Host a Workshop

Select a course from the Course List.

All courses are fun, educational, and useful, but you should choose the right one for the girls attending the workshop. Considerations when selecting a course:

• In which grade level are the girls?
  Each course has recommended grade levels. However, you don’t necessarily need to follow the grade level recommendation because coding ability also depends on intuition, interest, and prior experience.
• What coding experience do the girls have? 
  Choose a course that is new, challenging, and exciting to the girls while still within their skill level. Also, prior experience with certain coding software naturally leads to particular patches.
• What tools are required for the course?
  Each course has specific tool requirements. Do the girls have access to the tools either on their own or through the workshop location? Do the kids or the host need to purchase any kits to complete the course?

If you expect girls bring their own laptops or tablets, any public location should work.

If you need to reserve computer facilities, you could inquire places such as:

• Libraries
• Company conference rooms
• Community centers
• Training centers
• College computer labs
• Schools

Tell them you are running a coding workshop to promote STEM to girls, and you are likely to receive strong community support.

• Troop meetings are some of the most convenient times for the workshop.
• Weekends or school breaks are also good candidates.
• After-school programs offer time when girls are already gathered.
• Summer is also a great opportunity because girls have time to take multiple courses in a progressive series.

To supplement the workshop, you may consider seeking out guest speakers and/or volunteers to help you run the workshop. Both can be valuable assets and help answer questions, give expert advice, serve as role models, and offer a helping hand. Here are some resources for finding such volunteers:

• Code.org volunteers
• Local tech companies
• Local college students
• Local high school students
• STEM alumnae

To determine how many girls to invite to the workshop, consider the following:

• Whether you have previous experience hosting a coding workshop
• How many adult volunteers could join to help
• The limitation of the space and the number of computers available

• Hand out, hang up, or mail course flyers (we provide templates for each course, which you can find on the course’s page).
• Create an online registry for the event (we provide a template for each course).
• Send us the event announcement so that we can announce it on our web site by contacting us here.

Check the course requirements to find out whether there are workshop setup tasks to be performed. For example, if you run a workshop in a public computer facility, preinstall the software required for the workshop to avoid interruptions on the workshop day.

• Follow the course requirements to run the workshop.
• Have fun!
• Take some nice pictures of girls enjoying coding with the permission of their parents/guardians by using our consent form.

• Thank you for your hard work helping girls become confident coders and STEM explorers.
• Encourage girls to do more activities if they enjoyed the workshop. We love to see girls eager to learn more—as well as workshop hosts returning for more courses!
• Tell us all about your experience and send us your workshop photos, so that we can publish them, inspire more girls to pursue STEM, and continuously improve our program moving forward. You can submit your story here.

• Thank you for your hard work helping girls become confident coders and STEM explorers.
• Encourage girls to do more activities if they enjoyed the workshop. We love to see girls eager to learn more—as well as workshop hosts returning for more courses!
• Tell us all about your experience and send us your workshop photos, so that we can publish them, inspire more girls to pursue STEM, and continuously improve our program moving forward. You can submit your story here.