Towne Acres ‘Girls Who Code’ Club visits Science Hill STEM class to learn more about practical tech applications

A photo from Johnson City Schools shows Towne Acres students observing the Science Hill High School robotics team’s competition robot.

A group of students at Towne Acres Elementary School in Johnson City Schools got a chance to learn more about the practical applications of technology lessons they’ve been learning in class on a recent trip to Science Hill High School, a recent announcement said.

According to a news release from the district, the Towne Acres’ Girls Who Code club visited Brad Gentry’s high school STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) class to learn about robotics and opportunities in science-based learning. After learning about the basics of coding, the students toured Gentry’s lab and met the school’s competition robot. Students also created personalized wooden ornaments with a laser cutter.  

Angie Smith, a third-grade teacher at Towne Acres and faculty sponsor of the Girls Who Code club, said in the release that her son attended STEM camps when he was younger, which led him to pursue more STEM interests as a student at Science Hill High School. She said she wanted to encourage girls’ interests in STEM subjects, and for more girls to pursue STEM tracks like her son did.

“I wanted the girls to come over here and see what their future could hold and some opportunities they could have as they continue their education, and I wanted them to see that it’s not just boys who are in the field,” Smith said in the news release. “I think it’s good for them to see what a STEM class looks like, get some hands-on experience, see all the options and see that it's not just programming on a computer, there are actuals tools that help them make things.”

Fifth grader Hannah Gruell said that she joined Girls Who Code three years ago because she thought it would be fun to learn coding. In addition to programming, she said, she’s learned a lot about teamwork.

“In Girls Who Code, we make things with different codes,” she said in the news release. “It’s been a lot of fun to see how different technology works.”

Grace Miller, another fifth grader, said her favorite part of the field trip to Science Hill was seeing the 3-D printer and the high school robotics team’s robot.

“I like the idea of robotics,” she said. “And the 3-D printer is really cool! You can make pretty much anything with it.”