From creating our sign in survey for parents to scheduling our informational meeting to practicing engineering on the Piper Computers, planning our first Hackathon and camp took a lot of collaboration and endurance.
stage 1: outlining goal
After communicating with our advisor, and having a couple of retreats over the weekend, we established that our goal with this project was to introduce programming in a unique fun way that is easy for young girls to get involved in.
stage 2: engaging with the community
We were extremely lucky to receive support from several local businesses, the high school principal, and representatives at the district office who supported our mission. Rooms to host our Hackathon, financial support to obtain the Piper Computers, and means to communicate with the elementary school parents we all owe to our community.
stage 3: planning our meetings
We then analyzed Piper's curriculum for block coding and engineering challenges and created a day by day schedule of what we intended to complete at each camp day with the girls. We then scheduled online conference calls with the Piper Companies employees who helped us plan a practical way to implement our camp in a way that accomplishes our goal: introducing girls to computer science in a fun supportive way. Finally, we created a google slideshow to identify the activities and materials needed for each day of camp.
stage 4: advertising
About one month before we started our camp, it was time to start advertising. Thus we took action: we created a flyer for our informational meeting and hosted a meeting for local parents at our high school's library.