BAY ROBERTS, N.L. — Over two dozen girls from Amalgamated Academy in Bay Roberts joined 4500 peers from across Canada on Dec. 10 for a lesson in coding. The 32 students took part in Hackathon, an event that linked students virtually, organized by Hackergal.
Hackergal, a not-for-profit organization, introduces young girls to coding by providing support and resources to teachers and through the Hackaton events.
Lucy Ho, founder of Hackergal, was in Bay Roberts for the event, and said the students were thrilled.
“When we were leaving they were asking ‘are we going to continue this? Can we continue this? Can we keep doing this.?" she told The Compass. “One student said she was going to continue coding through Christmas. It was really nice to see that there was an impact there. They enjoyed what they were working on.“
What they were working on was an interactive story or game with a social impact theme, using the coding language they learned.
The theme was ‘Leaders in Herstory'. Girls were put in teams of two or three to research what leadership means to them and to reflect on someone they thought embodied leadership. Ho said it could have been a fictional person, a daily hero or an inspirational person from the past.
“They would identify, through their code, the leader and what did she accomplish in her life,” she said.
Ho said the examples of leaders were varied.
“We saw (everyone) from Rosa Parks to a girl's cousin that was disabled and how she demonstrated bravery, and there were women hockey players. It was really cool to see how creative the girls got.”
Hackergal holds smaller hackathons throughout the year and has been hosting these for five years. Ho said the reason to set up Amalgamated Academy as one of the main host schools was that the teacher there, Kristin Rose, does a lot of great work and they wanted to recognize a school that is doing good work.
She added there is a need for more coding opportunities for young women in Atlantic Canada.
“We’ve identified Atlantic Canada as our priority in terms of expansion,” she said. “We want teachers there to understand the resources and support we can offer in addition to what they are already doing. This helps with that.”
They see more and more interest from young women in coding each year, Ho said, which is inspiring.
“Every year more teachers are getting involved in code education and bringing code education to the girls and inspiring girls with STEM opportunities. It’s really about the teachers who believe in our mission and understand the importance of technology in the classroom.
"We definitely applaud these teachers because they are the lifeline of Hackergal, in the sense that they are inviting us into their classrooms."
For more information on the organization visit https://hackergal.org/.
