C-STEM Girls Computing and Robotics Leadership Camp

Abstract

Abstract Girl’s Leadership Camp for Computing and Robotics AbstractThe C-STEM Center hosted its first annual one-week C-STEM/NCWIT Girl's Leadership Campfor Computing and Robotics for middle school girls on July 22-26, 2013. The goal of this camp isto motivate girls in middle school to learn science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)concepts through a fun and exciting robotics-based curriculum. We want them to be leadersamong their peers and inspire other young girls to gain interest in science and technology. Thecamp was led by three college female students as coaches and assisted by five high schoolfemale students as assistant coaches. The camp was attended by 15 middle school girls fromthe greater Sacramento region. Girls at the camp had learned the basics of robotics, theprinciples of engineering, and C/C++ programming. In addition, they had learned important lifeskills including teamwork, presentation skills, leadership skills, building confidence, andbreaking gender stereotypes The girls also had heard from and discussed with experts invarious science and technology fields to gain exposure to the variety of options they haveavailable to them. At the end of the camp, they had created multi-media video presentationswith robotics, similar to the RoboPlay Video Competition, and presented them to parents andpeers. The girls who participated in the camp were given modular robotics kits to take back totheir middle schools so they can start computing and robotics clubs of their own. Coaches andassistant coaches mentor girls over the academic school year to facilitate the development ofthese clubs and their participation in RoboPlay Competition. In this paper, the curriculum andlesions learned through this first camp will be presented. 1