Black Girls Code Game Jam Kicks Off Computer Science Education Week

| Calena Jamieson and Catt Small

Black Girls Code games to kick-off Computer Science Education Week

Photo credit: She’Neil Johnson

Guest post written by Calena Jamieson and Catt Small.

Despite the gray weather on Saturday, December 6th, 57 girls arrived in high spirits for the Black Girls CODE X Code Liberation Game Jam. The game jam kicked off the New York Chapter of Black Girls CODE’s celebration of Computer Science Education Week and was hosted by NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering. The girls, who ranged from ages 8 to 16 and hailed from across New York City, completed 5 hours of coding education using GameMaker: Studio. Our young tech divas completed their coding missions on Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablets on loan from Microsoft New York.

Black Girls Code games to kick-off Computer Science Education Week

Code Liberation’s Maria Naggaga, who is also a Tech Evangelist at Microsoft New York, began the day with a workshop to introduce the girls to GameMaker. Maria also gave the students a quick primer on the Surface Pro 3’s to ensure they were comfortable using the devices. During the workshop, Maria and the girls created a maze game, which was then used as a template to make games during the afternoon.

Black Girls Code games to kick-off Computer Science Education Week

During the second half of the workshop, students worked on building their games in teams and within only a few hours created a diverse range of games, including characters such as an angry fisherman, zombie soccer players, and famous rappers. At the end of the day, girls presented their games to their excited and proud parents.

For more on this event, see Black Girls Code’s Storify.

Photos via Code Liberation.

To learn more about Microsoft’s commitment to youth and education, visit our YouthSpark Hub or follow us on twitter at @msftcitizenship.

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