Each month we will send out a Sway to keep you up to date with the latest goings on with the Moxie Girls.

In our first meeting we had the opportunity to get to know one another, compete in a team building competition, complete our bios, and learned how the Moxie Girls are going to “Change the World.”

Sway #13

We are very excited to start our second year of Moxie Girls!!! These girls came into our first meeting eager to change the world. To say these girls are pumped would be a drastic understatement. We started out our first meeting mapping out our goals for the year. The girls completed a teamwork challenge (the ability to work as a team is the most crucial aspect to our girls success this year).

The girls are ready to tackle the Hydrodynamics First Lego League season, learn how to program and print with the 3-D printer, and compete in the Technovation App Design challenge. It is going to be an amazing year and we know these girls are ready to take on the world!!!

Sway #12

As the year comes to a close we are reminded that we would not be able to do all of the amazing things we did this year, if it was not for our AMAZING Mentors and Donors. Google has conducted study after study and concluded that the most powerful thing for girls to enter the field of computer science is interacting with AWESOME females already working in the field. We are passionate about showing our girls EVERYTHING computer science has to offer.  These girls have been inspired by the amazing women who are currently paving the way for the next generation of computer scientists. It was an amazing year and we look forward to another amazing year coming up.

Sway #11

We have never been a fan of whoever wrote “all good things come to an end.” This was an amazing year because of all of the girls and their willingness to learn something new each and every week. These girls have become the face of computer science education in our school, district, and across the state. It is amazing what can happen if you just open students’ eyes to the amazing opportunities that exist within the computer science industry.

Moxies, you are the definition of After School Excellence!!! We are already planning some AMAZING opportunities for you girls. We cannot wait to get started!!!

Sway #10

Our girls participated in the First Lego League Animal Allies season. The girls learned how to build and code the robots. They had a blast putting the Lego table together, working together, and completing their research on The Salt River Horses. It was an amazing season and the girls gained so much from this experience. Unfortunately neither team advanced to the state finals at ASU but it has definitely given the girls something to shoot for next year!!!

There were so many highlights over the course of the season. One of our favorite highlights was when both of our Moxie Girls teams were competing at the same time on the same table. Another highlight without a doubt was when both of our teams finished their last Robot Run of the day and the girls banded together and went right back to coding the robots.

Sway #9

This was the second year our ENTIRE school has participated in the Hour of Code. Our school is passionate about embedding computer science into the curriculum. As a school we understand that Computer Science teaches all of our students the soft skills (Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, Problem Solving, & Perseverance)  they need to acquire before they head out into the work place.  The future is created by code…

Sway #8

As we head into the Thanksgiving Break we are reminded how thankful we are to work with such amazing computer scientists. We have almost reached the half way point of our inaugural Moxie Girls Computer Science Club. We still cannot believe how much the girls have accomplished in such a short amount of time. It goes without saying how proud we are of the girls. This experience is without a doubt the one thing we are most proud of as educators.

After break we have one week to complete our Core Values Board, put the finishing touches on their research presentations, and complete as many missions as possible for the robot game. Both teams Moxie Girls and Moxie Girls 2.0, have come together to focus on the issue surrounding the Salt River Wild Horses. Moxie Girls are working on a song for their research presentation and Moxie Girls 2.0 are creating a PSA. Both projects have all the potential to really solve the problem facing the Salt River Wild Horses. It will be a crazy week to say the least heading into the tournament. As coaches we are so proud that we are taking two all-girl teams to the FLL Qualifying Tournament. We cannot wait to report on how these girls performed when the lights were the brightest.

Sway #7

UAS Expo & Microsoft

The girls went on a field trip this week to the UAS Expo to see how industry leaders are using UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) to improve their business. It was an amazing experience for these girls as this is a field of computer science that is going to explode in the coming years. The girls noticed how few females were in attendance. The girls are so excited to dive head first into the drone industry. The girls were mini celebrities at the conference and there could potentially be a magazine article in the near future featuring the Moxie Girls. Alex Palmer’s presentation, the time he talked to the girls, and the wisdom he shared, has inspired a number of our girls to one day want to work for Local Motors. His biggest piece of advice for the girls. MATH!!!

The girls were blown away by the things Local Motors  is doing all over the globe. Alex Palmer, from Local Motors, even gave the girls their own Q & A session where the girls peppered him about everything computer science related.

