Result: How to Develop a Culture of Coding for the Future: A Case Study of the megaGEMS Coding Academy.

Girls in Engineering, Mathematics, and Science (GEMS) is a free after-school club and summer camp for girls interested in exploring their career in various Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. GEMS is the outreach program for the Autonomous Vehicle Systems Research and Education Laboratories. GEMS programs are designed to educate young women about STEM by providing hands-on experiential learning in robotics, programming, and research [1]. GEMS is divided into two main programs: miniGEMS for rising fifth through eighth-grade middle school students, and megaGEMS for rising ninth through twelfth-grade high school students [2]. miniGEMS focuses on robotic challenges and innovative STEM curricula. In contrast, megaGEMS focuses on independent research through two programs: Research Camp (RC), a 4-week program for ninth and tenth-grade students, and the Apprenticeship Program, an 8-week college-level research program for eleventh and twelfth-grade students. All GEMS programs prioritize serving Title I schools, rural, and students from low-income [3], [4] areas of San Antonio and Bexar County. All participants in GEMS explore and investigate hands-on lab experience in the science of autonomy through ground and air robotics, which helps them build the important skills essential to obtaining college-level degrees and readiness for workforce development [5]. GEMS aligns its foundation to address the lack of opportunities for marginalized groups such as race/ethnicity, gender, language, and socioeconomic status but not limited to. GEMS equitable and inclusive practices provide engineering and computer science opportunities to communities in need. This paper will highlight Coding Academy, a feature of the megaGEMS program that looks to empower its students with the coding knowledge necessary to complete their faculty-guided research projects. Coding Academy supplies daily 1-hour coding lessons to all participants within the megaGEMS program [2]. Focusing specifically on teaching the fundamentals of the Python Programming Language. The function of Coding Academy under the GEMS program; however, is to supply early and effective exposure to coding and programming skills through student-led instruction, and project-based learning. As coding has become significantly important to the next generation of workforce this program provides beyond what is available in a typical classroom. With these methods in mind, the Coding Academy hopes to encourage analytical thinking, effective communication, and foster a problem-solving mindset in all its students which will extend from their studies into their professional lives and encourage pursing of STEM degrees in a 2 year or 4-year program [1], [5]. Coding Academy is managed by the Computational Intelligence Lab (CIL), part of the Autonomous Vehicle Systems Research and Education Laboratories, consisting of undergraduate student research assistants. The undergraduate students are made up of engineering and computer science majors from the university. These students are referred to the PI of the lab based on their level of professionalism in the classroom, self-efficacy, time management, and overall wellrounded student. The undergraduate students are interviewed and then finally hired as student employees of the lab. In addition, the research assistants receive aid from the GEMS director. The curriculum of Coding Academy has traditionally centered around the basics of programming in Python, with emphasis on the development of solid fundamental programming skills [6], [7]. In the latest iteration of Coding Academy, the curriculum emphasized multiple-day projects and teamwork to capitalize on the student's ability to teach one another and help them keep information learned in these sessions. For example, the curriculum draws inspiration from popular studying methods, the Feynman technique, and spaced repetition as well as aligning with Texas educational standards for high school students. Alongside highlighting Coding Academy, this paper will also explore the GEMS programs for females to investigate STEM pathways, the effectiveness of the teaching techniques, exploration of the importance of teaching coding to students, surveying the outcomes, and the continued work of the GEMS programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]