Crash Course
Lucky me!!! Selected from a wide field of applicants, I joined the volunteer team from Intel as a technical train
er for WiSCI 2015, a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) camp for 120 High School Students from 9 different countries (90 from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and 30 from the USA) . As the only female technical trainer in a team of 4 volunteer technical trainers, I feel especially thankful for this opportunity. After months of preparation and planning we arrived in Rwanda late evening with only 4 days before we would start teaching the girls the basics of programming and electronics using the Intel Galileo Board. I met four of my teammates with whom I had only spoken to on the phone at the airport in Brussels, the other three I met at Kigali airport when we landed. Throwing 8 people into a bus, is certainly a good way to get to know each other, the conversations were fast and furious.
Preparation at the school started Thursday afternoon after a long bus ride, our arrival at Gashora Girls Academy was met with shy hellos and direct questions “Are you the Intel teachers?” The girls were finishing the first week of Codu training from Microsoft and had already heard that we were arriving that afternoon. Unpacking the three pallets of equipment was the first order of business, followed by training the Gashora teachers on Friday morning. Friday afternoon we saw the results of the first week of Codu training when the girls presented the games they had developed. I am amazed at the presence they have during the presentation with each of them pitching their resulting projects. This was the first real impression of the girls, I saw accomplished girls who demonstrated their work, some a bit shy, some confident and others hanging back, standing behind their teammates. I knew the next two weeks would be amazing.
Monday morning, after a long weekend of setup and finalizing the curriculum and content. I walked into my class of 29 young women, they were all full of smiles and laughter. Most had no experience with programming or electronics, but all were eager to learn. The ratio 3 to 30 (1 teacher from Gashora Girls School, 1 helper from our non-technical team members, and myself as the lead trainer to 30 students) presented a difficult situation. My experience working with younger boys and girls for a class earlier in the year, proved that we needed one helper for two teams of two (4 students), unfortunately we were not afforded that luxury at the WiSci 2015. Working with care and precision through the instructions with breadboards, LEDs, wires and resistors, we finally had smiles and shrieks as one LED after another started blinking. Those smiles are my reward for all the work completed in the previous months.
First morning of classes
After a short introduction to programming and introducing the sensors of the Seeed Studio Grove Starter Kit, I saw apprehension creeping into the room. The long day began to take its toll and I heard multiple times ‘I don’t understand’. We continued to work slowly toward 6PM, adding more concepts and materials throughout the afternoon and into the evening. Hindsight is always 20-20 vision and I can see now that the day was much too long. In our first debrief at the end of the day, we made our first change to our original plan, slowing down a bit and agreeing to end classes the rest of the week by 5pm instead of 6 in the evening.
The next morning the students were full of excitement, electronic concepts clouded the vision and small technical issues tended to slow the progress of each of the teams. Our technical team worked during lunch again to resolve some issues and after finding a fix, the bright smiles again filled the rooms. Each girl seemed to glow more as the LCD printed the messages, their smiles
Building our cars
and laughter showed a confidence that did not exist before. Two days into the class we already saw the beginnings of makers and ideas as they became creative during the challenge sessions. In the late afternoon the girls were given a kit to build a robot car, in teams of two they began creating the small vehicles that would be their entries into the drag races.
On the third day, technical issues plagued the teams, I went from group to group to resolve issues. Another lunch hour working and finding a fix. Finally we saw robot cars turning and racing across the room, followed by laughing girls and happy faces. Stepping through the code that controls the direction of driving on the robot car, I explained the concepts and more details of programming. Soon the concept of binary numbers, digital writes and reading the sensors
The winning car
became old news. The immediate result in the direction of movement gave each of them the confidence to try more programming to see how to make the cars drive in circles and along straight lines. With each turn of the wheel and buzz of the motors, I celebrated the opportunity to see each of them growing their knowledge as well as their confidence. Thankful again that I had this amazing opportunity to share technology with each and every one.
If you haven’t already, please check out some of the documentation of the camp via these photos and videos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wisci/
“Meet the Girls” AOL Video: http://on.aol.com/partner/aol-originals-517149677/videoId=519006984
“Women in Tech” AOL Video: http://on.aol.com/partner/aol-originals-517149677/playlist=125418?icid=bottom_related_thumb_0
“The Final Week” AOL Videl: http://on.aol.com/partner/aol-originals-517149677/videoId=519006959?icid=bottom_related_thumb_6