AWC Girls in Computing Career Day



April 1999:
I was asked to be the Hardware Co-Head for the first annual AWC Career Day only three weeks before the actual day. I knew very little about hardware, but I had a fun time learning and putting together a presentation and activity that all the girls would be able to enjoy. We had over seventy seventh graders in four groups, and the activities were very fast-paced. We taught them about how hardware parts work together to process information, and what different devices did. But the best part was when we handed them tools and told them to take apart the computers. Between groups, we scrambled for 5 minutes to put the computers back together, and luckily, we had some help to do that. They girls had a blast and I’ve never seen more destruction from seventh grade girls in my life! We even let them take apart disks and scratch CD’s to show how thin they really were. It was a wonderful day, and the girls learned so much. As co-president, I’ll be supervising the hardware committee this year, as well as putting together all the details of the day, and dressing up as a character from computer history as a culminating activity. I’m really looking forward to it!