program, the girls will work in small groups to create a program centered around a social issue of their choosing. Completed projects will be displayed on the final day in an exposition type setting that models the marketplace. An awards ceremony will feature scholarships and superlative awards as well as guest speakers. This after-school program will meet once a week for 10 weeks.

Girls Generation is a week-long workshop focused on introducing girls to the world of programming. Girls will learn to build a mobile application using App Inventor, introducing them to game design. Using Easy C, girls will get to program robots and see what coding can enable them to do physically. Program Leaders Kaitlyn and Larisa are students of Whitworth University and Seattle University, founders of Girls Generation Robotics at Central Kitsap High School, and National Winners of the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing. They will provide a unique introduction of computer science. Dates of camp are July 7-11, 2014 July 20-25, 2014 and August 4-8, 2014.

Themed, “Technology and Social Change,” this day camp for girls takes skills learned in Level 1 and expands the possibilities with interests in computer programming, engineering, and technology. In the true spirit of the Girls Get IT! program, this camp is unique in that it’s taught and run by high school girls so that campers can learn with their peers in a fun and comfortable environment that they would not otherwise have the opportunity to do. The program is designed to increase girls’ interest in pursuing technology fields by having a creative experience with computers, science, and technology. The camp will be a week of half-day sessions, consisting of multiple classes and workshops.

Girls Have IT is a summer camp in Phoenix, Arizona intended to inspire young women in middle school in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM). We hope that our program will empower, excite, and engage the middle schools in computing- and technology-related activities and fields. We will engage the girls in a plethora of fun, hands-on activities to reinforce the topics of computing and technology, such as Computer Science Unplugged activities. Program Leaders hope to improve their knowledge and understanding of programming while inspiring middle school girls to develop an interest in programming and learn that they can do it, too! This is the second year for this camp. Dates of camp are June 2-6, 2014 and June 9-13, 2014.

Last Year's Photos