In honor of Computer Science Education Week, organization Code.org created an “Hour of Code” event that was hosted by KC Stem Alliance, in partnership with Cerner and other sponsors. Girls all across the city participated in a Girls in Coding workshop Dec. 5 at Commerce Bank downtown.

Eighteen girls from Staley attended, and most of them are involved in some technology or engineering class, such as computer science principles or computer science essentials. At the event, the girls were paired with a middle school partner and coded their own dance using the Code.org website. In addition to coding their own dance parties, some girls even got to code their own songs.

“We paired girls from our feeder middle schools with our high schoolers so that they had the ability to have some familiar faces once they get to Staley and so they can have some experiences in coding,” said computer science teacher Lesley Martin.

Not only were the girls introduced to coding through both the website and hands-on experience, there was also a panel made up of employees from Commerce Bank who discussed having a biology degree in computer sciences.

“My favorite part was hearing from the women that work at Commerce Bank and what all their job is under their computer science degrees,” said sophomore Sophia Jordan.

These adults mentored the girls throughout the day, giving them a different perspective on computer science