This winter semester, the Riverside Brookfield High School’s Girls Who Code club started up computer science drop-in sessions, also known as Code & Connect. These sessions take place every Tuesday morning from 7:15-7:45 am. Computer science teacher Sandy Czajka sponsors the drop-in sessions.
The sessions are hosted by members of the club and are open to any students interested in learning more about computer science or anyone who has any computer science-related questions or projects. Czajka sponsors these sessions to ensure that people interested in coding and computer science can have a place to discuss their interests and gain more understanding about the concept.
“These sessions are sponsored by Girls Who Code, and we’ve decided to open it up to anyone, any gender, whatever anyone identifies as,” Czajka said. “We want to have opportunities for people to drop in and either get help (we’ll have tutors available), team up on projects if they’re working on something in class, or if they want to explore something they don’t have time for.”
These sessions are also beneficial to students in computer science classes who are struggling with a certain concept in the class. They can get the help they need from people who have the right computer science knowledge.
“I can help direct them to find out something new about computer science,” Czajka said. “This will give them another place and time to come in and get ahead so they don’t fall behind.”
Tutoring isn’t just the main focus of these sessions. Students are also able to explore more about how computer science works as well as how it can possibly help them with future careers and tests.
“It can help people prepare for the AP exams,” Czajka said. “I’m hoping in the future it’ll open doors to the computer science classes and also maybe open fields students want to go into.”
During the sessions, students will be encouraged to find and try new things involving computer science as well as talk about materials they know and share their expertise with others. In addition, they are able to discuss things they are confused about or want to know more of.
“It helps people come together and realize there’s other people to either help them or talk about computer science with and hopefully find something they want to talk about like AI, cybersecurity, or quantum computing,” Czajka said.
Girls Who Code is currently trying to figure out new ways to make these sessions even more engaging and successful.
“One of the drawbacks has been that there’s tutoring available in all the subjects, but with computer science you really have to have a specific knowledge base in order to help,” Czajka said.
The students who are involved are really passionate and interested about these coding sessions. Sophia May, a sophomore at RB involved in Girls Who Code, comments on the sessions.
“It’s a place where people who enjoy coding can share their knowledge with people who are learning to code for the first time, and it’s a nice place where students can share ideas and troubleshooting with others,” May said.
In the future, Girls Who Code and Czajka want to share more of their computer science knowledge and information about the courses that are available at RB. They also hope these sessions can help better publicize computer science.
“These sessions might make it seem like it is a more open door for students to take computer science courses,” Czajka said.
