CompuGirls
Impact
By the end of the program, girls’ understanding of themselves as potential participants in the digital community grows. No matter how challenging, girls gain a greater sense of empowerment with their activities while maintaining a strong sense of commitment to communities, increasing their feelings of connectedness. CompuGirls provides an attractive counterculture that economically challenged schools tend not to offer; participants enjoy being a part of this informal educational setting, think of it as a privilege and learn how to integrate their new comfort with technology into their current and future academic pursuits.
Accomplished
- Need Accomplished
- Evaluation Accomplished
- Sustainability Developing
- Replication & Scalability Developing
- Partnerships Accomplished
- Capacity Accomplished
- Challenging & Relevant Content Developing
- STEM Practices Accomplished
- Inspiration Accomplished
- Under-Represented Groups Accomplished
This program provides a well-rounded platform. It provides the girls with collegial experiences, network opportunities, and creative work time. It broadens their perspective of the STEM field.
Mentor Teacher
Design Principles
The programs in this database clear a high bar. STEMworks reviewed each program against the Design Principles for Effective STEM Philanthropy. Programs must be Accomplished (
) across all Design Principles, or be Developing (
) in a maximum of three areas.
Overarching Principles
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Need Accomplished
Identify and target a compelling and well-defined need.
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Evaluation Accomplished
Use rigorous evaluation to continuously measure and inform progress towards the compelling need identified.
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Sustainability Developing
Ensure work is sustainable.
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Replication & Scalability Developing
Demonstrate replicability and scalability.
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Partnerships Accomplished
Create high impact partnerships.
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Capacity Accomplished
Ensure organizational capacity to achieve goals.
STEM Principles
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Challenging & Relevant Content Developing
Offer challenging and relevant STEM content for the target audience.
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STEM Practices Accomplished
Incorporate and encourage STEM practices.
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Inspiration Accomplished
Inspire interest and engagement in STEM.
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Under-Represented Groups Accomplished
Identify and address the needs of under-represented groups.
Program Overview
CompuGirls is a culturally responsive technology program for adolescent (grades 8-12) girls from under-resourced school districts in the Greater Phoenix area and in Colorado. Supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and based in the School of Social Transformation, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University, CompuGirls provides fun summer, after-school and year-long programs where participants learn the latest technologies in digital media, game development, and virtual worlds. CompuGirls program objectives: *To use multimedia activities as a means of encouraging computational thinking *To enhance girls’ techno-social analytical skills using culturally relevant practices *To provide girls with a dynamic, fun learning environment that nurtures the development of a positive self-concept. CompuGirls participants develop expertise in: *digital media production with photo editing software *documentary filmmaking with iMovie *podcasting with Garageband *game design with Scratch *virtual world creation with open-sim technology
Funders and Partners
CompuGirls is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation. Since 2007, CompuGirls has reached hundreds of young women and is looking to establish sites in additional states, including California and Virginia. Beyond scaling to additional locations, CompuGirls anticipates enhancement of its current curriculum to include a co-robotics’ component in collaboration with Dr. Andrew Williams of Marquette University, as well modernizing some of the online resources the girls use in the original three courses.