Girls Who Code @ Viacom: Week 2
Robotics
This week the girls learned Robotics and went on a handful of exciting field trips!
Monday
We began the week by wrapping up our mp3 player presentations accompanied by some K-pop dance moves brought to you by Ana.
We began learning Python for our Scribbler robots. For this week, the girls had to translate their knowledge of Scratch to Python.
Their first task for the girls was to draw shapes using the Scribbler robots. Using Calico, the girls were able to have their Robots draw various shapes: squares, circles, triangles, etc. They even had their robots dance to various songs such as Anaconda, I Like to Move It, Thriller.
Here are a collection of music videos the girls made for their robots’ dance:
Tuesday
Tuesday was a very exciting day. We had our first mentoring session in the white room at Viacom. 20 high school girls and 20 industry professionals gathered in this room and became instant best friends finding between them common interests, goals and connections.
We also celebrated our director’s birthday Lucy’s birthday that day. The program would not be the same without her and we are so fortunate to have her.
The girls ended the day playing more with Python, enforcing their understanding of functions.
Wednesday
Wednesday the girls took over the VH1 studios. They met a handful of speakers: Jon Mallow (SVP of VH1 Digital Logo, MTV U) Orlando Lima (VP of VH1 Digital), Jackie Moyes (VP of Product Development), Keshia Williams (EP/VP VH1 Musical Production), Jacqui M., Jake K., Jerah M. (Producers of The 20), Kaitlin Fontana (Writer for The 20), and Shannon Coffey (Host of the 20).
Then the girls got to take a break from coding and tried their acting chops to be in front of the camera for, “The 20 Reasons Why a Girl Should Code.”
Thursday
Ayah Bdeir, founder and CEO of littleBits came to the classroom to speak with the girls. She showed them a variety of projects made with littleBit kits: Joey Wilson’s Voice Box to a handmade guitar.
Ayah, who was generous enough to give us a littleBits kit, inspired the girls to create their own littleBits projects. As pieces were being passed around, each girl put pieces together creating unique input and output. Now that we have our own littleBits kit in the classroom, we are excited to play even more!
We continued our Robotics week by having our Scribbler robots detect various colored blobs on a simulator and have it move toward it.
Friday
Our field trip today was brought by Nickelodeon studios. They came in and taught the girls all about game development. The girls got to brainstorm and pitch great ideas to the team at Nick!
