Virtual Girls Into Coding #12, 13 & 14- April 2021

Virtual Girls Into Coding #12, 13 & 14- April 2021

In April we ran our 12th, 13th, and 14th virtual Girls into Coding events, which was the highest number of workshop events delivered in a month for GIC!

Before I describe the different workshops that ran, over the three events, I would like to emphasize the fact that we introduced two new hands-on ones! They included the Robot Arm by Sam & Ben, and the Mechanical Eye by Llewelyn. In preparation for these two workshops, I had the pleasure of testing their kits. I found them really fun and engaging! From all of the positive feedback and photos sent in I can tell their workshops were a huge success! So thank you and well done Sam, Ben & Llewelyn.

• Mechanical Eyes –The girls built a pair of mechanical eyes. They added a Microbit to control the motors that move the eyes, added another Microbit to give them remote control. They Used MakeCode blocks to make the eyes look around the room and blink!
• Learning to move a robot arm – The girls built a 3D printed robot arm and learnt how to make it move. In the workshop, they learnt about all the components and what they do. They learnt about how to position the robot arm using code (this is called Kinematics), and then they coded the robot arm so that they could experience and understand how this works in real life! They used micropython for this activity.

In addition to our two new hands-on workshops, we also introduced another mentor to our Girls Into Coding team. Welcome Mikel! Mikel ran a new workshop called  “Make Interactive Art with Code”, and did great with it.

• Make Interactive Art with Code – The girls learnt how to generate, customise & control shapes and then used their imagination to craft their artwork.

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The other workshops that ran over the course of the three weeks included:

• Grabber Robot – This workshop was led by me, Avye. The girls built a robot powered by a Microbit that could be used as a grabber. They added different components, wired it all up, and programed the robot using MakeCode.
• Exploring 3D Design – Graham led this workshop. This workshop was designed to get the girls quickly up to speed on core skills, best practices – while having an opportunity to explore Blender, SketchUp, Sculptris & TinkerCAD.)
• Make your first game in Python! – This workshop was led by Lauren – The girls learnt how to make the classic Rock, Paper, Scissors game in Python)
• Robots and behaviours – This was a fun introduction to creating behaviours for robots & was led by Ben. The girls got to use a robot simulator and programmed a robot with insect-like traits to move around using python code.
• Creative Coding with Python Turtle – This workshop was led by Rehana. The girls were able to get creative with code. They explored using Python to generate shape & colour, creating their own artistic masterpieces.
• Microbit Robot – This workshop was led by me, Avye. The girls built a robot powered by a Microbit adding a motor controller board, an ultrasonic sensor, wired the components together, and then programmed it using MicroPython.
• The Crawlbot – The Crawlbot session was delivered by Llewelyn . The participants had to build a 2-legged crawling robot. Then attach a Microbit controller, use MakeCode blocks to code the legs to move in a lifelike manner. 
• Robot Simulator – This was led by Sam. The girls got to learn about simple algorithms that help robots travel to where they need to go; they got to write programs in Python, helping their robot to manoeuvre through an online simulator.

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After the workshops slowly came to an end, all the attendees were transferred back into the main room, everyone excited and ready for what was next. We were joined by our six guest speakers in total, all of whom shared their inspiring stories & insights while interacting with the girls through a live Q & A session. The speakers (you can find their bio on our Speaker page) who joined us were:

• Ebony Allison
• Pamela Cortez
• Jazmin Morris
• Amelia Hayward
• Omotola Shogunle
• Leesa Kingman

After listening to what each of our speakers had to say, we all felt inspired and in admiration of everything they had achieved. Thank you, everyone! It’s always important to invite female role models, for the girls who join us at each event, to listen to. “If you can see it, then you can be it!”. Thank you to all of our speakers who joined us; your stories are amazing & engaging!

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Overall, I think these were some of my favourite events to run! The interactiveness, communication, and of course the great speakers and mentors were definitely what made it. I find that through running all of my workshops, I’m always finding ways in which to improve but also things that worked really well, and this is what running a workshop is all about!! 

I’m really pleased that Girls Into Coding continues to reach girls from all over the world – countries including the USA, Canada, Kenya, Nigeria, Singapore, Spain, Ireland, France, India, and of course all over the UK. Once again, thanks to all of the mentors & speakers who help to make these events happen, and to the girls and their parents for their talent, energy &  feedback.

I was happy to hear that Casssie, one of our participants enjoyed her workshop so much she decided to take the project, the mechanical eyes kit, to her classroom! The students really enjoyed her show and tell! This will hopefully inspire many other kids to get involved with tech!

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I would also like to say a SPECIAL THANK YOU to our sponsors for these 3 events:

• The Global Fund For Children and The National Lottery Community Fund for sponsoring our 12th & 13th Virtual Girls Into Coding event. 
• Angular London Meetup for sponsoring our 14th Virtual Girls Into Coding event.  

Without this type of support, we could not continue doing what we do.

One last thing, well-done to the winners of our quiz! We’re so glad you’re enjoying your “Coding for beginners” book!

“Thank you everyone and can’t wait for the next one!

Avye