2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Girls in Engineering, Mathematics, and Science (GEMS) is a free after-school club and summer camp for girls interested in exploring their career in various Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. GEMS is the outreach program for the (blank). GEMS’ programs are designed to educate young women about STEM by providing hands-on experiential learning in robotics, programming, and research. GEMS is divided into two main programs: miniGEMS for rising fifth through eighth-grade middle school students, and megaGEMS for rising ninth through twelfth-grade high school students. miniGEMS focuses on robotic challenges and innovative STEM curriculum, while megaGEMS focuses on independent research through two programs: Research Camp (RC), a 4-week program for ninth and tenth-grade students, and the Apprenticeship Program, an 8-week college-level research program for eleventh and twelfth-grade students. All GEMS programs prioritize serving schools and students from lower-income areas of (blank) and (blank). All participants in GEMS explore and investigate hands-on lab experience in autonomy through ground and air robotics, which helps them build the important skills essential in workforce development and obtaining college-level degrees.
This paper will highlight Coding Academy, a feature of the megaGEMS program that looks to empower its students with the coding knowledge necessary to complete their faculty-guided research projects. Coding Academy supplies daily 1-hour coding lessons to all participants within the megaGEMS program. Focusing specifically on teaching the fundamentals of the Python Programming Language. The function of Coding Academy under the GEMS program; however, is to supply early and effective exposure to coding and programming skills through student-led instruction, and project-based learning. It is with these methods in mind, that the Coding Academy hopes to encourage analytical thinking, effective communication, and foster a problem-solving mindset in all its students which will extend from their studies into their professional lives.
Coding Academy is managed by the (blank), part of the (blank), consisting of student research assistants. The curriculum of Coding Academy has traditionally centered around the basics of programming in Python, with emphasis on the development of solid fundamental programming skills. In the latest iteration of Coding Academy, the curriculum emphasized multiple-day projects and teamwork to capitalize on the student's ability to teach one another and help them keep information learned in these sessions. Drawing inspiration from popular studying methods, Feynman technique, and spaced repetition.
Alongside highlighting Coding Academy, this paper will also explore the effectiveness of the methods and techniques discussed on student outcomes.