Bold Idea is not like a traditional classroom - and that’s what makes it fun, according to Megan, a Dallas 6th grader. When her mom signed her up in 3rd grade, Megan was excited but not sure what to expect. She pictured a classroom with students doing their own work and raising their hands when they needed help from a teacher.
“But it’s not,” she said. “It’s you and a partner. You get to have more fun than a classroom. You get to collaborate more, and there’s more problem solving. Because in Spanish you’re just learning words, and in English you’re just writing. You’re not solving anything.”
Soon after joining Bold Idea, she had her first problem to solve: Make a character shake in a simple MIT Scratch game. She coded the character to turn left 90 degrees and then right 90 degrees. But the action was so quick that the game user wouldn’t notice the movement. Megan solved it by adding a timing delay between the motion and then putting it in a loop, a computer science concept that repeats an action over and over again.
In her three years with Bold Idea, Megan has learned to embrace problem solving and seek help from her friends or a volunteer mentor. “I felt proud of myself whenever I was confused about something, got help, and then figured it out.” And she has a good response when frustrating problems do come up: “I try to stay calm and work it out. Sometimes I have to take a break.”
She also thinks it’s cool that the mentors do this kind of work in their jobs at Bottle Rocket. “I really like it,” she said. “I think it’s inspiring.”
Megan encourages her friends and other girls to try computer science. Many have signed up, and she feels that it’s brought her closer to those friends and helped her make new ones.
For girls at least, learning to code in elementary school is smart, according to Megan. At that age, they’re open to exploring lots of different activities until they find their ‘one thing.’ By high school, it’s too late, she feels. “If they never try it up to high school, they’ll never know.”
Among the many things she likes, computer science ranks high. “I feel like it can impact my future. It’s something I can do for a living - or I can do something else with computer science.”