Now in its sixth year, the RISE Awards support organizations that engage girls and underrepresented students in extracurricular computer science programs. This collective effort to build the next generation of digital leaders will reach students as Google contributes $1.5 million through the Google RISE Awards to 37 organizations in 17 countries this year. RISE partners represent a community of passionate and vibrant educators and advocates. They are change-making educators who excite students about computing through extracurricular outreach.

“As a company started by two students with a curiosity for creating technology, we recognize the role Google can play in exposing youth to computer science. It is critical for students, particularly girls, underrepresented minorities and students of low economic background, to recognize they have the power to not only consume technology — but create it. We’re invigorated by the work of the 2015 RISE Award winners and look forward to partnering with them to inspire the next generation of computer scientists around the world,” says Roxana Shirkhoda, K-12 outreach program manager at Google and the project lead on RISE Awards.

For WIEP, Science Buddies, and girlSPARC™, this award provides numerous programming opportunities for students. Three immediate goals have been identified: bring Science Buddies’ unique new Raspberry Pi Interactive Coding Kit (Raspberry PICK) to a new market of girls who participate in out-of-school settings; gain valuable best practices for using the kit in the out-of-school arenas; and enrich the computer science curriculum of two dynamic out-of-school providers - Purdue WIEP, and girlSPARC™. Raspberry PICK engages students ages 8-16 in easily diving into coding and circuit building to make interactive art and games.

“Science Buddies has a firm understanding of how this kit works in home settings but with the help of this award, there is now potential to expand the kit’s impact and encourage more students, particularly girls who may not select this kit on their own, to gain computer science skills,” says Shirkhoda. “Purdue WIEP is an ideal partner for identifying the best practices of this expansion, as they have achieved a long history of running successful out-of-school programs to engage students with STEM topics they may otherwise not consider.”

Together, Science Buddies and WIEP will design, implement and iterate on a curriculum for using the Raspberry PICK in several of WIEP’s existing pre-college outreach programs. The integration of Raspberry PICK has allowed WIEP to add computer science to their already successful I2R program by offering a summer session in June 2015.

The curriculum developed will be further tested by girlSPARC™, a group founded by two Purdue University Engineering alumnae and based in Mountain View, California. The group will work with second grade through sixth grade students, which will broaden the age range and geographic location and allow for further proposals on best practices.