Curriculum

Mid adult African American man is teaching a young Hispanic girl in a public school library. Student and teacher are using robotics kits. Diverse students are working on a project in background.

"According to a 2018 report from Ruling Our eXperiences (ROX), girls' interest in STEM careers increases 16% during between 5th and 9th grades, but their confidence in their abilities in math and science declines 15% over the same period. That's almost the same amount! We need to empower girls, particularly girls of color, with confidence in their computer science abilities at a young age, so that as they get older, they continue to have faith in themselves as computer scientists. High school is too late. K-8 are the pivotal years."

-Dr. Lena Furci, founder and executive director of HER Academy

Curriculum

Each course includes

  • 3-4 project-based learning modules that allow students to pursue their interests while ensuring they meet the learning outcomes.
  • Robust lesson and activity banks to reinforce concepts and challenge students.
  • Flexibility to allow teachers to adapt the curriculum to any school schedule.

Professional development

Our comprehensive training and follow-up working sessions empower any teacher to become a computer scientist and to teach and adapt our curriculum to their students’ needs.

Our teachers also receive ongoing support from peers and HER Academy coaches throughout the school year.

Materials and costs

  • Cost per student includes curriculum license, teacher professional development, and materials. It varies by implementation. Cost will not be a barrier for any school.
Group Of Teenage Students Collaborating On Project In CS Class

Information Design

Students collaborate to solve problems through the design process, conduct user research on a problem their school faces, and analyze and present their findings in creative ways, paying attention to design as a tool for effective communication. Students complete a progressive series of block-based coding projects framed around their interests and passions. Completing these projects instills foundational programming concepts for future text-based programming.

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Female Student Learning Coding In School

Web Development

Students work their way through a series of projects, relying on documentation to figure out how to code and style a webpage using HTML and CSS and how to make webpages interactive using JavaScript. Students practice encryption and other digital security techniques and work in small groups to research how their data is used commercially. As a final project, students build websites for their classmates to “hack.”

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Website development concept. Group of developers and designers create website. Teamwork, creation of an online store or blog. Copywriting, uploading media content to web page. Flat vector illustration

Web App Design

Students work through a series of projects, relying on documentation to figure out how to code and style a multi-page website. Students use professional-level software to design and prototype websites and web applications, paying special attention to issues of bias and accessibility in the design process. As a final project, students program a web-based application to access public data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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Interested in a custom program?

In addition to our curriculum designed for general implementation, HER Academy offers customizable options for schools with unique needs. Whether you want to develop and implement an elite program, integrate computer science across your curriculum, or specialize in serving a specific neuro-diverse learning style, we're here to partner with you.