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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (Feb, 6, 2020) — Milligan College welcomes the Girl Scouts of the Southern Appalachians to campus on Saturday, Feb. 8, for “Think Like a Programmer Journey Day.” The day includes hands-on programming workshops designed to build young women’s interest in technology and computer science. The event will occur in Derthick Hall from 8:45 a.m. – 2:45 p.m.
“We are excited to partner with the Girl Scouts of the Southern Appalachians to encourage girls to explore career opportunities in technology and computer science,” said Dr. Teresa Carter, professor of information systems. “We have some exciting activities planned for students, and our Milligan students are excited to help inspire younger students to pursue these career paths.”
Participants will explore multiple career opportunities that require coding skills and will code their own program to take home. Careers in game development, medical and biotechnology, cybersecurity, cryptography, and software development for business will be discussed. Several Milligan computer science students will volunteer and lead activities.
Students will be divided into three groups: junior, cadette and senior levels. The junior level is for girls in fourth and fifth grade, and this group will learn how to create algorithms that produce images. Their activities will teach them about algorithms, abstraction, functions and variables. The cadettes will include students in sixth through eighth grade. This group will create a card-sorting algorithm that incorporates processing and design skills. Ninth and tenth grade students will make up the senior group. They will learn about encoding information and will develop an algorithm for building a block arrangement.
Participants will earn the Think Like a Programmer award, as well as a custom Milligan patch made just for this event.
To learn more about the Girl Scouts of the Southern Appalachians, visit girlscoutcsa.org.