The Essex Steamettes are girls who like being creative with science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM + A for arts = STEAM). They started to meet online during lockdown and in person events including the British Science Festival, local Raspberry Jams and some girls only coding activities. This page lists some of the activties they did.

Online activities for girls aged ~10-19yrs old who want to learn creative coding, engineering, digital art and the application of technology to solve problems associated with climate change, pollution, ageing. The girls run activities for all online and in person as well.
See below for joining details, photos and videos.

Join us for coding digital art / animation, drones / LED displays, social care robotics, environment / space science and more. We’ll have occasional visits by women in tech and we take part in other activities as audience, speakers and workshop organisers or to get help and network.

Chelmsford Raspberry Jam

Saturday 9th October 10.30am-3pm
Chelmsford Central Library

The Essex Steamettes girls have recruited lots of new girls. Coding and making workshops and chance to share projects, meet mentors and each other.

Details and booking here.

Chelmsford Fringe Festival – Makerday

Saturday 29th November 10.30am – 3pm
Chelmsford Central Library

Part of the launch of the Chelmsford Fringe Festival.

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In person: She Heals Sci-Art exhibition

Sat 12pm-5pm 26th June The Old Waterworks, Southend
Drones, bee viruses, LED hives with Lily Hunter Green

Girls 11yrs+ are invited to workshops 12pm-3pm to include 3D design, creating virtual reality worlds, space science, interactive musical glove.
Booking and more details click here.

Short video of "She Heals" Sci-Art project with the #EssexSteamettes and @lhhg1990 remotely coding drones in Python and viewing their flights over video.

Installation exhibition at @old_waterworks on 26th June @ace_southeast @EssexBookFest #GirlsWhoCode https://t.co/f3pdZ0DN6G

— Southend Raspberry Jam (@SouthendRPiJams) June 6, 2021

 

Fantastic meeting with @andysc, @IBM CTO – UK&I showing the #RJam #EssexSteamettes his Internet of Things projects

LEDs, 3D printing, Glow Orbs, lithophanes, MQTT, Cheerlights, @NodeRED, VR and more visualising live weather, ferry/bus locations, power use data over the internet pic.twitter.com/T3jwJaiiHW

— Southend Raspberry Jam (@SouthendRPiJams) January 13, 2021

 

Fantastic first online meeting for girls aged 9yr-19yrs.

Creating digital art whilst learning Python with @edu_blocks, AI recognising "alien languages" with @MLforKids, talks, projects, collaborations

Book for Thursday 11am: https://t.co/mQlEPYQm5d#Essex2020 @essex_2020 #RJam pic.twitter.com/Jn4hhPtcvp

— Southend Raspberry Jam (@SouthendRPiJams) April 27, 2020

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An online meetup for girls who love being creative with science, technology and engineering.

Make friends, learn new things, work on projects together, find out about tech careers, help others learn, show your projects to others, get feedback and help.

The application form asks about ability and interests and if you’d like to talk or show your project (screen sharing and/or webcam) and we’ll flesh out the activities based on that feedback.

We’ll look at an easy way to start learning Python with Edu Blocks, creating animations and using sensors on the Raspberry Pi computers on the International Space Station, pollution sensing, longer term collaboration and more. Tuesdays 5pm and Sundays 2pm will be doing the wearable tech glove course with 4 EssexSteamettes taking part in the competition by making video diaries of their progress.

Click here to watch one of the Essex Steamettes Youtube videos and see the their playlist:

Tuesdays 5pm/Thursdays 11am/Sundays 2pm @openuk_uk MiniMu @microbit_edu glove competition with @NKCoding and @ac_coder entering and helping the other #EssexSteamettes@essex_2020 @imogenheap @helenleigh @whaleygeek @RedHat @github @pimoroni #RJam #Essex2020 #GirlsWhoCode #STEAM pic.twitter.com/Kw4dTThWqZ

— Southend Raspberry Jam (@SouthendRPiJams) June 3, 2020

https://twitter.com/eliseains/status/1253324582859071488/

Experimenting with turtle patterns during today’s @SouthendRPiJams meetup, using @edu_blocks πŸ™‚

 

Really excited to be part of this! I’m giving a talk about AstroPi and am so excited to meet all the girls attending. πŸ’» https://t.co/KwnflG0i2S

— Lowena Hull (@LowenaHull) April 22, 2020

Lowena wrote the code to turn the Astro Pi into an mp3 player which played the Sonic Pi tune created in Southend which Tim Peake tweeted when he was on the International Space Station. Details here.

Just listened to @ac_coder 14 years old from #Essexsteamettes on @PrestonRJam explain #wearabletech brilliantly & how excited they are to move on to building @helenleigh's @mimu_gloves on mircobit. Well done girls x

— Caroline Keep 🌟😊 (@Ka81) June 1, 2020

 

On a jitsi meetup! With @ac_coder @SouthendTech and some of EssexSteamettes! pic.twitter.com/fr2U5EqOLO

— NKCoding #girlslovecoding#girlsSTEMUK#gamergirls (@NKCoding) June 2, 2020

Avni was pleased and looking forward to attend the next girls only coding online meeting organised by @SouthendTech @SouthendRPiJams as a part of #Essex2020 #EssexSteamettes.

— Dr. Premalatha (@DrPremaLatha_) April 30, 2020

i’ll be there, i’m looking forward to it too! πŸ™‚

— Elise Ainsworth (@eliseains) April 21, 2020

If you’re interested in coding please come to this zoom meeting tomorrow! https://t.co/g3hhqDmgfp

— Tomilikestomatoes (@SoetanTomi) April 22, 2020

Avni was doing @SouthendRPiJams' girls coding event today. she is enjoying working with other girls. Thank you @SouthendTech for running this.

— Dr. Premalatha (@DrPremaLatha_) May 7, 2020

 

You can see more photos on Facebook (don’t forget to like the page and posts):

https://www.facebook.com/Essex-Steamettes-113029900231592/

Here you can find a list of web developers in Southend and who can help you create websites, rank on search engines and digital marketing.

Basildon web designers

Online: Coding drones

Sunday 9th May 2pm-4pm
Coding drones and LED arrays with Lily Hunter Green

Booking here for Zoom link.
(Because of an Eventbrite bug, you may get reminders for MiniMu glove competition)

Mercury Digital Festival

Friday 21st August 11.30pm, Saturday 22nd August 11.30pm, Sunday 2pm
The Essex Steamettes will be showing people how to create digital stories using Scratch on Friday and Saturday.
On Sunday, they will be showcasing what they have been doing during lockdown and inviting other young people to show their projects as well.
More details here.