Loomis Library offers Girls Who Code club for first time

In the back of the Loomis Library & Community Learning Center around 3:30 p.m. last Wednesday, a group of eight girls from third- to fifth-grade gathered in a circle for a warmup before their third Girls Who Code Club meeting. Debora Crosby, the library's club facilitator and program services coordinator, asked each girl to take turns passing around a small stick with a wooden apple at the end and answer the question, "If you could write a code that could change the world, what would it be?" One girl said she would write a code to help stop bullying because she has been bullied before. Another said she would write a code to help animals in need. Another said she would write a code to help find pets using GPS. Crosby said she starts off each Girls Who Code meeting with a "sisterhood activity" such as this one to help the girls reconnect with each other and transition from after school before diving into the hands-on coding curriculum. "It's not just about coding," Crosby said about the Girls Who Code program. "They really want to create this sisterhood among the girls, create that atmosphere of comradery." Girls in the Girls Who Code club at the Loomis Library & Community Learning Center work on coding activities using Scratch while club facilitator Debora Crosby helps anyone having trouble on March 16. Tara Gnewikow/Gold Country Media The Loomis Library started offering its first Girls Who Code club at 3:30 p.m. every Wednesday from March 2 to April 27 for girls in grades three through five. All programs at the library are free and parents only had to register their children to participate in the class, Crosby said. Eight girls have been attending the club from a variety of schools and cities in the area such as Rocklin, Roseville and Loomis, Crosby said. Ahdia Mohamed, a fourth-grader at Valley View Elementary School in Rocklin, said she is enjoying the club so far. "I really like it because I get to learn new code and I get to socialize with other girls that like coding too," Ahdia said. Girls Who Code club facilitator Debora Crosby helps a club member with her Scratch code at the Loomis Library & Community Learning Center on March 16. Tara Gnewikow/Gold Country Media Mariah Johnson, a fourth-grader who is homeschooled in Loomis, said she entered the club with some knowledge of coding because her brother is an engineer and her father is a maintenance technician. "I like coding and there's some things I didn't particularly know so I wanted to learn more about it," Mariah said on why she registered for the club. Girls Who Code is a nonprofit organization with more than 8,500 programs worldwide, according to its website at girlswhocode.com. American lawyer, politician and civil servant Reshma Saujani started the organization in 2012 with a mission to close the gender gap in technology. Crosby found out about Girls Who Code through the various social media groups for librarians she follows and decided to offer the club at the Loomis Library. There is an application on the Girls Who Code website to start a club for third- through fifth-grade girls and sixth- through 12th-grade girls and non-binary students. The Girls Who Code website at girlswhocode.com/programs/code-at-home also offers at-home coding activities for anyone to access. Participants in the Girls Who Code club at the Loomis Library & Community Learning Center gather around Adyson Borba, a third-grader at Franklin Elementary School in Loomis, to assist her with her code on March 16. Tara Gnewikow/Gold Country Media The club follows the coding curriculum provided by Girls Who Code and each girl creates a login for her own dashboard, Crosby said. In the club, participants learn the concepts of loops, variables, conditionals and functions that form the basis of all programming languages. Crosby said the girls have been completing activities using Scratch, a visual drag-and-drop programming language aimed for ages 8 to 16 developed by the MIT Media Lab. At last week's meeting, the girls used Scratch to make the letters in their names move in different ways and make characters such as an orange cat move using arrow keys. The library has eight Chromebooks available for the girls to use but Crosby also encouraged them to bring their own laptops if they have them. Three of the eight girls in the club bring their own laptops and the others are using the Chromebooks, Crosby said. Although no one can now register for the current Girls Who Code club at the Loomis Library, the library plans on offering another club for third- through fifth-graders over the summer. The club will be concurrent with the library's summer reading program, which starts in June, according to Crosby. Participants in the Girls Who Code club at the Loomis Library & Community Learning Center raise their hands to answer pop quiz questions at the end of their meeting on March 16. Tara Gnewikow/Gold Country Media Crosby is looking for volunteers with a background in technology or an interest to learn who can help facilitate the Girls Who Code clubs at the library. If the library gets more volunteers, it could offer the club for sixth- through 12th-graders over the summer as well, Crosby said. Crosby said she is learning as she teaches the club, although she has some experience in web design. The Girls Who Code curriculum is easy to follow and provides guidelines on how to conduct meetings, Crosby said. Those who want to volunteer can call the Loomis Library & Community Learning Center at 916- 824-2905 or fill out an online volunteer application at loomislibrary.org/volunteer. "Whether they choose a career in computer science or not, the reality is we all have to be fluent in computer science at some level and these core strengths will help them in every aspect of their life," Crosby said.