March has been an awesome month for us at Future Transformation filled with exciting events that made a big impact! Let’s talk about what we’ve been up to.
For International Women’s Day, we teamed up with Digital Makers and Raspberry Pi to host events at Bradford College. Our goal was to help young women improve their digital skills and feel more confident in the tech world. We had fun workshops on coding and even gave tips on careers and CVs.
But it wasn’t just about learning tech stuff. We also tackled online bullying in our workshops. We want to make the internet a safer place for everyone.
Here are some highlights of #IWD:
-On March 4th, International Women’s Day events began with a Raspberry Pi Foundation-led ‘Experience AI’ session. About 30 students aged 14-16 learned about AI biases, observed AI recognition accuracy with Google DeepMind, and created basic machine learning models.
-On March 5th, the same Raspberry Pi session continued with two sessions for computing students from Bradford College, aged 16 and above. Each session had about 30 students, with many participating enthusiastically. Some students even returned from the previous day’s session!
-On March 7th, three CV writing workshops and three careers workshops were conducted by our CEO Tim Rogers and Jen Shaw from Digital Makers. The careers workshops sparked interesting discussions about students’ career goals and aspirations, accompanied by a talk from Tim about Future Transformation’s aims. The CV writing workshops provided advice on crafting CVs and cover letters, tailored for students under 16 with limited qualifications.
Throughout the day, we gathered quantitative data from 23 students through an online questionnaire. This included questions about the skills they felt they gained, attitudes toward STEM careers, and perceptions of gender differences in STEM capabilities. Results showed that most students believed they acquired job-related skills and recognized the importance of digital skills but felt there should be more education on technology. Additionally, many students were neutral about gender differences in technical roles and their confidence in pursuing STEM careers. These insights will inform future research, including a digital skills-based report slated for release in August 2024.
On March 8th, we wrapped up our International Women’s Day events with two workshops at Bradford College. The first, titled ‘Do you like Andrew Tate – Can you defend what he’s about?’, and the second, ‘Staying away from toxic online behaviour’, each engaged around 50 students aged 14 and above.
The first workshop delved into students’ perceptions of Andrew Tate, exploring their knowledge and opinions on his controversial beliefs. While some, particularly females, expressed negative views, labelling him as “vile” and an “exploiter”, a few defended him, citing his intelligence and business advice. Interestingly, some students doubted the accuracy of media portrayal, suggesting incomplete coverage. This session highlighted the need to address the influence of such figures on young males and the importance of media literacy education.
Then, we jumped into British Science Week, where the theme was all about Time. We took students on a journey through space with Space Art and talked about Time Travel.
Highlights:
-On Monday 11th of March we created a Game storyboard with 40 students at St Bede’s & St Josephs Catholic College.
-On Wednesday 13th March we were at the Academy of St. James talking about Time Travel to 90 students Y5!
-Thursday 14th March we had 80 students Year 7& 8 at St Bede’s & St Josephs Catholic College were the workshops included:
- Sorry the AI did my homework!,
- The magic of Object detection & What can a computer learn from your voice?
- Brain Games: Motor and Memory Assessments. A fun, interactive workshop to explores Hand-eye coordination, Memory, Reaction time and Language skills,
- Unleashing your inner brain scientist! A Dragon’s Den EEG Pitch empowering students to generate ideas and involve them directly in the scientific research process,
- SpaceArt.