Code Girls United Tech Trio team from Kalispell has made the Senior Semi-Finals and the Coding Caribous from Kalispell and Billings has made the Beginners Semi-Finals of the International Technovation Challenge. 

PRESS RELEASE: Code Girls United Senior Division Tech Trio team from Kalispell and the Beginners Division Coding Caribous from Kalispell and Billings are Semi-Finalists in the International Technovation Competition! 

Code Girls United Tech Trio team from Kalispell has made the Senior Semi-Finals and the Coding Caribous from Kalispell and Billings has made the Beginners Semi-Finals of the International Technovation Challenge. 

The International Technovation Challenge started in 2010, and has over 20,000 worldwide participants in the online competition. 

Tech Trio:  The Tech Trio team of Emma Anderson, Isabelle Ashley, and Makayla Davenport developed Found.  Found helps combat is human trafficking. Their  inspiration for Found came from local news pertaining to the problems many people face with human trafficking, particularly in indigenous communities. 

Many people are trafficked and have limited resources, particularly teens and young adults, as well as the indegenous community. Found will help people become aware of missing people near them, report suspicious activity relating to human trafficking, prevent teens and young adults from being trafficked online, and identify the signs of human trafficking. Found covers all fifty United States, and the report feature can be used anywhere with an internet connection.

• The missing map feature uses a FirebaseDB to send and retrieve reports from any user with the app. The reports include the missing person’s age and height along with the last known location and other details.
• The report feature lets users report suspicious activity directly to the National Human Trafficking Hotline or local 911 authorities. 
• The simulation feature helps prepare teens and young adults for online trafficking threats, such as manipulation and luring. This feature simulates a social media site called Sparque, where a potential friend tries to contact the user. The simulation will take the user from making the decision to accept the friend request from the human trafficker posing as a potential friend, to deciding whether or not to accept a dangerous offer made by the human trafficker. The simulation will help educate the user about the different ways a human trafficker will try to gain the users trust to help prevent the user from being trafficked online. 
• The eduational feature includes statistics that help expose the problem of human trafficking, and other helpful information. 

You can watch their Pitch video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3QN9TLdl8M         Or their Demonstration video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3siwbSjPiI  

Coding Caribous:   The Coding Caribou team of Maryn Hobby, Peyton Norris, Kiara Van Slayke, and Evangeline McCormick developed Communication Station. They participated in one of Code Girls United’s online classes that included girls from all over the state of Montana. 

The Coding Caribous noticed how people struggle to communicate with friends, people, or people to join in with others. Communication Station is designed to fix these problems making the world feel safer and more welcoming for children.  The Coding Caribous did extensive market research surveys to find out what features that other children would like to see in the Communication Station app

Communication Station App includes:

A guide of how the app works, an indoor game button, an outdoor game button, and a communication button. If you click on either of the game buttons, you are presented with 12 games. If you click on the communication button, it has tips on how to make friends. The games and communication information is to help children feel more self confident and encourage them to participate and communicate with others. The features are based on the statistics they gathered from their market surveys.

You can watch their Pitch video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1ZMuKWDSRE     Or their Demonstration video at:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSHlDGh0dWA

Code Girls United is extremely proud of the hard work the Tech Trio and Coding Caribous team put into their creation. Our after school program combines real-world coding for young girls in fourth to eighth grade with practical business skills. And, our approach works: program participants have won scholarship money, statewide competitions, and won the Congressional App Challenge!

Studies have shown that 80% of girls participating in programs like Code Girls United have increased self-confidence in their ability to solve problems.  Additionally, 58% of participating girls go on to pursue further Computer Science or technical education. 

The Code Girls United program runs year-long.and is expanding throughout Montana. If you would like to learn how to bring  the Code Girls United program to your area, school, or organization, please contact Marianne Smith at [email protected]  And please visit http://www.codegirlsunited.org  to learn more, or to support Code Girl’s United.

Tech Trio from left to right:  Emma Anderson, Isabelle Ashley, and Makayla Davenport

Sample Screen shots from Found:

Coding Caribous from left top to right  Kiara Van Slayke, Maryn Hobby  Bottom left to right: Peyton Norris, Evangeline McCormick

Communication Station App Screens and Team Logo: