History

in 2005, Whitewash and Wombat set out to create Technology Goddesses™️ Camp – to grow the next generation of gender-neutral STEM-literate leaders and STEM professionals, while creating a spirit of leadership and community where it’s safe and fun to be a geek

  • 2002 was the year Technology Goddesses was founded; not that many houses had computers
  • 2004 was the year Facebook was founded
  • 2005 was the first year of Technology Goddesses Camp
  • Smartphones did not exist until 2007
  • We taught geocaching on GPS devices
  • Every camper took digital pictures and we had to burn CDs to share them with parents
  • Not every parent had an email address
  • We used an internal dedicated server infrastructure for sharing across the laptops

Starting in 2005 and every year; 

  • We stress internet safety
  • We name ourselves and our camp locations after technical terms, and build word search and crossword puzzles to familiarize our campers with those terms
  • We choose crafts that reinforce technological learnings
  • We have opening and closing flag ceremonies every day to stress group spirit and reinforce key messages
  • We teach the campers how to edit and use their photos and videos digitally
  • We subtly stress computational thinking
  • Several years after we started camp, GSUSA came out with new badges; Geocaching, Digital Movie Making, and Entertainment
  • Several years after we defined our own Web Development badge, GSUSA came out with one•
  • We started using the cloud – Google folders – in 2009
  • Google Drive launched in 2012
  • In 2013 we added Sphero Robots to camp
  • Added more technology terms to our puzzles
  • Added painting crafts using the robots
  • In 2014 we added a Social Media team and
    the Technology Goddesses Studios to safely and responsibly populate our Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube channel. We’re a bit light right now on our LinkedIn presence
  • In 2015 we added programming to camp
  • We defined two coding badges
  • Added more terms to our puzzles
  • Had the campers “program the lab rats” to show algorithmic thinking
  • We started using ChromeBooks for cloud programming access
  • In 2016 we introduced engineering concepts to camp
  • Added more terms to our puzzles
  • Added crafts using circuits; such as copper tape name tags
  • Added Snap circuits
  • Had the campers physically model Ohm’s Law
  • Some campers earned the Ohm’s Law Badge
  • In 2018, GSUSA introduced new STEM badges including Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Think Like a Programmer, Think Like an Engineer, Cybersecurity, Think Like a Citizen Scientist
  • In 2018 we had a Gold Roundtable to share projects and encourage pursuit of Silver and Gold
  • We started Leadership Question Board to make all ages to think about a variety of questions
  • In 2019, Blitz produced a LinkedIn video encouraging the creation of LinkedIn profiles in high school

2020 brought the pandemic and with it some changes that we will maintain, some we hope we don’t have to

  • Planning became virtual, smaller groups, more often, more focused meetings
  • Guppy led training in small short program-level sessions
  • Overload and Excel had to select and package crafts by age group and by day, well in advance of camp
  • Sector made starters for every camper and started lanyards for each camper
  • Our units met in G-Suite Google Meets in the morning – supervised by our Air Traffic Controllers
  • We had a unit on deaf culture – Netflix and Orion visited units, we shared videos with a sign of the day and the GS Promise
  • Flag up and Flag down were emceed by Wombat and Whispering Pines, with Platypus when she could make it. We used Zoom, thanks to Baymax’s dad. After flag ceremonies, staff who didn’t have to run out for other meetings hung out for a bit – chatting like we do at lunch on the Crafts Buffer
  • In the afternoons we had several channels that campers could opt into; the Center for Applied Technology, the SpheroDome, the Cave of Code (with an advanced option on Wed and Thurs), the Crafts Buffer and the Lanyard Lair
  • We had a great Aide Development channel hosted by SEO
  • Blitz did a set of amazing interviews with STEM Role Models
  • Our Wednesday night activity was hosted by Whispering Pines and Wombat – we did some interactive trivia games and viewed several of our YouTube videos
  • We really sweated network bandwidth but it worked out fine.
  • Many campers have already expressed excitement at coming back next year
In 2021 we introduced Artificial Intelligence; we keep pace with the evolving technology and warn about bias and cyber safety