SDForum's Tech Women's Program has several events per year for girls. Here's the upcoming one (sold out, though):
http://www.sdforum.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Calendar.eventDetail&eventID=13548

This is the page for the Tech Women's Program and you can reach them through (techwomensgroup (at) sdforum.org).
http://sdforum.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=898&parentID=472&nodeID=1

I don't know the organizers personally but SDForum has an atmosphere of cooperation so I'd bet they'd be willing to work with you in some way.

I'm supportive and interested in GirlsLuvTech but have severe time constraints right now; I'll have to help in spurts as time permits.
Nancy Tubbs

One thing I've seen as successful for the younger set has been the Lego robotics (http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/fll/missions1.aspx#).
Although it's more popular with the boys, I'm seeing girls getting involved as well. The cool thing about the robotics is how tangible it is. The actions of the robot really reflect the actions of your program.

Another thing that may be useful for the age 12+ girls would be to include a mini toastmasters where they learn to produce and deliver presentations using Power point and other technologies. I know my 13 yr old daughter is really excited about using power point for her next presentation.

I just finished reading some literature about this, including a case study of the Click! Urban Adventure (the only reference to which I can find online is http://www.braincake.org/click.aspx?id=213). I think it's a great idea to have something like this, although one thing the various studies I've read (many of which are found in <i>Beyond Barbie & Mortal Kombat</i>) point to is that it's crucial to have a highly engaging framework surrounding the workshops--just getting a group of girls together and letting them play with technologies isn't always enough to draw them in. Putting things in the context of a game or a mystery to solve seems to do a much better job.

I'm torn about whether to teach something for this. On the one hand, I highly support the project and I think I could do a class in something technical (basic electronics, perhaps, or some software engineering). On the other hand, I haven't really worked with children before, much less tween girls, and I'd be really worried about my ability to keep them engaged.

Hi Donna, I currently have session material for facebook application and game programming which uses PHP/HTML/MySQL/AJAX type web dev a lot. I normally provide tutorials which I coded to regular programmers and game developers during these sessions to save them some time with the basics.

A lot of females like facebook to begin with so maybe this would appeal. Normally I have to set people up on an application server beforehand and I bring refreshments so I charge about $10 for 21/2 hours of instruction just to cover my costs, assuming I can get a free room with decent wifi to teach in. Let me know what you think if you like, the site for this is www.socialgamefest.com. Possibly I could do some sessions at Hacker Dojo if you thought it might make sense.

I happen to be female, and while most people interested in the sessions are professional males, for young female students my gender may be helpful since then they can envision themselves more easily involved and see if they might enjoy programming. I hadn't really thought about that before however it may help in this situation. Either that or they will make fun of me as a nerdy female. :D -Ann

I did FIRST robotics in high school, and mentored a Lego League team for a while too - I have only excellent things to say about those programs. Highly recommend.

One of the things that kept me into building stuff was taking a drafting class in middle school - learning about architecture, precision, accuracy and attention to detail, and building the most stable popsicle stick bridge in my class inspired me to keep going and I ended up taking a few woodshop classes as well as doing Robotics.

HTML would be a good thing to teach as well - I think I learned in early high school or late middle school, and had a BLAST making my own websites for my stories and poems, and switching everything up every few months when I got bored.

I just joined the site and was excited to come across this post! I'm actually in the process of setting up a program in conjunction with Iridescent Learning (www.iridescentlearning.org) and Girls in Tech (girlsintech.net) that will give high-school age girls hands-on experience with high-tech entrepreneurship. If you're interested in learning more or interested in getting involved please send me a message at anuranjita at gmail. It would be great to get everyone involved!

Thanks for all your comments, I will be in touch this weekend. Sorry for delay in responding!

Donna M Snow, Founder
GirlsLuvTech

Donna -
Great idea. I'm really glad to see the Hacker Dojo involved with supporting girls in exploring technology. As a mother of three sons, I can appreciate the need for co-ed youth programs. However, as a female technologist, it is alarming to see how low the statistics are for girls in pursuing technology careers.

Just look at the kind of games that are being promoted for girls: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2456/4002407705_1ab27d71e0_o.jpg Ugh!

Another resource of technical women is CodeChix (http://codechix.org). Their October meeting is held at Hacker Dojo. This is one Geeky bunch! I'm sure that they can be a source of inspiration. [BTW: I'm a member of this group too and would be happy to help out.]

Laura Klemme