Video

The Digital Youth Divas (DYD) is a blended online and face- to- face program developed and run by the Digital Youth Network at DePaul University. The program, led by PI’s Nichole Pinkard and Sheena Erete, is designed to engage girls in Chicago, particularly those from underserved communities, with computational circuitry and programming through fabrication and design. This video submission shares the story of one cohort of girls over the course of two months as they go through a curricular unit of the DYD program focused on electronic fabrication..

DYD is purposefully designed to impact girls’ STEM identities, learning and knowledge outcomes, and their sense of community. The intention is to engage girls with situational components that offer opportunities to develop self-directed engagement over time. The primary program components include (1) self-paced, hands-on, project-based learning; (2) an online social learning network where girls access instructions and resources, upload project work, and interact with others; (3) adult mentorship on and offline; (4) original multimedia narrative stories with diverse characters that prompt work and conversation; and (5) connections to external opportunities around the city that make visible next steps to broaden or deepen STEM knowledge.

digitalyouthnetwork.org/divas/