Hope Bear, the Director of Human Resources for AWeber, posted about how AWeber is empowering kids to pursue STEM by using TechGirlz’s free TechShopz in a Box material! The article talks about how AWeber was able to get High School Students involved to mentor middle school aged students in tech and how the big day went, developing mobile apps. The full article was originally published on the AWeber website.

As we thought about ways to educate students and introduce them to the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, we realized we also wanted a program that could be repeated and shared with even more kids again and again.

That’s when we landed on a TechGirlz curriculum, “Developing a Mobile App.” Through this program, students would learn how to brainstorm an idea for an app, identify personas, create a prototype and present it to others.

“We specifically chose the TechGirlz course for “Developing a Mobile App” because it allowed us to demonstrate the broad range of expertise that goes into building a type of ‘tech’ that is very familiar with today’s students,” Jason (an AWeber team member) said.

“Students benefit because they get to see that developing a mobile app isn’t all about ‘coding’. The ability to brainstorm, to think about how your decisions impact your users and to pitch ideas is applicable to a broad range of fields.”

Students Leading Students

After determining that this program would be best for students in fifth through ninth grade, we were on the hunt for co-facilitators. How could we get older students involved and excited about tech, too?

That’s when our friends at Souderton School District recommended we team up with five high school students to help facilitate. Sure enough, we had five eager and passionate volunteers sign up!

“Partnering with the high school students was a great way for us to take our efforts and have them multiplied, since these students will be facilitating this program in the next school year for the Souderton middle school students,” said Jason.

Plus, it gave these high school students an opportunity to lead and mentor others.

You too can use our free TechShopz in a Box curriculum to inspire young minds and run TechGirlz workshops in your area! Check out our TechShopz in a Box Topics and register to gain access to our curriculum, today.