DIY (“Do-It-Yourself”) Girls’ mission is to increase girls’ interest and success in technology, engineering and making through innovative educational experiences and mentor relationships. We’re a supportive community for girls driven by an interest in creating and building with technology.
DIY Girls uses a three-pronged program approach that integrates engagement, capacity building, and continuity to ensure girls’ success. We offer after-school and summer programs that provide hands-on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) experiences for girls. Girls learn technical skills and apply them by creating their own creative projects and inventions.
DIY Girls has reached over 2000 girls in Los Angeles since 2012.
Luz Rivas, an engineer and educator, founded DIY Girls in 2011 at the LA elementary school that she attended. Like girls in our program, Luz is a daughter of Mexican immigrants, born in Los Angeles and grew up in the Pacoima neighborhood of Los Angeles. Learning about computer science in 5th grade at her Los Angeles public school eventually led her to attend MIT where she graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Luz started her career as an electrical hardware engineer for Motorola in Chicago and worked in the STEM education field for nearly 15 years. Luz started the DIY Girls program at one school serving 32 girls with a minimal budget, donated supplies and dedicated volunteers and over 4 years grew the organization’s budget to over $400,000 allowing more than 500 girls at 10 schools to experience hands-on STEM in Los Angeles.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
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