A Coding Club at the Indiana Free Library focused on Girls & Diverse Students

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Code Brave’s summer 2-week coding club, funded by AAUWs Community Action Grant, the Indiana Free Library, and the Indiana County Branch of AAUW, was held from July 12-23 instructed by Lauri Fletcher and spearheaded by Lillian Clemons. IUPs Dr Eric Lauber in Comm Media offered assistance at our training session. Nineteen students enrolled with a BIPOC* student percentage of approximately 25%. Eleven elementary-school students enrolled in the morning session, 8 girls and 3 boys. Eight middle school students were enrolled in the afternoon, 5 girls and 3 boys. Two college students served as mentors: Joe Uzdzinski, a recent Temple graduate, assisted with the older students. SFUs Bryce Lauer and Community volunteer Christine Delcoco assisted with the younger group. All of the students and teachers wore protective masks during class in the library resource room.

On the final day of the coding camp parents were invited to see what the students had created. The younger students created a Star Wars game, and the older students created a virtual meteor shower. The younger students learned scratch and the older students were beginning to use JavaScript. Refreshments were served on the final day and photographs were taken for an article which has been submitted to the Indiana  Gazette featuring Code Brave. IFL Executive Director Kate Geiger reported that the camp was very successful, and the committee was pleased that so many girls and BIPOC students, recruited by Diversity Chair Lillian Clemons, had enrolled.  The Planning Committee asked Lauri Fletcher to deliver a brief Code Brave presentation at AAUWs August 7 meeting, and she accepted pending approval by Patricia Holmes AAUW Program Vice President.

The Committee solidified plans for Code Brave’s fall workshops. The four-week Code Brave Workshops will be held on Thursdays, September 30, October 7, 14, and 21, at 3:00-4:00 pm for middle school students and at 4:30-5:30 for the younger students which corresponds well with the school dismissal times for each age group. Kate Geiger reported that the curriculum will again be generated from Code.org with additional resources from the Girls Who Code website and using the Prenda software designed for libraries which will be purchased through the grant. The committee discussed the possibility of the students presenting a computer animation at the “Evening with the Stacks” program on October 29, pending Covid health advisories. Also, pending health recommendation, the committee suggested that AAUW members could volunteer to bring “snack” bags for the fall workshop students.