We love Los Angeles! In collaboration with LA2050, we are actively working to make it the best place for girls to LEARN! Our project, Sparking Girls' Interest in STEM is providing hands-on STEM, coding, and making programs for girls from low-income communities in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. Can you believe that currently, women represent only 28% of overall employed scientists and engineers in the United States, and just 5% are women of color? This inequality begins early in the education pipeline and the greatest disparities are among girls of color. Nationally, only 15% of girls between 4th-8th grade demonstrate, or even express, interest in STEM. Thanks to the Goldhirsh Foundation's LA2050 initiative and the Angeleno community for their generous support, we are currently rewriting this trajectory!

LA2050 Funding Impact

With funding from LA2050, DIY Girls was able to serve a total of 114 girls through our Creative Electronics and HustleNCode programming in the Fall of 2021. We also returned to in-person programming and in order to mitigate some of the COVID concerns with in-person learning, we transitioned our regular 10-week programs into a two-week coding camp that met daily after school at our partnering school sites. Lastly, we expanded our reach and served girls from non-partner schools in our community through a virtual coding session.

DIY Girls implemented Creative Electronics at partnering elementary school sites serving a total of 75 5th-grade girls. The girls created fun projects like an LED Soft Creature, an LED Card, and a Motorized Art Bot. Participating girls learned about electricity and circuit building, as they gained practical skills such as troubleshooting through the testing of their products. At the end of the program, we surveyed the girls and asked them what their favorite project was and the most important thing they learned. Here is what they said:

“I learned how to turn on the LED lights, sew, use conductive tape, but the most important thing I learned these two weeks is how open and closed circuits work." - Yarel, 5th grade

“ My favorite was the art bot because we used a motor and learned about an open circuit and a close circuit."- Danielle, 5th grade

“My favorite project was the LED creature because I learned to sew and learned about tech." - Julissa, 5th grade

“I learned about the series, parallel, and simple circuits." - Giovanna, 5th grade

In partnership with TXT (Teens Exploring Technology), we implemented HustleNCode at partnering middle school sites and through a virtual coding session serving 39, 6-8th grade girls. The girls explored college and careers by building a personal website, all while learning how to code with Javascript, HTML, and CSS. At the end of the program, we surveyed the girls and asked them to tell us the most important thing they learned during this program. Here is what they said:

“I just like that I get to work with the DIY Girls and trying to learn something new. But something I learned that I didn't know before was coding. I never knew how to code before so I decided to go to DIY Girls." - Genesis, 6th grade

“The most important thing that I learned in this program that I didn't know before is the 3 code languages because I didn't know what it is saying, and now I understand what it means." -Valerie, 8th grade

“I learned the different types of the layers of code, like HTML, CSS, and JAVASCRIPT." -Lilith, 6th grade

“I learned that I can have fun while learning things like STEAM." -Jennifer, 8th grade

What's next for DIY Girls

In the Spring of 2022, we plan on implementing the Creative Electronics and HustleNCode programming to a new group of 192 elementary and middle school girls. We anticipate returning to our 10-week hands-on afterschool programming. If pandemic-related protocols require schools to return to virtual, we will adjust our programs as we did successfully in 2020-2021.

DIY Girls measures outcomes through regular pre- and post-surveys of participants, which have demonstrated consistent, remarkable success in supporting girls' increased interest in and pursuit of STEM education and careers. DIY Girls personnel administered pre/post surveys to program participants. We are in the process of analyzing the outcome data for our Fall 2021 programming. We look forward to sharing a final report once the funds are fully expended at the end of the academic year.

DIY Girls offers numerous volunteer opportunities for STEM professionals to engage virtually with participants through after-school programming and workshops. Volunteers can support in the following ways:

Volunteer Opportunities

● Serve as mentors by guiding program participants during hands-on projects, imparting technical knowledge and skills, and demonstrating the use of complicated equipment.

● Serve as guest speakers or help organize field trips and panel discussions with other STEM professionals to encourage interest in related careers.

● Facilitate their own hands-on STEM-related workshops to introduce the girls to a variety of STEM fields.

● Interface with our DIY Girls' program alumni through our GANAS leadership and support network.

For more information, visit diygirls.org and stay connected with us on Instagram @diygirlsorg, Facebook @DIYGirlsOrg, and Twitter @DIYGirls.