‘Best Day Ever!’ Hang Out with Comox Kids Learning to Code

When you think of a hackathon — computer programmers working together to solve a problem — you might not initially think of a room full of 11- to 15-year-old girls and gender diverse kids.

Hackergal is working to change that.

A Toronto-based charity that offers introductory coding lessons, resources and events for girls and gender non-conforming students in Grades 6 to 9 across Canada, Hackergal was founded by Lucy Ho in 2015.

The intention behind the organization, and its annual hackathon, is to remove barriers experienced by girls and gender diverse kids of all races to exploring their interests in science, technology, engineering, arts and math, often referred to as STEAM. Over 30,000 students across Canada have participated to date.

Ho founded the non-profit based on her own experiences working in tech startups after graduating from university.

“I was often times the youngest person in the room, the only woman in the room, and the only woman of colour in the room, which led to a lot of imposter syndrome,” she said.

“I wanted to come up with a way to get more girls and diverse learners interested in technology, because it was so groundbreaking.”

Over 550 students across five provinces participated in this year’s Hackergal Hackathon, held on May 1, including 35 Grade 6 and 7 students from four Comox Valley public schools.

The theme of this year’s hackathon was “Hack the Bias in AI,” specifically referencing how misogyny and racism are so often embodied by artificial intelligence programs such as ChatGPT, Meta AI and Gemini chatbots.

Students used Scratch, the online coding platform designed for teaching kids and youth to code, to come up with solutions.

Beatrix Parker, 11, a Grade 6 student from Aspen Park Elementary in Comox, says she was familiar with coding on Scratch before participating in the hackathon.

“My dad showed it to me when I was in Grade 2 and I’ve been doing it ever since,” she said. The hackathon gave her the opportunity to code with people her own age, Parker added.

The gender bias in tech is baked in, Parker said, and it’s hard to change because of long-existing stereotypes.

Georgia, 11, a Grade 6 student at École Puntledge Park Elementary in Courtenay, B.C., didn’t have any experience with coding, and had barely used artificial intelligence prior to the day-long hackathon. The Tyee is withholding Georgia’s last name at their parents’ request.

“It sounded cool and I wanted to learn how to use Scratch,” they said. “I wanted to figure out how to make a really basic video game.”

With AI based on “outdated and old” information — not to mention misinformation — Georgia says they learned one of the problems with the technology’s inherent biases is “the more that our society sees [bias] as okay again, the more people are going to stop thinking about it as an issue.”

Kara Dawson, district information technology support teacher at Comox Valley Schools, organized the district’s participation in the hackathon this year.

The district already imparts a lesson about the ethics of AI to this age group, she said, part of overall critical thinking skills.

Earlier this year, Grade 6 teachers in the district received guidance on teaching students about cyber security, digital literacy and AI. Next year Grade 8 teachers will receive the same guidance.

“I see kids every day just going in and start using it, and they’re not thinking about it,” Dawson said, adding she teaches lessons on safe AI use to high school students in the district, too.

That includes teaching kids not to input their personal information to AI models, Dawson said.

‘Above and beyond’ at the hackathon

Dawson reached out to the district’s schools back in March to gauge teachers’ interest in hosting Hackergal clubs for the month leading up to the day-long hackathon on May 1.

“I love Hackergal and getting girls involved in STEAM projects. I think it’s super important that women take their place in society, in these jobs as engineers and doctors and scientists everywhere,” Dawson said.

It was the “amazing teacher librarians” at École Puntledge Park Elementary, Aspen Park Elementary, École Robb Road and Miracle Beach Elementary who answered Dawson’s call and hosted Hackergal clubs for students in their schools.

“They met at lunch hour once a week, sometimes two times a week,” Dawson said, to access Hackergal’s full set of lessons on topics including website design, coding, digital art and using Scratch.

“Some of the teacher librarians were learning with the kids,” Dawson added. “It’s really neat.”

For the hackathon itself, the Comox Valley students spent the day in a school district building board room with their teacher librarians, Dawson and two Hackergal staff, including founder Ho.

“It was really nice for the students to meet her,” Dawson said, “and get her individual attention, working through their problems.”

It was Dawson and her team’s enthusiasm that drew Ho to Comox this year.

“Kara and her team, they went above and beyond,” she said.

“No girl wanted to go out for recess, they didn’t take a break. We told them to go get their lunches, they immediately ran back to their desks to work on their coding projects. It shows how focused they were on that mission that day,” Ho said.

Most of the students used Scratch to make a game or tell a story about the gender biases in AI, said Dawson, tackling the topic from different angles like AI bias in sports, in the lack of representation in the AI industry and the overall biases in AI results.

Both Georgia and Parker made games with AI bias themes based on the lessons they learned.

“I made a game where there’s gender stereotypes bouncing around, and you’re clicking on each one. And you get points by getting rid of the gender stereotypes,” Georgia said. “It was hard, but it was fun.”

Georgia entered her game in a competition Hackergal is hosting for students who participated in the hackathon. Prizes include a Bluetooth speaker and a digital camera. There was also a draw for a $100 Staples gift card for everyone who entered the competition.

Parker plans to pursue coding further following the hackathon — in Python, “because I think that’s a cool language,” she said.

The students had such a good time during the hackathon, Dawson says, they didn’t even realize what they were doing was educational.

“It was funny listening to them say things like, ‘Oh, this is the best day ever! We don’t have to do any work!’” she said.

“They were learning so much, and they had no idea.”