Lone Star College-Westway Park Technology Center recently partnered with Region 4 Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council (GSSJC) for the third year providing the scouts a chance to experience "college for a day" while earning badges.
LSC-Westway Park Technology Center hosted a Saturday Tech Camp full of activities focused on coding and digital leadership to help approximately 90 upper-level scouts (grades 6-12) complete their Coding for Good and Digital Leadership Badges.
Dr. Shaunté Hulett-Abdin, LSC-CyFair Interim Vice President of Instruction and a volunteer for the Region 4 GSSJC, said she was beyond excited for the scouts to explore Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related offerings at the center.
“Events like this introduce girls to the careers and skills in STEM they might not otherwise have an opportunity to connect with,” she said. “Ultimately, we would like to see them consider Lone Star College as their college of choice when making the determination to pursue a career in technology. However, we are excited to know that Lone Star College has played a role in increasing the number of girls committing to computer science. We can't wait until next year when the girls will learn about robotics and careers in STEM.”
Leading a variety of sessions were LSC faculty Chelsea Branch, Heather Cannon, Dr. Kenneth Cooper, Carl DePasquale, Gongxiao Wang and Karoline Whorton. The scouts learned basic knowledge of coding as it relates to digital game design; terms such as digital footprint, devices, platforms, digital communities, digital bias, to name a few; and programming concepts such as pseudocode, functions, parameters, loops and data analysis.
In Dr. Cooper’s session, the scouts used web-based software to create a basic playable game with avatars and interactive gameplay elements.
Branch’s digital leadership session included how to use technology not just for entertainment, but for advocacy and real-world impact, to protect themselves and their community, to inspire and guide others online and to measure engagement.
In Cannon’s programming sessions, the scouts used Scratch to build simple programs that collected data from users and then imported into Excel to conduct data analysis.
Cannon said one of the memorable highlights of the day was “when all the computers were making different sounds at the same time as the scouts learned to incorporate a variety of sound files into their programs.” Dr. Hulett-Abdin received feedback from a participant’s parent who said “My daughter had so much fun, she's at home working on coding another project and teaching her little brother."
Dr. Hulett-Abdin also said Saturday’s event was so successful and impactful thanks to the LSC faculty’s hard work and the assistance of LSC computer science and The Honors College at LSC-CyFair students.
LSC-Westway Park Technology Center is a state-of-the-art training facility focused on IT and Visual Communication programs.