Education and Curriculum
Although our name is “Girls Code the World”, our programming focuses on the intersection between life sciences, engineering, coding, technology, and computer science. We emphasize the importance of the design engineering process, introduce girls to careers/opportunities in STEM, and inspire them to be leaders in the field by bringing in female speakers. Each program is different. We do hands-on projects, laptop-based lessons, and teamwork activities. Some of our lessons include 3D printing, a water filtration system, building a dancing project using drag and drop block-based coding, and learning about aerodynamics.
We invite all employees and volunteers to consider their own passions in STEM and mobilize that into lesson plans that we can implement in our programs. Don’t have experience designing curriculum? Don’t worry! We have resources and step-by-step guides for you so you will be successful no matter what your current knowledge is.
Once you create a lesson, reach out to our Director of Curriculum, Kristen Aballa, at curriculum@girlscodetheworld.org to get it reviewed!
Best Practices to Create Lessons
Think about the target grade level.
Think about the prerequisite skills needed.
Consider where is the meaningful place to stop if the activity takes more time than expected.
Consider extra challenges for early finishers.
The main objective of these lessons are supporting young girls to develop positive attitudes toward science. However, research the science concepts behind the activity in case students pose questions about it.
Do not save the argumentation& discussion to the conclusion.
Scientists work in collaboration not in isolation- Let students collaborate and share their results.
Relate activities to students’ lives- this one could be better if it is done at the beginning.
Connect activities to bigger ideas about doing science. For example, in Scratch lesson plan students are remixing pre-existing codes. This could be a nice time to address how doing science is a social enterprise that scientists do not work in isolation they rather work in close collaboration. For example, it is a common practice in computer science to make changes on a pre-existing code prepared by another computer scientist.
There are coherence issues from time to time. To solve this issues what is addressed at the beginning of the class can be revisited at the end of the class. For example, in “introduction to engineering” lesson, students learn about engineering design process. Later at the end of the activity, it would be better if students revisit the steps of engineering design process and reflect on how they used these steps in their design.
Discussion and reflection part can be improved. In some of the lesson plans, students complete workbooks at the end. However, I always see benefits in a verbal reflection that other students can learn from each others experiences.
Use kid friendly terms.
Let students share their work with each other at the end.
Always connect activities with the bigger picture. For example, for 3D printing, talk about how 3D printing tech can be helpful in everyday life.
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Consider pre-requisite knowledge & skill(s) to engage in the activity. Do not assume any familiarity with the material.
In case you run out of time, think ahead about a meaningful place to wrap up the activity.
Think about how to give extra support to strugglers and think about how to challenge the early finishers.
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Relate activities to students’ lives or everyday life.
Relate the activities to bigger ideas about doing science.
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Always encourage student collaboration.
Do not save argumentation to the last, let students share their hypotheses & ask them questions throughout the activity.
Encourage students to show their works to others and reflect on them at the end of the class.
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Make sure to revisit the ideas you started with.
Resources and Templates
Link to sites for lesson plan inspiration:
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Link to Site: http://scratch.mit.edu/
One of our biggest hopes as far as new lesson plans is expanding the coding curriculum. We really would encourage you to become familiar with Scratch and Code.org. We have lessons on both of these topics (Scratch Lesson) (Code.org Lesson) that are very similar to follow, and there are endless tutorials and Youtube videos for both of these sites. If you would like to focus on creating lessons for these topics, that would be great!
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Link to Site: http://code.org/
One of our biggest hopes as far as new lesson plans is expanding the coding curriculum. We really would encourage you to become familiar with Scratch and Code.org. We have lessons on both of these topics (Scratch Lesson) (Code.org Lesson) that are very similar to follow, and there are endless tutorials and Youtube videos for both of these sites. If you would like to focus on creating lessons for these topics, that would be great!
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Link to Site: https://www.pattan.net/Supports/STEM/computer-science/CS-Teacher-Toolkit/Lesson-Resources
These are some AMAZING computer science lesson resources that you can filter by grade level (grades 3-5 fit us best), topic, or field of study. Use these to create a lesson plan using our template.
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Link to Site: https://www.techgirlz.org/topics/
These are lesson plans that have a variety of focuses on technology and STEM (specifically computer science). These lessons are pretty much pre-made for you, but need to be converted into a Girls Code the World Lesson Plan Template. Make sure to cite your sources!
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Link to Site: https://www.pbslearningmedia.org
This is a great source for videos! PBS is also highly reputable.
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Link to Site: https://www.stem2d.org/
This site originates from a free Johnson and Johnson resource center; they have given us a grant and let us know that all of their lessons are free to use and include.
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Link to Site: https://curiodyssey.org/at-home-science/science-in-action/
This is a collection of science-at-home activities students can work on. Make a lesson plan that includes these videos and the recommended materials. Remember, the less materials required, the better.
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Link to site: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/teach/activity/stem-activities-for-families/#engineering
Pre-made, easy, and fun lesson plans that just need to be transformed into our templates
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Link to Site: https://phet.colorado.edu
This is really great for simulations.
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Link to Site: https://www.tinkercad.com
This is also great for 3D Design/Visualization and block based coding.
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Link to Site: https://pencilcode.net/
Best for block based coding.
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Link to Site: https://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks
Utilizes household materials! Great to keep our costs low when running programs.
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Link to Site: http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/air-and-water.php
Utilizes household materials! Great to keep our costs low when running programs.
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Link to Site: https://www.nsta.org/lesson-plans
Includes pre-made lesson plans!
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Link to Site: https://www.nsf.gov/news/classroom/engineering.jsp
Really reputable sources!
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Link to Site: https://www.nasa.gov/stem/foreducators/k-12/index.html
Breaks down really exciting and high level concepts for you to be able to use in a lesson plan
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Link to site: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Price-Range/Free/PreK-12-Subject-Area/Science
You can use these free pre-made lesson plans made by teachers to ensure cohesive curriculum across the week by adapting a few lesson plans instead of just one!
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Link to Site: http://worldwidetelescope.org/webclient/
Existing lesson plans:
Looking for examples? Check out our previously made lesson plans here.
Video Tutorials:
We have made some of our own video tutorials to line up with our lesson plans. Check out our video tutorials.
Templates:
Make a copy of these templates to be able to make a Lesson Plan, or you can copy the full Scope and Sequence method to plan a whole program.
Example Programming Booklet:
This is an example of one of our Programming Booklets given to program participants. which is often referenced in many of our lessons. We hand out Programming Booklets to all Girls Code the World participants during programming so that they can follow along.
