Coding workshop aims to inspire girls to pursue technology

A group of a dozen girls didn’t spend their Sunday on Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat.  Instead, they learned how to code.

“We’re focusing on graphic design. What we’re going to be doing is designing some sort of graphic and then were going to animate it using code,” said Christina Sitkowski, the Saskatoon chapter lead for Canada Learning Code.

The Girls Learning Code workshop offers an introduction to coding for girls ages nine to 12. The program aims to inspire girls to be builders of technology with topics ranging from game making to web development.

When Canada Learning Code first started, it focused on getting women involved in the tech industry.

“There is a huge gender gap that exists today. Eventually we discovered that we needed to start younger and we needed to start getting the attention of younger girls because they started to lose interest in things like computer science and technology when they proceeded into high school,” said Sitkowski.

Ava Gasper, 11, was at the workshop with her father. She said she wants to be an author, but thinks coding is fun to learn.

“I’ve done a little bit of coding before, because of my friend, but coding is kind of interesting,” said Gasper.

“Coding is used in every field imaginable these days. Even if they’re not interested in pursuing computer science as a career down the road, it’s going to compliment any kind of career path that they take in the future,” said Sitkowski.

Canada Learning Code operates in more than 30 regions across Canada, and has expanded workshops for teachers, teens, kids and girls.