Friday, June 28, 2013

Last day of camp

High School camp is almost over. The last day of camp is always so sad. We're going to miss all of these
fabulous young ladies! Please don't forget us! Keep blogging and contact us! :) Good luck with school!

Click here to take the 2013 HS Camp Week 2 Post-Survey!

If you would like to blog today, please talk about what made your camp experience awesome! 

Much love,
YWiC Instructors
(Jen, Linday, Noor, and Susi)


Thursday, June 27, 2013

Hunger Games

Tomorrow is presentation day! :O Wow this week went by quick!

This entire week has been Hunger Games themed and today we followed it with the morning activity being "hand to hand combat". Two opponents face off each holding a plastic mixing spoon with a ball in it. The object of the game is to knock your opponents ball out of their spoon without losing yours. Our two winners were Irma and Summer!

After the activity the girls finished working on their Alice projects. It looks like most of them are almost done! 

Lunch was pizza, garlic bread with Peeta's bread, butter and cheese from Prim's goat and garlic spices gathered and ground by Rue, and nightlock berries!

The afternoon was saved for open  lab and the girls worked on their Alice and NXT projects while watching the Hunger Game movie! :D

Blog Prompt: Convince someone why computers are an important part of your life. Make them appreciate your viewpoint.

Noor: I have grown up my whole life around computers. My parents owned a computer repair store when I was younger. I knew the insides and outsides of a computer when I was 5 years old. Without computers the things we know today would never be! We wouldn't have the same technology, food, clothes, and inventions! Golly, without computers I wouldn't have made my invention or have a job! I love CS. :)

Jen: Computers are an important part of everyone's life, whether they realize it or not. It's thanks to computer technology that we have motion sensors for cars, digital thermometers, GPS, and medical knowledge - Computational models have allowed us to explore and learn about DNA! Computer technology has made possible the transition from paper to electronic health records (virtually eliminating problems with lost documentation), allowed for doctors to visit remote locations, and made possible robotic surgery. Because of computers, people are living happier, healthier, longer lives!

Please find the End of the Day survey here!

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Back to Back


Campers having a blast!
Another week almost over. Golly, time sure flies! This morning we went outside to use our muscles in a team activity. The girls had to pick each other up with their arms linked while their backs were toward each other.

After the activity they worked on Lego Mindstorms NXT. They were asked to finish the Flipping Gymnast program. After completing and debugging the program, girls chose a final camp project!

Students and their flipping gymnast!
The students were allowed to choose one of five choices:


They will have today and tomorrow during Open Lab to work on their projects! They will be able to present them on Friday, if they wish!

In the afternoon, the girls worked on Alice 3.0. They learned about creating Events, such as key presses or mouse clicks, adding conversations, changing camera angles, and setting vehicles in Alice. Girls were given the remaining time to work on their final Alice projects.

Yo Chicas!
Please find the End of the Day survey here!

Blog Prompt: List ten things that make you really happy.

Noor: The ten things that make me really happy are: family trips, hanging out with friends, giving gifts, fantasy movies/shows, stationary, good coffee, painting, laughing until my eyes tear up, hand-written letters, and the smell of lavender.

Linday: Ten things that make me happy! (1)Otter pops, (2)Music that makes me want to sing!!!, (3)Watching movies with my boyfriend,  (4)Massages, (5)Reading a really good book, (6)Photography, (7)Smoothies, (8)Friends, (9)Air Conditioning, (10)Scrapbooking.

Jen: The ten things that make me really happy are: COFFEE, dogs, longboarding with my crew (Janie and Nicole - I looking at you! <3), writing/receiving letters via snail mail, reading The Redwall series and the Harry Potter series (and accompanying Potterlucks), lazy afternoons, freshly painted nails, BFF time, riding in the car with the music SUPER loud and singing as loud as we can (Tash, this one's for you!), and buying new shoes!

Susi: The ten things that make me really happy are: family time, dancing like no one is watching! moooovies!, good authentic mexican food:), painting<3, reading awesome books, water balloon fights, babies:), morning runs, watching the sunset:).

Monday, June 24, 2013

High School Camp Week 2!

