4 Tips that Encourage Girls to Code

Although numbers are slowly increasing, there is still a large gap in the number of women in STEM-related careers as opposed to men. Women continue to be underrepresented in STEM careers, and it starts at the educational level. So how can schools inspire more girls to pursue tech-related studies?  Dr. Karee McAndrew, Director of Technology for the Bayonne Board of Education in New Jersey offers 4 tips that can help encourage girls to code and pursue careers in tech-related fields.

Offer Afterschool Programs

McAndrew helped her school district partner with Girls Who Code, which is an organization that helps close the gender gap through many avenues, including education. Now, each of her schools has a Girls Who Code club that meets after school. The club offers engaging curriculum and other fun incentives for the kids.

“We have a huge turnout in them – 10, 15, 20 girls per club,” McAndrew says.

The strong engagement is thanks to district level and teacher support. Many of the club leaders are computer science teachers who are able to recruit students from their classes.

“When kids sign up, they send them little swag bags, and the kids get tons of cool freebies like t-shirts and other things like that,” says Dr. Karee.

Remember Representation Matters

“Being a female in the computer science realm, director realm, there aren’t many of us, it is a very male-dominated position,” says McAndrew. “So I think any time that you are able to see other females who have already stepped into the role, it gives you that idea that like, ‘Oh, I can do that too.’”

McAndrew suggests that educators show their students others who look like them in prominent tech positions. Girls Who Code offers several resources that help clubs accomplish this.

Explain to Students Coding is Expansive

The Girls Who Code curriculum is designed to show young female students how diverse the field of coding is – and that it is a part of more industries that they may not realize.  Not only is coding a part of tech-specific jobs, it can be a starting point for a path into other job sectors.

“It’ll focus on female engineers, it’ll focus on female jobs that maybe you wouldn’t necessarily think would fall under the computer science realm, but do. So it gives girls the view to say like, ‘Oh, wow, look at all these great females and what they’re doing and how successful they are. And they followed the path of computer science or science to end up in the position that they are,” according to McAndrew.

Make Coding Fun and Inclusive

Girls Who Code clubs focus on recruiting young women to code, however clubs are open to everyone. McAndrew’s goal in her districts is to make coding inclusive, engaging and fun.

“We make the curriculum a lot of fun,” McAndrew says. “We buy really great robotics programs that kids just love to play with – doesn’t matter if you’re male or female. And we also use really great coding programs that are fun for all ages. Any time coding activities have challenges and you can get rewards, even if it’s at the digital store within the platform, kids get motivated. So we always try to make sure that everything that we do is fun, engaging, and the kids do see an end result that’s rewarding for them.”

Story via TechLearning.com