Girls Who Game is a Pilot Program by Microsoft Education Canada and Dell that empowers and teaches girls to use computer code and stem. As of April 1st, Souris School became one of only six or seven Girls Who Game groups across Canada. Ten girls from Grades 4 and 5 spend a portion of their day learning how to code and stem through a video game called Minecraft. This is all possible through the training and professional development provided by Microsoft Education Canada and the computers that Dell provided.
Learning Development Specialist for Alberta and Prairie Provinces, Vance Beblow, spent two days last week with the Souris girls, along with Instructional Technology Consultant SEC, Michael Van Betuw. The two taught the girls coding language that allowed them to use only code builder to move their Minecraft characters and create mazes and buildings.
The purpose of this program is to create a safe and educational environment for girls to enjoy and learn about gaming in a critical thinking and problem-solving way.
The girls can also troubleshoot and help other Girls Who Game members across the country through an educational video recording software called Flipgrid. Those who have questions and need help can upload a video message with their question and then any one of the members can reply back with an answer with a video message of their own.
The 10 girls from Souris that are in the Girls Who Game program are Erynn Stout, Asia Saunders, Kinley Dammann, Khloe Higgins, Assiya Benabdallah, Saydee Lawrence, Aurora Jansen, Electra Nightingale, Natalie Morrissette and Eliza Kohane.