LEGO Mindstorms NXT Flipping Gymnast
Students will learn how to program a
robot using Lego NXT software!
Today begins Week 2 of Young Women in Computing's Summer 2013 High School camp! This week we will be covering:
  • Google email and Blogging
  • Lego NXT
  • Alice 3.0
  • Forensics - Blood Spatter Pattern Analysis  

Click here to take the YWiC HS Summer Camp 2013 Week 2.





Blog Prompt: What quality or talent is most likely to make you famous one day? It’s okay to brag!

Click here to take the End-of-Day Survey!

Friday, June 21, 2013

Presentation Day!

Good morning, ladies! 

It's Friday! Friday! Friday! Happy Presentation Day! And, FYI, today is National Go Skate Day! So for those of you skaters it's a good day to hit the park and streets! This day was created by the International Association of Skateboard Companies to promote skateboarding and get kids active. 

If you are curious to know what days are going on this weekend:

June 22 is: National Chocolate Eclair Day
June 23 is: National Pink Day

Click here to take the 2013 HS Camp LilyPad & App Inventory Post-Survey! 
Click here to take the YWiC HS Summer Camp 2013 Post-Survey!

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Potterluck Day...Oh the Joy!

It's Thursday! Only one more day till presentations! :O

Today is Ice Cream Soda Day! It is a great way to cool off in this crazy hot weather. In honor of this day make sure to include your favorite ice cream and soda flavors in your blog! Yum...

Our girls started out the day with a morning activity as usual but when they came inside they pulled out their sleuthing gear! Today was the start of our forensics lab! They started their work with fingerprinting, learning characteristics, minutiae, patterns and the Henry-FBI classification system before putting it to use themselves.






Later in the day they pulled out their LilyPad Arduino projects again, I must say that they're coming along so well! I love all the different ideas they are coming up with and I'm excited to see what they're look like in the end.






Lunch today was a Potterluck! We had:

Well and of course real food, pizza. But that's not as cool as Butterbeer (non alcoholic of course), skiving snack-boxes, licorice wands, chocolate frogs, golden snitches and Bertie Bott's every flavor beans.



Then we went back to the room and started Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets while we worked on our projects! They got to choose between working on App Inventor or LilyPad Aduino. It was a really relaxed and fun afternoon.

Blog Prompt: After watching the video "What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid?" from Lean In, please answer the question, "What would you do if you weren't afraid?"




If I wasn't afraid, I would ...


Jen: Continue with education and pursue the necessary career path to become a Supreme Court Judge!

Noor: Never let the judgement of others limit me from getting my PhD and starting my own business.

Linday: I wouldn't worry about impressing others and I would stop letting people's words get me down.

Susi: I would not be afraid of failure, I would try to learn more from my mistakes instead.

Tasha: Create my own nonprofit organization :)

Janie: Drive myself to new places, travel the world on my own, and be more vocal about my thoughts!

Nicole: Move to Antarctica to do research for a year!

Becca: Pursue (FINISH!!) my doctorate in Water Resource Management. It would allow me to work outdoors, in defense of our amazing and diminishing natural resources, and it would challenge me in ways I have never been challenged.

Myranda: Share my ideas more often.

Joellen: I would speak up more and not care so much about how others see me.


Click here to take the End-of-Day Survey!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Halfway done!


It's Wednesday! We are halfway done with the week.

Today is World Sauntering Day! is a day to saunter here and there, wherever you go. Sauntering outside is how we started the day.

This morning the girls started their team building activity outside. When they came back to the classroom we got straight to work! The girls worked on LilyPad Arduino. They completed their Button program. They learned the Buzzer (Speaker) program. Noor also showed them how to incorporate a new LED pin in their programs.

After a full explanation, they were send off to brainstorm and test their ideas.

Their requirements are: 1 buzzer, at least 2 leds, and 1 button. They will have today and tomorrow to finish their projects.
There some geek-tastic projects, ranging from Big Bang Theory to Star Trek. We love all of them!

After a Korean lunch the girls worked on AppInventor with Linday. They had to get into pairs and start designing their final projects. Students will enter their completed apps into an App Competition. As a requirement, apps have to be socially-beneficial.

Blog Prompt: Which character from a book would you most like to meet and why? What would you do with them?

