During this past year, eleven girls from my school were interested in creating an app for competition. Five girls entered the Technovation Challenge and six girls entered the ProjectCS Girls competition. There were a total of three teams. The Technovation Challenge required that the girls create a working app and a business plan. Project CS girls required a prototype and report. Each of the teams stepped up to the challenge and submitted an entry to the competition.
While reflecting on the successes of these projects, all the girls commented that they really enjoyed working as part of team. They actually enjoyed giving up their lunch time, study halls, and "Friday Fun Time" to work on "another assignment."
I believe strongest reason that the girls enjoyed these projects was because they were working in a "girls only" environment. They never had to defer to ideas from boys and didn't need to do any posturing. Each girl used her strengths to contribute to the team effort. They were comfortable with themselves and their contributions. As the teamwork progressed, it turned out that some girls had a natural aptitude for coding, while others found writing or art to be their strength. They all realized the importance of the contributions of each member of the team.
No comments:
Post a Comment