The fourth annual National Girls Learning Code Day takes place on Saturday, May 13th and Peterborough will be participating with a workshop from 1 to 4 p.m. at The Cube in the VentureNorth building in downtown Peterborough (270 George St. N.).
On National Girls Learning Code Day, more than 650 girls aged eight to 13, along with their parents or guardians, will attend simultaneous workshops in over 29 communities across Canada.
The Peterborough workshop is presented by Ladies Learning Code, a national not-for-profit organization offering beginner-friendly tech education, with the support of Scotiabank. It will also recognize the launch of the new Peterborough chapter of Ladies Learning Code.
The year, National Girls Learning Code Day will focus on learning the skill of game making. Together with their parents, girls will build and develop a fun and interactive game to share with their friends and family.
Using a beginner-level programming language called Scratch, girls will create interactive stories through animation.
May 13th is also International Scratch Day, the 10-year anniversary of Scratch, developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab as a stepping stone to the more advanced world of computer programming.
The May 13th workshop at The Cube will offer girls the opportunity to express their creativity in a fun environment and learn about the different elements of a story, as well as character interaction and basic design principles. At the end of the workshop, each girl will also get a chance to practice their presentation skills and showcase their creation for everyone attending the workshop.
National Girls Learning Code Day is one of the registered events for Science Odyssey Week (May 12th to 21st) sponsored by the Government of Canada. Science Odyssey celebrates Canadian achievements in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by bringing together hundreds of events and science outreach leaders to deliver fun, engaging, and inspiring activities to Canadians of all ages.
National Girls Learning Code Day is presented by Ladies Learning Code, a not-for-profit organization that runs workshops for women and youth who want to learn beginner-friendly computer programming and other technical skills in a social and collaborative way. The new Peterborough chapter is one of 29 chapters of the organization, which offer a girls’ program called Girls Learning Code and a co-ed kids’ program called Kids Learning Code.
The organization’s sponsors and community partners include TELUS, Microsoft, Facebook, Scotiabank, Google, and more. For more information about Ladies Learning Code, visit ladieslearningcode.com. For more information about the Peterborough chapter, contact Steve Blair at steve.blair@ladieslearningcode.com.
The cost for a girl and her parent or guardian to attend the May 13th workshop at The Cube in Peterborough is by donation (pay what you can per pair, $30 suggested). Participants must bring their own laptop. If you’re an adult who knows how to code and wants to help out at the workshop, you can register for free. To register, visit girlslearningcodeday.com.
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