Noor: I'd love to meet Kahlan Amnell from the Sword of Truth series. It's my favorite book series and tv show. I could always relate to her. She was intelligent, witty, modest, and genuinely a pure person. If I did meet her I would just want to have tea with her and talk about her adventures. I'd probably ask her for advise on life.

Jen: The character that I would to meet is Dobby from the Harry Potter series. He is a magical house-elf who befriends Harry and helps him escape from dangerous situations. Harry repays Dobby, in part, by assisting in releasing him from servitude to the Malfoy family. Dobby was a courageous house elf, loved by all!

Click here for the End of the Day Survey!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Lights and Apps!

After an exciting first day, we now continue our journey into the week with lots of energy.

Today is International Panic Day! - A day for everyone to be worried and concerned. We're not sure why it was widespread enough to create an international "holiday" on this matter, but here it is on the calendar ...... an international day of panic.


On this day, however, we asked our students NOT to panic about designing and beginning to implement their upcoming projects :)


Today the girls began the day with a challenging human knot to decipher. It was a jumble of hands and arms, but nevertheless they were able to unwind themselves after trying many different things. The new quote for this activity might be, "Whoever's hand that is under the hand with the blue nails... oh wait that's mine!". Good times...




In the morning, the girls learned how to modify the "Button" program to turn on the LED, finding that code that looks complicated can actually be quite simple. The girls also got to practice sewing, a much needed skill in the art of LilyPad. But no matter how important sewing might be, the bag will not work without programming! Hooray for programming! They also brainstormed on their projects, because a good plan is better than any hasty attack. With some great design plans, the girls are ready to make amazing projects in the days to come.






If you ever have a hard time getting your program to work, these are some key parts to double check:


-Board

-Serial Port
-LilyPad switched to off
-Are your pins connected to the right petals?
-Are your alligator clips on securely?
-Is the metal part of your alligator clip touching the metal part of your alligator clip with an opposite charge (Red is positive, black is negative)?




The girls were also introduced to App Inventor. It is a platform originally provided by Google and maintained by MIT. It allows anyone familiar with computer programming to create software applications for the Android operating system (OS). It uses a graphical interface, very similar to Scratch and the StarLogo TNG interface, that allows users to drag and drop blocks to create an application that can be tested and used on any android phone. It is a great teaching tool for programming since it engages the girls to create something unique and useful. Today we made the Magic 8 Ball app and had everyone choose their own tutorial. 


Blog Prompt of the Day:          

Write a run-on sentence by listing everything you need to get done this week. 
For example, “I have to wash the dishes and clean my room and take my French test and visit my grandma and finish my history project and…” See how long you can make it!!

Susi: I have to wash my clothes and plan Alice and clean my room and go to swim class and get my new bathing suit and buy the tickets for my trip and brainstorm ideas for cool projects at camp and try to workout and see cool places to go to in Denver and go to the movie night tonight to watch Wrecked Ralph and pick up Sofi and hangout with Jen and Noor and Linday and eat popcorn and go to sleep and shower and write a really long sentence.

Jen: This week I need to go to the movie night and finish planning forensics lessons and plan the Potterluck and plan the Hunger Games Feast and work with the camp assistants to plan Minute to Win In and plan camp presentations for HS Camp week 1 and week 2 and make the HS camp video and wash clothes and start packing to move to Santa Fe and apply for a CRS number so I can get paid for my internship and go longboarding and write letters to Tasha, Sam, Janie, and Nicole and vacuum my house and sweep and mop the kitchen and program the LilyPad project that camp instructors are making and FINALLY - do something nice for myself :)

Noor: I have to pick up the pizza and watch Wreck it Ralph and eat popcorn and hangout with my co-workers and do laundry and clean my room and prepare for tomorrow's lesson and check the final designs for the students and send letters to my friends and plan for the hunger game party and watch some Merlin and call my mom who's out of town and finish the camp instructor lilypad project and paint my nails and pray and figure out what to wear tomorrow and sleep.

Click here to take today's End-of-Day Survey!




LilyPad and App Inventor Research


A large part of Young Women in Computing's focus is research, particularly analyzing which software development tools have positive effects on female interest in technology. Currently, we are expanding our research pool from last summer when we compared LilyPad Arduino and App Inventor with reference to interest generation in CS, programming methods, and tactile vs. virtual learning environments. These software applications were chosen because their uses of creativity and design, programming styles, usability, and marketability make them relatable to YWiC students. LilyPad Arduino and App Inventor also differ in important ways, allowing conclusions regarding their effectiveness to be drawn. 

