Photo Credit – Blue Mountains Library on Flickr
Boolean Girl has announced a generous gift from Amazon to help support the return of its Boolean Girl Clubhouse program, an in-person educational event for girls and non-binary students in grades 3-8. At the Clubhouse, girls and non-binary individuals learn to code and build electronics in a fun, supportive setting. The clubhouse meets from 9AM -12PM on Saturdays from January – May.
“At Boolean Girl, our Clubhouse program allows students to learn coding and engineering in a welcoming, collaborative environment. We are so grateful that Amazon has invested in the local community by supporting the Clubhouse program,” says Boolean Girl co-founder Sarah Eastman. “Their generosity enables us to provide robust, high-quality STEM education to girls, under-represented groups and low-income kids throughout Northern Virginia and DC.”
In the DMV and across the country, girls and under-represented groups are opting out of computer education at an alarming rate, precisely when the demand for individuals trained in computer science is skyrocketing. Meanwhile, the pressures of social media are harming girls psychologically, even more than their male counterparts. Girls find themselves at a toxic nexus of technology: missing out on the educational opportunities offered by computing while bearing more of its harms.
At the Clubhouse, Boolean Girl attacks these challenges on two fronts: educating under-served kids in STEM and teaching them about digital wellness. To promote healthy choices on computing devices, instructors lead discussions with their students about how to be safe in a technology-driven world.
“Given recent events in the news, parents are desperate for ways to help their children navigate the world of technology, seeing both the promise and peril that the tech revolution has brought”, says Boolean Girl co-founder Brian Moran. “Our curricula, both the engineering content and the lessons in digital citizenship, allow us to do just that.”
Amazon’s investment in the Clubhouse allowed Boolean Girl to shift meetings of the Clubhouse from once a month to every week, providing continuity and the opportunity to take on larger, long-term projects. Children can attend one session or multiple sessions in a row to complete the more involved projects.
-PR Newswire