We had a fabulous event yesterday to Microsoft with 26 middle school girls from South Shore K-8. The girls learned small basic and really had such a wonderful time.
Thank you to Brooke Lowry who is our corporate partner and makes this day possible!
I would like to thank our TKP partners our lead teachers for this event. TKP is Teaching Kids Programming and its a partnership between TKP and IGNITE that makes this day possible. Ashley developed TKP at Microsoft for IGNITE. And we are the Northwest Deliverer of this program. TKP.org to read more. Thank you to Ashley Myer, Software tester, Kelsey Schlarman, Software Development Engineer , and Steph Berg, Software Development Engineer. They did such a great job, first making it fun and exciting to learn how to code. They also shared their stories with the girls and really were inspiring about why the girls would want to pursue these career fields.
A huge thank you to Mawiayah Fields the new Project Lead the Way teacher at South Shore. Mawiayah is an engineer who has chosen to be teaching. She is such an inspiring woman and an amazing role model as well. We are so fortunate to have her in the classroom at this school and with these girls! I cannot put into words how great she is. I hope you all get to meet her sometime. Thank you Mawiayah for choosing teaching! With women like yourself teaching we will go far in inspiring these young women to pursue STEM careers and be excited about their futures.
I also want to thank the enthusiastic parents who came to our event as chaperones. They are a remarkable group of parents and community leaders. All of these parents are supporting Mawiayah in her STEM work with the students. And now they want to get involved in helping me with IGNITE and I feel so fortunate for that to happen. I really encourage parents to get involved, and work with us side by side to make IGNITE as great as it can be. All of these mothers told me they were on board. So I expect you will be hearing lots more about getting them involved and getting more parents involved as well. Thank you all for inspiring me and wanting to support our work with the girls. It means the world to me to have met you all. Thank you to Kimberly Mustafa, Stacy Pitts, Tyra Williams, and Acquinetta Williams.
Here are the comments from the girls survey forms. The girls always say it best.
- I liked the part where we got to make the tortoise move around the screen. I learned that engineers have a special “code” to operate things. grade 7
- I liked hearing about how engineers had to use codes, and then you taught us how to write them and use codes too. It was really fun. grade 7
- I was surprised to hear how few women engineers there are. I liked playing around to learn Microsoft small basic. My partner and I were able to learn a lot of functions on the program. grade 8
- I can’t pick just one interesting thing, but I really liked trying to make different animations on small basic.
- I learned that you have to take small steps that add up to big steps. Like learning how to use codes to make video games and knowing which order to put them in. grade 8
- I liked learning codes and making spirals.. I also learned that there are not many women in engineering grade 6
- I loved learning programming and learning more about women in technology, grade 7
- I learned that companies like Microsoft need more women in engineering and technology. And I liked learning small basic because it was fun to make the tortoise move. grade 7
- The presentation taught me how to write codes and now I want to learn more. I am happy that IGNITE will follow me through high school and college and help me with my career decisions. grade 6
- I learned how to write codes and it was all really fun. grade 6
- I liked everything especially the technology that they use here at Microsoft. I saw that there are not enough women in technology. grade 7
- I really liked learning new things and I really liked the turtle quiz. Learning how to code was really fun.
- I liked meeting the people who actually code at Microsoft and I loved doing the codes! grade 6
- The best thing I loved was learning about how people work at Microsoft! I loved learning that I could make my own codes. I learned that more women are needed in technology fields. grade 6
- I love and appreciate the opportunity students of color are given to be a part of this process. More programs like this should be made available with emphasis on future careers. I loved seeing the girls work on the computers themselves. parent comment
- I loved learning how to create and run a program. And meeting young women who are engineers and who have careers in the tech field. Today I heard that women are a major under represented community in the tech field. I also understand that the IGNITE program will follow the young women through college. Parent comment
- I really like the square document thing, it was challenging and lots of fun. And I heard that if you get your degree in computer science or engineering you can work at Microsoft. grade 8
- I learned that women are under represented in computer tech. I loved learning how to do codes. And that I got to experience people’s work day. grade 8
- I learned that women engineers are in high demand. It was really fun to be at Microsoft and I loved making the turtle move around the computer screen. grade 8
- I learned that the women love what they do. I also loved the Microsoft museum. grade 8
- I liked discussing what a developer’s career consists of and why it is important. And I loved observing students engaged and intrigued in programming and coding. adult comment
- I liked the food. It was interesting working on the computer with the codes. I learned there are not many women in the technical field. grade 8
- I liked making the code, it was really fun. I learned that if I work at Microsoft I could live anywhere in the world. grade 8
- I liked working on the computers and learning how to code. I learned that they used codes to do their work, grade 6
- I learned that it could be really fun to work in these fields and I could make a lot of money. I really liked the hands on activities. grade 8
- I liked using small basic and making the tortoise do things was really cool. I also liked the lunch. And I learned that I could do this job and work at Microsoft someday. grade 6
- I liked the clear explanation of the IGNITE program. I also liked how the program inspires female students to consider the field of technology as a career path. I didn’t realize how Microsoft is looking for female engineers and that there is a high demand for women in the field. adult comment
- I really liked that you can make your own code on the computer. Then when you click run, you see the little turtle doing the code that you put in. And then when we were done with the project we got to make a color wheel. That was fun. grade 6
- I was shocked how few women engineers there are. I hope to build the percentage of women in the future. I really liked creating code and the tortoise was a fun activity.
Thank you for making this day possible.
Cathi Rodgveller M.S. Ed.
View the South Shore K-8 Chapter page