In addition to determining which approaches generate the most interest among students, another objective of our research is to provide an enjoyable and positive experience with technology. YWiC hypothesizes that when provided with a rewarding experience in CS, irrelevant to the tools used, the learned CS concepts, skills, and structures will intensify students’ continued pursuit and exposure to CS opportunities. Ultimately, their confidence will extend to other platforms and an eventual pursuit of a career in C-STEM.


To view our research analysis and findings in poster format from data gathered in Summer 2012, please click here!

Summer 2013 HS Week 1 campers, please click here to take our survey!

Monday, June 17, 2013

High School Bloggers!






Charlotte- totalyamazingsauce.blogspot.com 

Jenny- jennymeeper.blogspot.com
Abbi- sumercountry.blogspot.com/  
Analyssa- ywichighschoolcamp2013.blogspot.com 
Summer- lovemysoftball.blogspot.com 
Galen- meplusfree.blogspot.com
Kassie- harmonythepony.blogspot.com NOT FOUND
Hiba- hibalovespie.blogspot.com
Irma- irma-purplepandas.blogspot.com NOT FOUND 
Arianna- ywichssummercamp12013.blogspot.com 
Alexia D- alexywicsummercamp.blogspot.com
Belle- bellerina-2013.blogspot.com
Alejandra-alejandradelgado240662.blogspot.com
Stephanie-stephcompsci.blogspot.com
Selema-
Alexia H-






Jocelyn- josslinnpaigeatwyic2013.blogspot.com Week one camper
Irene- vivaargentin.blogspot.com Week one camper
Elizabeth- elizbabeths.blogspot.com Week one camper
Gina- gbonhorst.blogspot.com Week one camper
Rylee- Asiancutieful.blogspot.com Week one camper 
Emily- computers4girls.blogspot.comWeek one camper
Allison- dogsandcats3.blogspot.com Week one camper

And so begins another week of camp :)

Three AWESOME YWiC staff members!
Noor and Susi are YWiC camp instructors this year! 
Today began Week 1 of Young Women in Computing's Summer 2013 High School camp! We are so happy that our students have chosen to join us, and we are very excited to work with them over the upcoming week. This week we will be covering:

  • Computer Science Core Concepts
  • Google email and Blogging
  • LilyPad
  • App Inventor
  • Forensics - Fingerprinting 

Today students were introduced to our Computer Science Core Concepts curriculum. They learned that programming is all about problem solving, and about the tools that Computer Scientists use for problem solving. Topics covered included variables and types, expressions, loops, classes, objects, and more!

To test their knowledge of the topics covered, students created posters about each of the concepts covered, and then participated in a friendly game of Computer Science Core Concept Jeopardy! We were very impressed with their abilities!

Finally, the day ended with an introduction to LilyPad Arduino. Our girls modified the "Blink" example project to work with their Arduino board, and then used alligator clips to connect an LED.

Blog Prompt: Describe one time when you were brave!

Jen: One time that I was brave was last summer when my friend, Tasha, fell off of my longboard and broke her ankle. It was her first time longboarding, and the board rolled out from under her when she tried to step off. I have broken my ankle 5 times, so I knew exactly what to do. I was really scared because Tasha got hurt falling off of my longboard, but I called her mom and told her what happened anyway. Next, my other friends, Nicole and Janie, and I took Tasha to the hospital. Her ankle was broken in 3 places and she had to have surgery! :/ Thanks to our collective cool manner and quick thinking, we minimized Tasha's trauma and transported her to the hospital quickly!

Susi:

Noor: One time I was brave when I delivered a slam poem for my creative writing class in my junior year of highschool. I wrote about my feelings being multiracial and multicultural. It was the first time I spoke about myself with pride. I was so nervous. My voice quivered and kept changing, my hands were sweaty. I was so nervous. I took a deep breathe and let my heart out. I almost cried when I finished. My classmates were shocked that I delivered such a powerful piece. I'm glad I did it. I feel like I'm getting better at public speaking. :)

Click here to take the HS Summer Camp 2013 Week 1 Pre-Survey!

