A group of third and fourth graders giggled with excitement as their yoga instructor guided them into the “tripod” position, where students place their heads and hands at the center of the mat, bend their knees, and lift their bodies up.
“Computing is a difficult field. Solving those problems can be mentally challenging, so having a wellness practice like yoga is a great life skill,” said Lisa Schlossnagle, Founder and President of HowGirlsCode Inc.
Yoga Instructor Emily Kirshenbaum told Diverse, yoga not only opens their minds to trying new things but it also teaches the girls how to get the same results in their programming and coding through using different paths.
“I’ll go into a posture one way and then the next day maybe I’ll go into it another way. It’s still the same posture but getting to it a different way. It’s the same with coding, you have this end result but you can get to it in a different way,” said Kirshenbaum
HowGirlsCode “Mind, Body, and Coding” summer camp, held on the campus of University of Maryland Baltimore County, is a computer science and coding camp for girls ranging from the 3rd to 9th grades. This is the third year the organization is hosting its summer camp. The one-week camp teaches students how to code and create robots through various art-themed activities to advance their STEM skills.
“HowGirlsCode after-school classes and summer camps give elementary age girls experience with computer science and coding before fixed notions of what interests them or what careers they might see themselves in take hold,” Schlossnagle told Diverse in an e-mail.
Students are separated by grade levels; 3rd and 4th graders are in one group where they learn to code animations and art using a program called Tynker, and create dancing LEGO robots. Fourth grade students Abisola Osho and Makayla Downs worked together in creating their own robotic dancing ballerina, after creating their first robot, Milo,that only moved back and forth.
