New Justice HS STEM Lab

This was the last week of work for many of our remaining high school and undergraduate interns, and our partner/collaborator Lisa Gunther invited them to help build out the new maker space in the Library/Media Center of Justice HS, one of the most interesting and famously diverse schools in the country (featured in National Geographic magazine), and the school many of our interns attend. It was a great way to end their Summer.

Boolean Girls Recognized

from ArlNow:

Arlington based-startup Boolean Girl won a contest held in New York City last week judged by Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec.

The Small Biz Challenge, hosted by The UPS Store and Inc. Magazine, tests startup founders like Boolean’s Ingrid Sanden on how quickly they can respond to a range of business-related challenges. As the grand winner, Sanden took home $12,000 and will receive some additional publicity in Inc.
Sanden’s company sells classroom kits that help get girls interested in coding, and she says the prize money will help launch a new add-on kit to teach girls about how to program sensors — like motion sensors. So far, she said the company has received good feedback: “kids are pretending that they’re spies and building all kinds of spy-catchers with their sensor kit.”

Last week’s contest required Sanden to win a game of five questions which she says was “nerve-wracking” but credited her experience as a violinist to helping be comfortable under pressure.
One question that helped her win required her to respond to a good tweet and a bad Yelp review as a business owner in less than 30 seconds. The other was the final question, which required her to