If that was not enough for our Moxie Girls. Mr. Lane was invited to Microsoft outside of Seattle to work with the Sway team. The engineers and guests could not get over the impact the Sways have had on our girls, the community, and our computer science outreach. The girls were really the stars of the day. A few female engineers could not believe the Moxie Girls was created on purpose as an all-girls computer science club. A few of them were gushing because they got their spark for computer science in First Lego League and they were the only girls in the group. They thought it was the coolest seeing all of these girls working together.

#makemysway

Sway #6

(Programming and Rei from Create at the AZ Science Center)

The past couple of weeks have been a tremendous success. The girls have all named their robots after an influential woman in science. We have some great robot names. The girls have calculated how many centimeters each rotation is on the robot. They have been doing a lot of math with each computer program they write. The level of computational thinking has been off the charts. The conversations and the soft skills these girls are displaying has been amazing. The level of teamwork taking place has been a thing of beauty.

We had the privilege to meet with another amazing “Skype mentor,” Rei Cameron from Create at the Arizona Science Center. Rei showed the girls all of the cool things going on at Create, some of her own work, and talked to the girls about becoming creators. It was so cool to see that Rei was a gamer, but was also into creating stylish clothes. The girls loved seeing how all of these computer science tools could be used for fashion, jewelry making, or just taking an idea off a piece of paper and making it a reality.

Sway #5

(Google Rise Award)

A lot has been happening with the Moxie Girls the last three weeks. They have completed building the Lego Table. They are finishing building their robots as they prepare to tackle the Robot game. It has been an amazing experience to see how dedicated all of these girls have been as they have been going through this process. Ms. Kinney volunteered one day so we did not have to cancel Moxie Girls. I cannot tell who loved that more Ms. Kinney, or the girls. Panda wrote an amazing blog post that everyone should read.

We received our team shirts with a working QR code that takes us to our website. We are obsessed with the quote on the back!!! These shirts are AMAZING!!! It has been awesome to see the girls rocking their shirts with such pride all over campus. A big shout out to Magical Marketing for donating these amazing shirts. This company was inspired by what these girls are doing and wanted to support us any way possible. We want to thank them for being apart of the movement and seeing the value of #csforall.

Mrs. Scofield and I presented at the AZ Sci-Tech festival sharing all of the amazing things these girls are doing. People were blown away by what the girls have accomplished in such a short amount of time. Mrs. Scofield and I submitted our Google Rise Award grant for these girls to grow our program and start a mobile Maker Space. We truly feel they are doing something that is unique and could have an infinite impact on getting girls involved in computer science around the world. We unfortunately ran into a colossal asteroid as we were submitting our grant. These girls have inspired us to work even harder and no matter the outcome, we have already received the greatest grant.

Sway #4

(First Lego League Kickoff)

It is hard to keep pace with everything going on with the Moxie Girls. We broke up into two different teams for First Lego League. We have Moxie Girls and Moxie Girls 2.0. It is just amazing that we will be bringing two all-girls teams to the state tournament. The girls took apart the old robots and started to build the robots for this year. It was amazing to see all of the girls mesh instantly as they broke into teams. They were organizing pieces, problem solving, and coming up with a name for their robot.

Ella and Manasi attended the First Lego League kickoff where they realized that there were a lot of boys there. They got to listen to a panel discussion from animal experts on the research portion, they got to ask questions, they got some Starbucks on campus, and they got do some advanced programming with the robot. It was an amazing day to say the least as we gear up for the “hardest fun we will ever have.”

Sway #3

(zSpace)

This past week was another amazing week for the Moxie Girls. We got to visit the zSpace virtual reality bus. We had three of our Moxie Girls speak at the district office and inspire other girls/schools to follow our lead. The girls were inspired by our “Skype Mentor,” to get into the virtual reality game and change the world. We received a grant from another “Skype Mentor,” to cover the cost of one of our teams registrations for FLL ($225.00). To top it off we rolled out our official website at www.moxiegirls.org. This will be a place where the girls become official bloggers on all things related to computer science, drones, and First Lego League.

Sway #2

In our second meeting we continued to work on building a community of trust. We did another team building activity. We had our first “Skype Mentor,” Victoria Flys who is a civil engineering student at Arizona State University. She talked to the girls about the Concrete Canoe Competition. The response we received from the students in the Google Form blew us away!!! Make sure you read those. The Moxie Girls also set up our Google Classroom. All of the girls got their code.org accounts and we had a Hack-a-Thon. The top two girls who wrote the most lines of code won a Google Cardboard. It was amazing to see girls that had some coding experience and those who had never written a line of code just jump right in. The girls all got their official CODE stickers. We also shared the news about an amazing grant we received from the Arizona Cardinals. It was an amazing day to say the least.

Sway #1