Girls Who Code Club Offered to Hardeman County Students to Promote STEM Education
Yes! Girls do code and Ms. Deana Sain, Hardeman County Schools K-8 STEM Coordinator, wants to introduce, and encourage Hardeman County sixth through twelfth grade girls in the area of coding, which follows under STEM education. Since the opening of the STEM lab at the Hardeman County Learning Center in Bolivar, The Girls Who Code Club is just one of the many STEM-related education experiences Sain has been able to offer to students in the county.
“The idea came about through my association with TSIN (TN STEM Innovation Network). TSIN launched a statewide chapter of Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) and created a formal partnership with Girls Who Code,” said Ms. Sain, who recently joined the state-wide chapter of CSTA and is excited about the reception of STEM in the county schools. “Dr. Christy Smith is always supportive of additional opportunities for learning to be offered to our Hardeman County students.”
TSIN is the district sponsor of the club and Ms. Sain is looking forward to starting the Club with the hope of it being offered each semester. Participants will learn from tutorials and hands-on activities to build animations, apps, games, and many other things they dream up. They will work in Scratch, Python, Swift, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Although Ms. Sain believes all students should have access to STEM education, she does see the value in offering something that is targeted toward girls.
“I want our girls to see they can be successful in STEM-related fields. Computer Science was my minor in college, and I was the only girl in the majority of my programming classes. In 2023, the gender gap in STEM remains significant, with women making up only 28 percent of the STEM workforce. Girls Who Code is on a mission to close the gender gap in technology and to change the image of what a programmer looks like and does,” said Ms. Sain.
The Girls Who Code Club will meet February 2024 through March 2024 at the Hardeman County Learning Center once a week from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sixth through twelfth grade girls interested in joining the Girls Who Code Club may contact Ms. Sain by e-mailing saind@hcsedu.org.
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