Lincoln girls combine magic with technology to learn coding

Sorting hats, wands, and potions made this coding workshop a magical learning experience on Sunday.

Zillow partnered with Girls Code Lincoln to host a class called, Coding Magic for Muggles. it’s a free workshop designed to introduce local girls to coding. 

Elsa Meyer is a middle school volunteer with Girls Code Lincoln and says girls can do it too.

“Men dominate this field right now and it’s important for girls to be able to have the freedom to do whatever they want,” said Meyer.

In the organization, she adds the girls have fun and coding is a part of that.

“We’ve done stuff where we’ve sewn lights into hats and things and then like program them,” added Meyers. “We’ve made websites and chrome extensions.” 

Students learned fundamental skills like algorithm design by using harry potter wands to code.

“They’re gonna do it with coding Harry Potter wands so they’re gonna make pumpkins grow, levitate feathers, kind go through that.” 

A co-founder of  Girls Code Lincoln says research has shown that many girls lose interest in coding as they go into high school.

So, she says reaching out to middle school age girls is important.

“So we founded a non–profit that teaches middle school girls how to program,” said AAKRITI AGRAWAl. “We teach girls how to be more confident and have fun through technology so that we can encourage them to choose stem in the future.” 

The nonprofit is ran 100% by volunteers and it’s celebrating it’s now third year working with girls who code.

For more information on  Girls Code Lincoln and how to join in on these fun classes, visit the https://girlscodelincoln.com/ or check out the Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/girlscodelincoln/, for updates.