Click here to take today's End-of-Day Survey!

Friday, June 14, 2013

Last day!

The last day of camp is always so bittersweet. We are so happy for our students to share their incredible work with their friends and family, and so sad that we will not see them every day. We are going to miss every single one of the girls from our Middle School camp. These last two weeks flew by. You inspire us to become better teachers and better people. Seeing your smiles everyday made our camp experience wonderful!

Check out our Middle School Camp Video below :) Happy summer. 


Thursday, June 13, 2013

Sketchin' up!

Linday guiding the students through the design plan.
It's the last day of instruction. We are going to miss these girls! Today was awesome! After an awesome presentation about Google Sketch-Up, The students learned the Sketch-Up interface with Noor. They learned all about 3D shapes and important tools to know. They built a dog house and cat perch for Brodie the dog and Lilly the cat. They had specific requirements to meet. They used design plans before actually building the dog house and perch. Noor taught them the dog house and Linday taught them the cat perch.
Brodie and Lilly







Students working on their plans.
Their final project was a house made from their imagination!

Project Requirements:
  • Roof and House.
  • At least 4 components
    • door, windows, furniture, people, pets, objects, plants.
  • Needs to be realistic measures.
  • Add a shadow.
  • Use the tools we used earlier!

After making the house the students were allowed to look around to their peers projects and vote for the one they liked best. Winner will get a prize tomorrow!


At the end of each day of camp, we encourage our students to fill out a small survey so that we can better craft an amazing camp experience. The survey for today can be found here: June 13: End-of-Day Survey

Additionally, YWiC uses student surveys for research purposes. The MS 2013 Summer Camp Post-Survey can be found here: Camp post-survey

Blog Prompt:
Did you like Google Sketch-Up? Which project (the one you made) was your favorite? What was your favorite part of camp?

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

StarLogo TNG: Save the Giraffes!

To download StarLogo TNG, visit http://education.mit.edu/starlogo/
Today was all about using StarLogo TNG to model a flood! First, to get them excited, students learned about what is StarLogo TNG and how to use this creative software in an initial 5 minute presentation. Then, students were allowed to explore the software on their own - Could they create agents and give them behaviors? Could they manipulate the terrain in Spaceland?

Secondly, the instructors programmed the scenario with the students. Camp instructor Jen explained what was the scenario and how it would work by giving the students a live demo of the completed project. In short, the scenario that instructors and students programmed was: 

There was a flood. There are 20 giraffes wandering Spaceland looking for high ground to stay out of the water. You will earn a score based on the height of the ground that the giraffes find. If a giraffe stays on high ground, your score will be positively affected. If a giraffe is on lower ground, your score will be negatively affected. A line graph will chart score over time.

The giraffes behavior has been modified so that if they are on high ground, they will
stay on high ground. The score has been graphed on the left. 
Additionally, campers were asked to complete two worksheets throughout the process of modeling the flood. Finally, students were given a list of challenges to complete. The challenges asked the students to modify their program in various ways, most leading to an overall increase in score. Some of the challenges included:
  • Adding more mountains and valleys to Spaceland to positively affect their score
  • Changing the color of the terrain to positively affect their score
  • Moving agents to the highest point in Spaceland, and keeping them there, to positively affect their score
  • Changing agent’s behavior for certain colors of patches in Spaceland to positively affect their score
At the end of each day of camp, we encourage our students to fill out a small survey so that we can better craft an amazing camp experience. The survey for today can be found here: June 12: End-of-Day Survey

Blog Prompt: 
What did you learn today?
Did you complete the challenges from Part III? Which ones? How?
What was your favorite part?

Notes:
Click here to download a short introductory presentation to StarLogo TNG.
Click here to download the YWiC StarLogo TNG lesson plans for building the game described above.
Click here to download the first and second worksheets that accompany the game described above.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Paper Circuits

Yay for another great day of camp! Today we made paper circuits which was really interesting but really difficult too. We had to make sure that we made full circuits and didn't cross the positive and the negative circuits! But we got to make a light-up birthday card which was really pretty!

Here is a page about paper circuits! MIT Paper Circuits
Some tutorials!
And some light-up cards!

