Code Girls United put on a high-tech fashion show in Kalispell Dec.16, with young teens from across Montana coming together to model programming and design feats.  

“This was an incredible project for the girls to combine their programming skills with hardware,” said Marianne Smith, founder and CEO of Code Girls.  

“As any technology person can tell you, there is always a challenge with hardware and software projects, with broken wires, lack of power capacity to light the LEDs, and integrating the software and hardware together,” Smith said.  

Volunteer teachers Amy Moore from Peak6 and Begum Turam taught the girls Python programming during the first month of the class.   

The girls had their choice of programming their projects in Python, Javascript or Blockcode. They used a Microbit Microcontroller (IoT) to create different lighting displays with programmable LED strips. They used the Microbit to rotate, shift, and use ranges of LEDs in the strip, the accelerometer built into the strip, the sound recognition function and the color control.  

The girls were tasked to use their creative problem-solving skills to decide on a project theme and how to program the LED strips on a hat.   

The girls had their choice of music, and each created a video with their explanation of their project including the inspiration, design process, technical aspects, challenges and future plans.  

Participants from the valley walked the runway and played their videos in the background, while remote participants from Bozeman and Billings used videos.  

The judges for the project were Laura Garbacz, current Code Girls board director, and Beth Schecher, former co-founder and co-director.  

The judges chose the Electric Squid project created by Sage Rohweder from Billings as the winner. 

Rohweder’s squid hat had LED strips that hung from the hat like squid arms. Her choice of music was AC/DC's Thunderstruck.  Every time the words in the song were Thunder, the lights would change color. Rohweder’s prize was a pair of Ray Ban META glasses donated by META. Additionally, HOKA provided each of the girls with a pair of tennis shoes.  

Other participants from the Flathead included Ava Belston – Jellyfish, Katie Valentine – Willow, Savannah Ackley - Colorful Cowboy, Sylvia Blair – Snowman, Willow Truman – Circus, and Lainey Kneeland –The Crown of Persephone, and from Billings, Maryn Hobby – Marvelous Maryn's Magical Hat, and from Bozeman, Claire Becker – Tennis.  

All Code Girls United classes around the valley and throughout the state are provided at no cost. These technical educational opportunities from beginner to advanced classes provide a technical foundation for girls during a time when only 0.7% of Montana girls are taking high school computer science classes.