Many Thompson residents have expressed their disappointment ever since city officials announced they will be cutting the summer days camps program out of their 2018−19 operating budget.
Luckily, the non-profit organization known as WISE Kid-Netic Energy is looking to try and fill that void by organizing a free All-Girls Codemakers Camp, which is set to run July 9−13 at R.D. Parker Collegiate.
While program administrator Jill Lautenschlager admits that the idea of learning to code can be a little intimidating, she recently told the Thompson Citizen that this camp is designed to teach girls aged 13−15 the fundamentals.
“It’s an intro, so we don’t expect the girls to have any sort of prior knowledge,” she said. “They’ll spend the week starting off with some basics and kind of working their way up a little bit, and they’ll do that through lots of different gadgets and tools, and plugged and unplugged activities."
According to a recent press release from WISE Kid-Netic Energy, these five days worth of activities also involves 3D printing, robotics through LEGO Mindstorms and electronic building blocks like littleBits.
For the last couple years, this All-Girls Codemakers Camp has been relegated to centralized locations in Manitoba like Winnipeg. However, Lautenschlager revealed that they were finally able to bring this program to the north after the national charity they belong to, Actua, received $10 million in funding from the federal government in early 2018.
“That’s very exciting for us, because we have always wanted to be able to [head north], but with the logistics of being able to purchase the equipment and figure out all of that has always been a bit of a stumbling block,” she said. “But with this influx of money, it’s definitely made it possible.”
Local resident Ryan Land, who is also the manager of corporate affairs for Vale Manitoba Operations, said that he is very much looking forward to this inaugural camp.
Not only is his daughter already signed up for this year’s program, but he’s also happy that northern youth are getting exposed to such an essential skill, especially since access to coding programs is lacking in this part of the province.
“It would be great if it were eventually more integrated in the curriculum,” he said. “But in the meantime, this is an opportunity to peak some curiosity, perhaps increase some skills and get kids a little more ready for that workforce of the future.”
In terms of why this is an all-girls camp, Lautenschlager said that their organization’s overall mandate is to focus on underrepresented groups and try to close the gender gap that currently exist in Canadian STEM fields.
“Plus, we actually did run one camp in Morden last year that was co-ed,” she said. “And what we found was when it was co-ed only boys registered. So we quickly realized ‘ok, if you want to get the girls, it has to be all-girls.’”
As of June 28, Lautenschlager said their upcoming All-Girls Codemakers Camp in Thompson only has a handful of open spots left, and encourages anybody who is interested in this program to register on their official website at www.wisekidneticenergy.ca.
