In a recent blog post, Google detailed the success of CS First, a K-12 afterschool program Google launched last year. The program seeks to interest kids in computer science, reaching out to girls and minorities in particular.
The program is starting small, focusing on three counties in South Carolina. So far, Google has conducted 31 programs for around 450 students. “Of those students, 53 percent were girls, and 66 percent qualify for free or reduced [price] lunch. The students participated in eight 60-90 minute lessons over four weeks using a variety of tools such as App Inventor, Scratch, Blockly, Python in Codacademy, Scheme in Bootstrap, as well as various physical gadgets like Finch Robots, Little Bits, Sphero and Raspberry Pi,” wrote Google’s JamieSue Goodman.
Google plans to develop a kit that volunteers can use to conduct similar programs in other areas.
