Three Initiatives Aim to Educate Tomorrow’s Employees Today

A lot of ink is spilled in discussions over whether youngpeople—those now entering the workforce and those still in school—need or usedifferent skills, or learn and process information differently, from those ofus raised in the pre-Internet Dark Ages. Even more ink and angst are devoted toquestions of how to diversify the workforce, particularly in STEM (science,technology, engineering, and math) fields, which still tend to beoverwhelmingly male and white, at least in the United States.

These are big questions that center on engaging young peoplefrom diverse backgrounds in technology. Responding to these challenges requiresaddressing questions of access to and comfort with technology—digital readinessand the digital divide—within the United States and around the world.

Some individuals and corporations are not sitting around debatingthese issues. They are rolling up their sleeves and taking action to encourageyoungsters, particularly girls and people of color, to code, animate, and createtechnology. This article describes three initiatives that create hope for thefuture while educating the people who will be innovating, designing, andprogramming the wonders of tomorrow.

Black Girls Code

Kimberly Bryant is an African-American engineer. She’s alsoa mom, and when her daughter attended a computer science camp, Bryant washorrified that the classroom looked just like the entrepreneurship meetings sheattended—predominantly peopled by white males. Bryant became a 2017 SanFrancisco Chronicle Visionary of the Year because of what she did next.

Bryant taught her daughter and a small group of other girlsto code. That first small group grew into a national movement: Black Girls Code, an organizationthat encourages and supports African-American girls and young women as theylearn to code and study robotics and game development.

On the founder’s page, Bryant shares her motivation,recalling the isolation she felt as a college student learning electricalengineering and programming:

“I remember being excited by theprospects, and looked forward to embarking on a rich and rewarding career aftercollege.

“But I also recall, as Ipursued my studies, feeling culturally isolated: Few of my classmates lookedlike me. While we shared similar aspirations and many good times, there’s muchto be said for making any challenging journey with people of the same culturalbackground.”

Black Girls Code provides girls company on their journeythrough STEM education and as they launch their careers. The organization empowersgirls aged 7 – 17 to become STEM innovators and leaders in their communities bybringing them together in a supportive environment to learn, experiment, andcreate. The group holds coding events and hackathons, game jams,parent-daughter workshops, robot expos, and more. Participants meet female rolemodels and visit tech companies and startups.

Black Girls Code has already engaged thousands of girls andyoung women across the United States and in Johannesburg, South Africa. Theorganization aims to train a million girls by 2040. Future Katherine Johnsons—girlswho love math and are inspired by the story of NASA’s Katherine Johnson,documented in Hidden Figures—share their stories and pay tribute on a website they created in herhonor.

JavaOne4Kids

A daylong coding fair for kids aged 10 – 18, JavaOne4Kids isheld annually on the day before the JavaOne convention in San Francisco,California. A collaboration between Devoxx4Kidsand Oracle Academy,JavaOne4Kids aims to teach kids coding in a friendly and engaging way. The 2016JavaOne4Kids workshop drew 450 attendees; registration for the 2017 event willbegin in the summer.

At JavaOne4Kids events, the participants attend workshops onprogramming robots and learn to code games or other simple projects. Hundredsof children have been introduced to simple Java programming using languageslike Alice, which is used to create animations; Greenfoot, which can be used tocreate games and simulations; and BlueJ, which introduces object-orientedprogramming.

Devoxx4Kids introduces kids around the world, primarilynon-English-speaking, to simple Java-based programming and robotics in a funand supportive way. So far, more than 300 events—workshops where children learnprogramming or program Nao robots—have occurred in Europe, Asia, Africa, andthe Caribbean. Special emphasis is placed on being inclusive—many underservedchildren participate, as well as children with disabilities. All materials areshared on GitHub, a repository for open-source software projects, and haveshareable Creative Commons licenses.

Oracle Academy offers computer science education resourcesto high schools, vocational schools, and colleges and universities in 110countries.

Pixar in a Box

Faced with trigonometry, analytic geometry, or physics, manyschoolkids ask, “Why do I need to learn this?”

Pixar in a Box provides an innovative response. TheeLearning collaboration between Pixar Animation Studios and Khan Academyanswers this age-old question by showing students that learning math andphysics is not only fun, it also leads to really cool career possibilities.

Animating a bouncing ball or moving character is all aboutmathematical functions, while effects like flowing water and explosions call inknowledge of physics. Examples are drawn from Pixar movies, showing students ofall ages how the math and science can be applied to creative and challengingcareers as animators, color scientists, or creators of virtual environments.

Pixar created lessons around what it defines as the “fundamentalsteps” in creating animated movies: things like storytelling, animation, charactermodeling, and color science. Each step is taught in a design-focused overview,which does not require any math or physics knowledge. For example, the initiallesson in animation introduces concepts like slope and curves. Learners of anyage or background can participate in the initial lessons and activities in eachtopic.

Part two of each topic area includes advanced videos andactivities that dive deeper into the relevant concepts. These are geared towardlearners at specific grade levels; prerequisite knowledge is identified. Tolearn about creating the scales on the skin of an animated dinosaur, forexample, students are introduced to geometry concepts like midpoints. Theselessons are geared to fifth- and sixth-graders. A lesson on randomness andpatterns for seventh- and eighth-grade students introduces the concept ofrandom distribution, while high school students will get lessons that introducetrigonometry or linear equations. Activities are also targeted to learners ofdifferent grade levels and offer opportunities for students to creatively applythe concepts they’ve just studied.

The collaboration with Khan Academy offers the Pixar in aBox series of courses for free, exposing students of all ages and backgroundsto math and science in a fun and engaging way—and offering the potential tospark interest in STEM fields among young learners anywhere there’s an Internetconnection. Pixar in a Box grew out of a museum exhibit, The Science Behind Pixar, developed by the Museum of Science, Boston, in collaboration with Pixar Animation Studios.Partnering with the Khan Academy moved the exhibit online and made it accessibleto millions more people. All videos include closed captions and transcripts.

Preparing for tomorrow’s workplace

The common threadsamong these initiatives include reaching underserved people, whether they are childrenwhose schools and communities lack the resources to prepare them for a digitalfuture, or learners of all ages who lack exposure to science and math concepts.Not every participant will become a programmer—and that is not the goal. Evenfuture employees whose jobs are not related to coding or programming need to becomfortable using technology. Participating in a robotics workshop, designing awearable with programmable parts, or coding a simple Java game can maketechnology accessible and familiar, helping young learners achieve that comfortand become willing to engage with technology, whatever their future career path.