Interesting work, Danielle!

I love your idea of conducting a "Family Coding Night"! Research has shown that engaging parental support (in particular, the dad, or some other male family figure or close friend of the family) seems to be key in attracting more females into STEM related careers. At Valencia College, we have conducted STEM related family events we referred to as a “Parent - Daughter TEA” hands-on STEM related activity workshop where TEA stood for Technology Engineering Aptitude, but we also served a proper “tea” with cucumber sandwiches, fruit, and ceramic tea cups and saucers that each girl got to take home with her at the end of the day. These family STEM outreach events were an absolute hit with the students and their families, but (WHEW!) they were quite a bit of a workout to set up and pull off well. Perhaps you have nailed down the perfect formula to conduct an effective family STEM outreach event…please share your strategies. My questions below are pretty detailed as we have run into a few issues of having to turn folks away on the day of the event. That was super challenging and disappointing for both the families and us. Unfortunately, we only had so many seats in the room where we were conducting the event and only so many activity materials (and teacups!) for each family member and their daughter to participate.

Which night and time have you found most successful to conduct you "Family Coding Nights"? Was there any interest from the families to conduct them on a Saturday morning or afternoon? 

How long were your events? 

Did you provide dinner or just snacks and beverages or perhaps not even bottled water because your families were programming and you wanted to keep your computer bench work area food and liquid free? 

How many family members do you invite? Just one parent? Both parents? Did you invite siblings too up to a certain number or beginning at a certain age?

Do you charge one fee per family to participate or was it a free event or was it a per person fee?

Do you cap the size of the workshop to “first come, first serve” on the night of the event or do you ask families to register online with still a “first to register” until a certain number and then you turn families away online so that no family shows up on the night of the event only to get turned away because your lab classroom only has so many computers?

Did any families who signed up for your event online not show up?

Did you take families who came late to your event or did you advertise in advance that families needed to be on time to be able to participate?

Thanks in advance for sharing your “Family Coding Night” words of wisdom…

Hi Deb,

Thank you for your interest in our Family Code Night event and for sharing your Parent-Daughter TEA event. What a wonderful idea!

Since our Family Code Night was different from our annual STEM Night and was new to the school, we held it on the same evening as our after-school Open House, which allowed families who were already at school to stay and experience Family Code Night. However, leading up to the event we also advertised it within school and through parent newsletters and social media. These promotions directed people to an online sign-up form so we could have an idea of numbers in advance for facility and technology set-up.

This was a free, 90 minute event and there was no limit to the number of family members who could attend. We had families ranging from 1 parent and 1 child to families of 5. We did not have to turn anyone away, but attendance was high and we were able to fill our media center and 2 classrooms. We had set up laptops and presentation screens in each room prior to the event using the numbers from our registration form, but we had plenty of staff on hand to add more technology and address any spacing concerns for the families who attended but were not registered. Those on hand -- Reedy Creek teachers and Friday Institute experts and volunteers -- also were there to assist families with their coding projects. This enabled us to admit families who came in late, because we had enough staff helpers to take the latecomers, arrange technology for them, and bring them up to speed with the guided lessons we were conducting. 

Because this was an evening event, we did provide the option for families to purchase food. Our school PTA offered pre-order pizza and bottled water, and during the event they opened the concession stand.

One thing that really made our Family Code Night a success was the differentiation we built in. While we used the excellent Code.org http://www.familycodenight.org/ model and script, we understood that it was geared toward elementary school families, and because we are a digital sciences magnet school whose students are becoming adept at code, we wanted to include additional levels of challenge. On our registration form we allowed families to select “beginner, intermediate, or advanced” coding activities. We then chose different rooms and presenters for the different activities. On the evening of the event, we opened with welcomes and introductions in the main room with all attendees, then we explained the leveled coding activities in the various rooms and the group split into their preferred locations to begin coding. 

Thank you again for your questions. Our intent is to offer Family Code Night annually, and while we will continue to learn and adjust each year, we were very pleased with the event’s success and the positive feedback we received from families who were clearly enjoying coding together.

Thanks for that detailed answer!

Thank you for the encouragement! Coding in kindergarten is a great way to broaden participation in CS. I applaud her efforts. 

Hi Sarah, 

This is Christine Sachs from Reedy Creek Middle. While we do offer 5 magnet electives with curriculum written specifically for our program, we also have worked with the Friday Institute to integrate CS/CT into all curricular areas. We build upon the standard curriculum by integrating CS and CT. Daily lessons in all subject areas overtly incorporate CT by using decomposition, pattern recognition, algorithm design, and abstraction. Teachers and students use this vocabulary as well. A great example of further building CS/CT into the set curriculum is when our 6th grade science teachers worked with the Friday Institute to expand their lessons about the Food Web to include students designing a simulation of the Food Web using Snap coding. In another example from 6th grade, after Language Arts students completed reading a Percy Jackson novel, they tracked Percy’s journey by programming plot points and major story events onto a map within the Snap coding platform. This “Hero’s Journey” computer game they helped to develop was then played by fellow students as a unit review.

We would love to hear more about what you are doing in Utah with these ideas!

Hi Jennifer,

Thank you so much for your comment. Our family engagement strategies take a variety of forms -- everything from email and social media outreach to family-focused events such as the Family Code Night showcased in our video. 

We reach out to parents weekly with grade-level newsletters describing our in-class activities, and our teachers and staff maintain active social media accounts to highlight our digital sciences program. We have a parent outreach document that explains the Reedy Creek/Friday Institute (FI) partnership which we share with current and prospective Reedy Creek families. Major sections of both the Reedy Creek and FI websites feature photos, details, and highlights of our Research Practice Partnership and how it is benefiting students.  

Our PTA has hosted an annual community STEM Night, and this year we hosted our first joint Family Code Night with the FI. Our school's annual Curriculum Night is interactive with core and elective teachers offering collaborative activities that allow parents, together with their children, to experience the hands-on learning our students do each day. This is something that has proven to be effective and has generated overwhelmingly positive feedback from families.

An important member of our school’s Digital Sciences Team (DST) is our parent representative. Our DST is also comprised of teachers, school administration, and partners from the Friday Institute. Together we analyze and discuss all aspects our CS/CT Ecosystem model. Partners from the Friday Institute join us for family and magnet recruitment events to help explain and showcase our partnership, and to maintain their connection to our school community.

Hi Jennifer! I would say one of the biggest hurdles initially was getting teachers to buy-in to coding across the content areas and then getting them to feel comfortable implementing it with their students. That's why we found it critical to develop a core of in-house expertise through our teacher leader program. This made it possible for other teachers in the school to see it implemented in classrooms with students to make disciplinary connections. It also provided them with the confidence that they would have a local support system.

Hi Janice! Thanks for the great questions! At first, we provided relatively extensive support for teachers that needed it. Our NC State team offered teachers a situated professional development strategy where we modeled a class that allowed the teachers to observe as they developed confidence with the materials and pedagogy. Then we gradually released that support throughout the day. This has become an effective strategy particularly for teachers who are using programs that they did not design themselves. For other teachers who have designed their own lessons, this type of intensive support has not been needed. By attending monthly PD sessions that have incrementally laid a foundation for understanding Snap! programming, curricular connections, and then allowing them to design their own lessons have been adequate support for many to be successful. It helps to know that they have a cadre of in-house expertise to go to for support with the teacher leaders. The time teacher leaders spend assisting their peers varies depending on individual needs, but it is typically accomplished within a few planning periods. The amount of coding students see integrated for each subject varies right now, but this school year most grades had exposure with one coding lesson per subject throughout the year. So at a minimum, three to four integrated lessons a year.