Inspiration
Computer Science is a topic I am extremely passionate, and is a subject I'm definitely considering as a college major. After seeing that the percentage of women in the field has been in decline, I decided to do raise awareness of the issue in hopes of increasing female participation in Computer Science. I believe that the best way of solving this issue is by directly combating it. Teaching girls coding languages through this website will enable them to gain exposure of the subject and make learning the skills easier.
What it does
The website starts with an explanation of the purpose of coding. It then provides reasons for girls to pursue Computer Science as a major and brings to light the lack of female representation in the field. This is followed by tutorials for learning Python and Java geared for all ages. Topics covered include writing a hello world statement, creating variables, and writing out more complex print statements. The user can engage in practice problems to quiz their understanding of the topics they learned and see pieces of sample code.
How I built it
I used HTML, CSS, and Javascript to make the webpage interactive. I also did research regarding statistics of women in Computer Science to provide evidence of the growing issue. I incorporated related images such as a graph of female participation in Computer Science compared to other majors.
Challenges I ran into
Making a quiz that tests the user on their Python skills was difficult. There were many conditions that had to be met and multiple variables. Incorporating stylistic features such as making the answer choices turn red when the wrong answer was submitted or green when the correct answer was submitted were very time-consuming.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
I'm proud of my ability to make a program using HTML, CSS, and Javascript to teach Java and Python. It really allowed me to solidify my understanding of a variety of languages. Previously, I knew website creation just well enough to make a bland website with paragraphs of content. I now know how to format the page in a way that is visually appealing.
What I learned
I learned numerous troubleshooting strategies. Working on this project has taught me that every error has an impact. I've also learned that coding can be incredibly frustrating, but seeing the end result is worth all the effort.
What's next for Empowering Girls To Code
I hope to add more languages to the topics covered and to provide different levels of learning that range from beginner to advanced. In the future, I would want to add games in order for content to be more easily retained. I want girls to feel that coding is fun, not a tedious task.
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