Playing, reading and watching — new weekly tips
How to encourage girls' interest in tech — Newsletter No.7
Hi! Hope you had a nice week and that the post from last week was as inspiring, as surprising. It’s just one more reminder that we need to be mindful in communicating and educating our kids.
But, don’t worry, we are here to help you :) We selected new interesting things to do with your daughters to show them the other side of technology, the one they might actually like :)
1 — Baby Engineer
📒 Most books for infants and toddlers are about the world around us, but we can change it a bit. This book is a wonderful introduction to the concepts of engineers and engineering for an inquisitive child that has a whole life ahead of them to explore their interests. By bringing every statement about what an engineer does back around to something similar that Baby does, it really highlights that not only can any baby be an engineer, but every baby is (at least in part) already an engineer. Check it out on Amazon or BookDepository.
2 — Finding role models in this movie
👀 Big Dream — Big Dream follows the intimate stories of seven young women who are breaking barriers and overcoming personal challenges to follow their passions in science, math, computing & engineering. From small-town Iowa to the bustling streets of the Middle East, Big Dream immerses viewers in a world designed by and for the inspiring next generation of girls. Note it is filmed in 2014, so the tech might seem old, but the story still sticks. Available on Amazon or on Kanopy (free for public libraries members).
3 — Make a circuit without copper tape… or wires!
🚦For this project, you need to buy only a battery and LEDs, but once you do, it will make your kid’s drawings truly stand out! And best part, once you do it once, it will be quite easy to repeat on many other drawings and even do it with friends! Check this link for the tutorial.
4 — An impactful game made by a girl
👾 Icon Creator, a game in Scratch, is an awesome example of how any one girl's project can take off and impact the whole platform. This creator designed a game that's meant to help other users on Scratch create their own unique profile pictures, and so many users have done just that! You can play the game yourself here, or learn how to build a game like this on Scratch here.
5 — Play with friends, no tech needed!
✍️ This time, we are making games offline — girls create sets of instructions (algorithms) by telling a player how to recreate a drawing they made. Once you’ve played a few rounds, you can move to a playbook on how to mod the game (change it up) to make it your own! Check the full tutorial here.
Thanks for reading! If you liked this, please share it with parents who want to mindfully prepare their daughters for the new digital age.