Welcome to ChickTech’s Rural School Kits and After-School Clubs Project!
WHO IS CHICKTECH?
We are a national nonprofit dedicated to retaining women in the technology workforce and increasing the number of women and girls pursuing technology-based careers.
Through After-School Clubs and School Kits, ChickTech will provide girls and teachers from across the country, no matter where they are located, with national community support, resources and materials, and a network of partnerships to help girls excel in and out of the classroom on their path to tech.
A big THANK YOU to the Mozilla Open Leaders Program for support in building the open project, and partners in our rural initiatives, TechGirlz and CSTA!
ChickTech After School Clubs will provide teachers and students with year-long, once a week club curricula focused on hands-on, technology centric workshops for girls. The current 10 hour ChickTech curricula will be adjusted to fit this schedule and teachers will have the opportunity to schedule each workshop group based on financial resources, access to materials, and timing of other school activities. By offering a once-a-week club, girls will have the opportunity to consistently focus and improve their knowledge of tech. After each workshop group, the girls will walk away with tangible products that they’ve created and can showcase around the school.
The ChickTech School Kits are practical resources for teachers, administration, and students to access girl-empowering, tech activities meant to energize, excite, and empower girls to get involved with tech. The kits can be used in or out of the classroom.
Ideas for the kits currently include (open to suggestions!):
- Online and Hardcopy Curricula
- Partnership Lists - A How-To guide of accessing grants, resources, school associations, and connections to organizations that work in supporting girls in tech
- Workshop Materials - Choose workshops based on the school’s interests and kits will include all the necessary materials for the workshops.
- Access information for ChickTech School Slack Channel, ChickTech discussion forum, Monthly ChickTech School Calls
ChickTech is continuously striving to meet the often overlooked girls, the girls who haven’t had the same exposure to the various tech fields or developed the confidence to pursue these paths or realize that tech is a viable path for them. The school kits and a model for School Clubs is working towards making tech accessible for all while building confidence and skills in all different areas of tech - from robotics to soft circuits to app design. By creating a landing place for a supportive community, resources, and easy-to-use curriculum, educators will be able to easily replicate workshops to fit their local needs.
Through ChickTech Clubs and Kits, local leaders have the opportunity to become part of the nationwide ChickTech community and access resources to empower girls and help spark their confidence and awareness of tech careers.
Read the CONTRIBUTING.MD to get involved! You can also email us at info@chicktech.org or katie.sanfilippo@chicktech.org for more info.
Through our Rural Program expansion, we hope to make it easy for people to connect and become part of our community while increasing access to easy-to-use resources/materials that can be replicated in and out of school programs across the country!