On July 14th, 2016, the Timonium office hosted ten girls from the ages of 9 to 13 for the “Make a Web Page Workshop”. The students spent the day learning HTML basics like text, images, and hyperlinks. The course was taught by Heather Caudill, Gargee Anjikar, and Abigail Baker. Only half of the girls had any programming experience before this class, but by the end of the lesson, all the students had successfully completed two of their very own webpages.
After a brief introduction to how computers communicate and connect to one another, the first half of the lesson kicked off. The students started by creating an “About Me” page. This included things like a description of themselves, a list of their favorite foods, and a picture of something they liked. Learning concepts like headings, paragraphs, and lists, the girls incorporated each of these into their own site one-by-one. Once they learned how to add their text in multiple formats, the focus shifted to adding images, font size, and color. This gave students the freedom to create a personalized page while also applying their new HTML knowledge.
During the second half of the day, the girls created a website for a company they each invented. They started by brainstorming ideas for their new company: the name, a brief description of what they do, and the services they offered. These companies ranged from dog walking businesses to macaroon bakeries, and everything in between. 
After jotting their designs down on paper, the students used the HTML concepts covered earlier in the day to make their company site. At the end of the class, the parents stopped by for a presentation of all the company websites. Each student presented their work to the group and demonstrated their web development abilities.
Outside of the classroom, the girls had fun exploring the office (especially the scooters and swings). All ten students expressed an increase in their interest in programming, and gave some wonderful feedback:
“This class made programming easy!” “I liked presenting my work. It was a great experience.” “Wow, now I can make my own webpage!”
These girls proved that it is never too young to start programming. It is inspiring to see such young web developers who are incredibly passionate about their creations!
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