BOZEMAN — Ever wish there was an app where you could make an ice cream sundae with cherries and sprinkles? Well, it exists, and it was designed by middle schoolers.
“I also made an ice cream shop,” said Thea Norstrand, showing her app. “This one, you would get to, like, use the code to create different types of ice cream and there’d be, like, different challenges.”
Thea Norstrand is a seventh grader who’s been part of Code Girls United going on three years.
Pictured: Thea Norstrand coding (credit: MTN News)
“I like being able to, like, create anything I kind of want to with the tools that I’ve been given,” said Norstrand. She showed MTN the first app she ever created, which was a picture of a dog that you could change by tapping the screen.
Norstrand is one of several fourth through eighth graders in Montana who are part of Code Girls United, which is an organization that teaches girls how to code and eventually present an app for scholarship money.
“The second half of the year, they use the skills they learned and create their own apps based on community problems,” said Isabelle Ashley, a freshman at MSU studying computer science. Ashley has been part of Code Girls United since she was 10-years-old.
Pictured: Isabelle Ashley teaching a Code Girls United session (credit: MTN)
“It was my first experience with computer science and that’s how I, like, really fell in love with it,” said Ashley.
She’s also the teacher for the Code Girls United session held at MSU every Wednesday. “Last year, my team that I taught got third place in our app competition, so that was pretty exciting,” said Ashley.
In Bozeman, the class meets at four locations: MSU, Chief Joseph Middle School, Meadowlark Elementary School, and Sacajawea Middle School. MTN’s Esha Walia tagged along the first session at MSU on Wednesday, where the girls participated in an icebreaker involving a beach ball. The girls also took part in an activity where they guided someone on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with very specific directions. It was meant to teach the students about algorithms.
WATCH: Code Girls United inspires MT girls to lead in computer science and coding
For students like Norstrand, Code Girls United is an entry way to pursuing a career in computer science.
“It’s super fun," she said.
If you’re interested in signing up for Code Girls United, visit this link. Sign-ups are open until September 28th.
