Making a Play for Equity: How DeKalb County School District Has Embraced the Girls Who Game Program

The Girls Who Game program began in Canada and has served as a global model for designing STEM programming that helps target underrepresented populations find their interests in STEM-related activities. The pitch is simple: increasing the number of girls involved in gaming will increase the number of girls interested in the processes, mentoring, and gaming ecosystem. 

Successful implementation requires collaboration, motivation, and the right tools. The outstanding news is that DeKalb County School District has worked with partners like Dell Technologies and Microsoft and is embracing tools, such as Minecraft: Education Edition and Microsoft Teams, to facilitate equitable access to technology through the Girls Who Game program.

From idea to action—enabling equitable access to all girls

Before joining Dell Technologies as a K–12 Education Strategist, Cari Warnock worked in public education for more than 20 years. Part of her responsibilities include supporting technology-based programming for K–12 students across the nation. Cari’s background gives her a unique position to talk with teachers, administrators, and community partners about the role that technology can play in helping advance their educational missions. 

Cari hosts monthly networking meetings to assess the needs of students, teachers, and districts to find ways where she can make meaningful contributions to their efforts to provide a twenty-first-century education. When Girls Who Game was mentioned to the DeKalb leadership team, the group was immediately intrigued and wanted to learn more about resource requirements and the model from Canada. 

Andrea Wright, STEM Coordinator for the DeKalb County School District, was responsible for helping facilitate the program and navigate the implementation process. Andrea found support from Dr. Paul Camick, Director of Career Technical and Agriculture Education (CTAE) and Dr. Kyia Clark, former principal and Executive Director in the Division of Information and Instructional Technology within the district. Dr. Camick and Dr. Clark were two of the many people who immediately saw the potential of the Girls Who Game program and were willing to help facilitate it. 

According to Dr. Clark, the program’s success is, in part, due to the support it received at all levels of the district. As she explains, “with a district as large as ours, we must come together and collaborate to succeed. 

The spirit of collaboration

Partner support extended to include key community partners like Fernbank Science Center and industry partner Dell Technologies. According to Andrea, “Dell Technologies’ willingness to supply devices to us made a huge difference, especially launching something like this in the middle of a pandemic when we were trying to keep school going. Partnering with Dell ensured that there was equity of access to devices, which is essential given the goals of the program.” 

Access to devices is essential to getting the program going, and Andrea goes on to explain that Dell Technologies went above and beyond devices. As she notes, “the Dell Technologies team functions as a thought partner as well—the size of our district presents specific challenges, and they have been trustworthy advisors that help us strategize how to make the program work for a district as big and diverse as ours.” In Andrea’s estimation, “the support we've received from the Dell Technologies team has been crucial in helping propel the Girls Who Game program from an idea to a successful program that is growing across the district.”

From Cari’s perspective, Dell Technologies is invested in partnerships like the one with DeKalb County School District because the metrics of success are more deeply rooted than how many devices are being used. As Cari explains, “we want to see the girl-centric ecosystem in action, the authentic application, and the opportunities for mentoring. We have different ways that we track those things, but at its core, we are interested in the number of lives impacted and that often means much more than just the students participating in the program.” 

A commitment to the future of equity

During the summer of 2021, the Girls Who Game program partnered with Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Summer program participants were challenged to use Minecraft: Education Edition to create a new exhibit inspired by multiple Fernbank Science Center exhibits. The girls dove into designing a virtual space that mirrored key parts of the center. Using their research skills and the expertise of a Fernbank Science Center exhibit designer and beekeeper, one team of girls included key scientific information about the life, behavior, and importance of bees in their design. They also went as far as inviting a virtual speaker, the President of the Georgia Bee Association, who recorded a message that is contained in the Minecraft exhibit. 

According to Andrea, “the amount of knowledge the girls have about bees today is incredible. Once we presented the challenge to the girls, they embraced it and their interest and knowledge exploded. They were engaging with community experts, talking to mentors, and really doing amazing work.” This is just one example of the challenges that the Girls Who Game program has conquered in Minecraft: Education Edition. 

The key, for Andrea and other program supporters, is that the game-based challenge invites the girls to be broader participants in their schools and to think of the power of STEM to reformulate their lived experiences. As Andrea explains, “the research shows that historically, girls, students of color, and students with disabilities are all underrepresented in STEM across the board. So, any opportunity that we can give to our girls to expose them to STEM content, to introduce role models, and to develop skills like coding and computer science is a win for us.” 

To say that the program has been a win is a dramatic understatement. In the first year, the DeKalb County School District started with three schools utilizing the Girls Who Game Program. By year two, demand has already grown to fourteen schools and the summer program with Fernbank Science Center. Now, the girls are invested in making sure that the program is available to them as they progress through their education. 

Forward to district-wide success

If its Canadian predecessor is any indication, the Girls Who Game program is likely to continue to innovate and grow in DeKalb County. In Canada, there are peer educators and peer mentors who provide a new advantage to the program as young women are given opportunities to teach and mentor other young girls. Additionally, the current Minecraft challenges are limited to individual schools, but the hope is to start designing district-wide challenges that would invite students to re-envision even larger educational structures that service a wider range of students. 

The partnership and initiative are part of a larger investment in STEAM education across the district, with a heavy emphasis on getting the technology in place to improve learning outcomes and the overall student experience. The district makes heavy use of Microsoft 365, including Microsoft Teams and OneNote, to foster interaction and prepare students for the future. Getting more students engaged, and more students that might not traditionally see themselves in technology or science track, is a big part of what motivates DeKalb’s faculty and staff.

Girls Who Game offers an amazing example of what can happen when technologies from Microsoft Education, like Minecraft: Education Edition and Microsoft Teams, come together with technology partners like Dell in the service of the passions and commitments of educators like those in DeKalb County. As a tool for promoting equity across STEM courses, and to engage students more fully with material and the process of learning, it’s no surprise that students and educators across the district are wanting more.