Here’s a pic of Hannah and her partner working on a small basic training module on Sunday. I wrote about it last week: Teaching Kids Programming Event. Although I think Hannah was a bit younger than the ideal age to introduce some of the concepts, it did spark some overall interest in programming. One the drive home she asked when she can work with her Daddy on building some stuff on the computer.
I think it is so great that Microsoft and Gen INC TV and Learning Tree International created this event to target young girls and introduce them to programming early. The earlier you show young girls that they can “get” science, math and computer technology, the great chance at success in “hooking” them for future careers.
And I love that they let Hannah go even though she didn’t meet the age target. They were open to seeing how she would take to it… What a great event and I hope to see more of these nationwide!
Way to go Microsoft!
2 responses to “Teaching Girls Programming”
I do a lot of similar outreach work. Hannah should check out Scratch – it’s great for kids (and adults!) and totally free. Completely straightforward with great resources online. Check it out: scratch.mit.edu
It’s true you don’t see a lot of female programmers, but one of the best programmers I ever worked with was female. … And that was years ago. Maybe it would stand to reason that she really had to love programming in order to get into such a male dominated field to begin with.