Girls Day 2021

At our Girls Day 2021 workshop, we primarily explored the interplay between software and society. On April 22, 2021, 18 schoolgirls sat down together with 7 mentors (virtually, of course) and explored the question of how explored the question of how software influences our social lives. Does it do that at all? Where does it do it? And is it even good the way it does it?

The participants showed particular interest in the topics of environmental protection and sustainability. A current topic, as can also be seen at other events, such as Earth Day. How can society’s interest in the environment and its protection of the environment be implemented or dealt with in software?

Or more specifically: How can resources such as clothing/food/fossil fuels be used more sustainably with the help of software? We were particularly interested in the participants’ very mature views.

But it wasn’t just about thinking and philosophizing. After approaching the topic with interesting questions questions, we met in smaller groups and collected project ideas. We presented these to each other and discussed them. Then we worked on concepts.

The participants’ project ideas, which can be seen in the pictures, showed a broad spectrum of topics and possible implementations. implementation. Many even had several ideas that could be implemented. The topics from the previous discussions were taken up. As you can see from the pictures, there were mainly projects on the subject of environmental protection. But also other social issues, such as equal rights, were also addressed.

An idea alone is nice, but it only comes to life when you put it into practice. We did this with an online tool called Scratch, which is used to quickly implement software on a trial basis. You can see the participants’ projects in the pictures.

There were games in which the aim was to demolish industrial facilities that were no longer needed and create new green spaces in their place. In two other two other projects were about removing garbage from the game. Once in a jump-and-run game world and once from an underwater world. The first picture shows a question game in which questions are used to draw attention to possible environmental consequences. Others dealt with the topic of equality in society by implementing a search game in which the aim was to recognize situations in which there is no equality.

At the end, we gathered once again in a large group and the various projects were presented