Project Requirements:
  1. 2 lights
  2. 1 cross over
  3. Only 9 ft. Copper tape
  4. Must be fully approved!


Here is the morning presentation!
The location of the circuit game!


At the end of each day of camp, we encourage our students to fill out a small survey so that we can better craft an amazing camp experience. The survey for today can be found here: June 11: End-of-Day Survey

Blog Prompt: 
What did you make today with Paper Circuits? How did you like it? Did anything interesting happen?

Monday, June 10, 2013

Picocricket Robotics- Crazy Bots!

Yay it's Monday! Today we are working with PicoCrickets to create awesome bots that we can program! We made a magic lights sensor, which reads the light in the room to give us different values in our display board. We made a catapult that could shoot things just with a few lines of code! And last but not least we made an awesome birthday cake, when you blow on the light, it goes out, and it also plays the happy birthday song! It's clear that robotics are awesome, but programming is what makes it all work!

The projects that we did today:
Magic Lights Project
Catapult Project
Birthday Cake Project









Our Project theme today is CARNIVAL!!! The campers brainstormed some awesome ideas and we can't wait to see what they come up with.

Project Requirements:
*At least 1 input
*At least 2 outputs


At the end of each day of camp, we encourage our students to fill out a small survey so that we can better craft an amazing camp experience. The survey for today can be found here: June 10: End-of-Day Survey

Blog Prompt:
What did you do this weekend? How did you feel about PicoCrickets? What did you make?

Friday, June 7, 2013

HTML: WE ARE PROGRAMMERS!


Today was definitely a challenging day but we still had a lot of fun! We looked at HTML and CSS to help design web pages which taught us a lot of new concepts. A lot of our students were new to actually typing code and seeing how finicky it can be so it was good practice! First we created our own webpage ,then we explored and found that we could edit our Gutsy Girls profile page as well. The girls had a lot of fun finding colors to use to style their page. 

Today was Donut Day!!!


Project Requirements:

  • Change the page we made to fit your style! 
  • Use hex codes
  • Use different sizes and faces for your fonts!

Hex Color Code Possibilities:
December
Color Wheel/Color Palette

Help!
HTML
CSS
Finished Code!



At the end of each day of camp, we encourage our students to fill out a small survey so that we can better craft an amazing camp experience. The survey for today can be found here: June 7: End-of-Day Survey

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Design Blocks


Class Examples
Sphere Example


Flowers Example 


Flowers edit 





Project Requirements:
  • 2 projects
  • Use 1 variable or mouse click/movement in at least one project
  • Try to use modulus in at least one project
  • Use at least 3 colors in both projects
  • Use a random (the dice) in both projects
  • Use more than one shape or use different sizes of the same shape in both projects 

At the end of each day of camp, we encourage our students to fill out a small survey so that we can better craft an amazing camp experience. The survey for today can be found here: June 6: End-of-Day Survey

Camper Scratch Programs!


Here you can view all of your fellow campers' Scratch projects. Please view, interact, and let your classmates know of any AWESOME ideas you think might be FABULOUS to add to their project! 

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Be a Scratcher!




It was a Scratch-tastic day! The students had a blast learning to program 2D animation. I had a blast teaching them! The class was engaging and fun!

They learned how to make an animation and a game. They made an animation about a prince and princess who turned into a witch. They also made a game of a crab trying to collect beach balls.

They were given project requirements and put into groups to brainstorm. I'm excited to see what crazy and funny things these girls will come up with. 




Project Requirements:
  • At least 6 sprites; at least 2 moving
  • At least 2 stages
  • At least 1 variable or key press
  • At least different 2 sounds
  • At least 1 costume change
  • At least 2 instances of collision detection or key press



Campers Brainstorming!

After lunch we went outside for CS Unplugged. We had the students do a dance choreography and teach each other the moves! They continued to brainstorm and work on their final projects!


Check out the Scratch website!
       Scratch Site http://scratch.mit.edu/







At the end of each day of camp, we encourage our students to fill out a small survey so that we can better craft an amazing camp experience. The survey for today can be found here: June 5: End-of-Day Survey

Connect with your Friends!



SHOW SOME LOVE <3



3. Tori torihoffman23.blogspot.com











14. Morgan http://morganknight11.blogspot.com/