Google to teach Boys & Girls Clubs to code

SAN FRANCISCO — Google is teaming up with Boys & Girls Clubs of America to bring a program that teaches computer science to more elementary and middle-school students across the country.

Called CS First, the program teaches kids ages 9 to 14 how to express themselves and their interests through computer code.

Google launched CS First in July 2013 as a pilot program out of its South Carolina data center.

The program geared to fourth- to eighth-graders is called a "club in a box." Anyone, a teacher, coach or volunteer, can use the online curriculum to teach kids the basics of coding.

More than 18,000 students have taken part in the program at one of more than 1,200 CS First clubs around the country, according to Google.

Last week, Google said it would work with hundreds of after-school programs across five boroughs in New York City to reach more than 100,000 kids.

Now it's joining forces with the Boys & Girls Club of America, a federation of thousands of local clubs that are increasing their focus on digital literacy.

AmeriCorps VISTA will dispatch volunteers to spend a year helping develop the program at Boys & Girls clubs in Oregon, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Washington state, Boston and Chicago.

The club in Menlo Park Calif., near Google's Mountain View, Calif., campus, will also be a part of the initial wave of clubs. AmeriCorps VISTA is a national service program whose goal is to fight poverty.

CS First is one in a growing wave of initiatives coming out of Silicon Valley to interest more young people in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, known as STEM.

Google is targeting kids at an early age in hopes of getting them interested in computer science, said Maggie Johnson, Google's director of education and university relations.

Google has a vested interest. The tech industry has a "pipeline issue," not enough computer science graduates to fill jobs, Johnson said.

Google is also trying to reach out to women and minorities, demographics starkly underrepresented in the mostly white-, Asian- and male-dominated Silicon Valley.

About half of the students who have taken part in CS First are women and about half are underrepresented minorities, Johnson said.

"Within the pipeline, we don't have enough diversity. That's a huge issue," she said. "If we are going to be creating products and services that are useful to everyone, those products and services have to be created by a diverse group."

The materials are free and available online. The curriculum is designed so kids can work at their own pace. The program uses Scratch, a simple programming language developed at MIT.

CS First appeals to kids who are new to technology by tapping into their interests such as music, sports or fashion, Johnson said.

Kids create stories, games and animation while learning basic concepts of computer science. After participating in the program, kids have a clearer understanding computer science and a greater awareness of the possibilities the field opens up, she said.

"We are not trying to teach them to be computer scientists, but we are trying to help them feel more confident in using computers, to persevere when they are debugging things and help them understand the impact of computer science on the world," Johnson said.

Lorenzo Davis is a seventh-grader at Oakbrook Middle School in Ladson, S.C. This is his third time participating in CS First.

The 12-year-old started programming in fourth grade and takes part in an after-school robotics club. He aspires to become a mechanical engineer.

"It was very fun to learn more about computers and how to program on them," he said.

Bethany Untch, also 12, is a sixth-grader at Oakbrook Middle School. This is her second time in CS First. She's also on a robotics team and dreams of working on robotics in the Air Force when she grows up.

"I like being able to create things I have never created before," Untch said.

Damon Williams, chief educational and youth development officer for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, says he has high hopes for CS First. He says it has the potential to "change and transform thousands of kids' lives."

"The thing we have to focus on as a youth development and empowerment organization is helping young people not just be consumers of tech and consumers of media, but also be creators of tech and creators of media," Williams said. "At the end of the day, we have to ensure that this new generation will be full players in the innovation and knowledge economy."

Access to technology from an early age is critical "to a young person's economic future," said Wendy Spencer, the CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which administers AmeriCorps.