Teaching girls to code at School 21!
We started Erase All Kittens because we recognised a need to address the gender imbalance in the tech industry from the ground up, to encourage girls to become as interested in coding as boys. Given that children as young as 6 develop ideas that girls are less interested in Computer Science and Engineering than boys, it’s essential that we smash this stereotype at an early age! Our mission was to come up with the most fun and engaging way to teach kids as young as 7 transferable digital skills so that they can code and create on the web, like a developer. Erase All Kittens was born and has grown into a community of over 170,000 players worldwide — more than we could have ever imagined and a continued inspiration for us to create more levels in the game teaching future skills.
Students at School 21 in Stratford, East London were one of the first focus groups we tested Erase All Kittens with, and we received great feedback. So we were especially excited to visit School 21 again this year to beta-test the new version of EAK with over 30 new coding challenges.
We spent the day with students aged 8–12 and their teacher Tasneem, trialling the new game which has better graphics, more strange and fantastical creatures, eye-spy enemies, blip coins and collectible kitten cards.
Here’s what students said after playing:
“I have never coded before but I do like playing games, this is why I loved playing Erase All Kittens —it was fun and educational at the same time. I really like the characters, especially rescuing all the different kittens. I think the game is addictive and I would definitely play it again. It’s designed in a way that girls would want to play.”
–Amara, 10
“I loved playing this game! It’s fun and I enjoyed the part where we had to write code to get to the next levels, and I learned about HTML and CSS. I want to play the game more because it helps me to learn to code in a fun way.”
– Sofia, 9
“I think EAK is a really really good game. It is interesting, it has a fun story and it makes me want to learn to code. I think the graphics are really nice and I would tell my friends to play it too.”
- Isabella, 10
Feedback like this is what inspired us to bootstrap and carry out years of R&D — allowing us to build a technically innovative game teaching transferable skills whilst inspiring girls to code and create.
The results from our visit were — 80% of 20 students aged 8–12 completed all levels unassisted during beta-testing and all of them wanted to learn more about coding after playing (half of them being girls). An amazing achievement for us knowing the difference learning digital skills can make to the future careers of young children, now that these skills are in demand in almost every profession.
School 21 is now one of our Educational Development Partners, working with us to develop the most engaging gameplay and lesson plans to teach children to code and create. The school, designed for the 21st century, aims to empower students with the skills for the future — a mission at the heart of EAK.
Used regularly in over 3,000 schools worldwide, 100% of teachers using our coding platform have said that it enables them to become facilitators of autonomous, independent learning — there is a far higher level of engagement from girls and boys. Our mission is to help close the gender gap in tech, and show the world that coding is for everyone!
Erase All Kittens is a revolutionary online game designed to give all students the confidence and skills to code and create. Our offering includes 5+ hours of lesson plans supporting the UK Computing Curriculum, and is loved by students and teachers worldwide.
Now with more coding challenges, blip coins, bouncy mushrooms, evil eye-spy enemies and collectible kitten cards, and at just £24.99 per year for home-use. You can check out the first (free) levels of our new coding game here!
Thanks so much,
Team E.A.K.
