The Girls Tinker Academy is expanding in 2021 to include a spring break offering for up to 48 middle schoolers in Sonoma County to engage in maker pedagogy and encourage the exploration and development of technical, mathematical and artistic abilities.
The free academy, which incorporates both virtual and hands-on components, is aimed at introducing participants to coding, modeling, crafting, sewing and building. Led by Natalie Hobson, mathematics associate professor at Sonoma State University, the participants take part in fun activities and challenges both together on Zoom and independently off Zoom.
While the program typically takes place in a state-of-the-art maker space at Sonoma State University, Girls Tinker Academy pivoted to a virtual academy last summer and had great results, inspiring the spring break offering this year to help keep kids…