School Combines Tech & Dance: Young girls get inspired by science and tech via dance

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An all-girls public school in New York engages its students to go into the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics by fusing the disciplines with dance. Check it out.

The Young Women's Leadership School of Astoria's Andrea Chaves said it was her goal to get as many students as possible interested in the fields of science and technology.

Chaves is the school's "STEAM" creative director, which mixes science, technology, engineering, and math with the arts.

Three years ago, Chaves came up with the concept of "Digital Dance" which pairs student dancers with coders to create a multimedia extravaganza. This year, more than 70 students will participate.

ANDREA CHAVES, PROJECT'S CREATIVE DIRECTOR THE YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP SCHOOL OF ASTORIA "Our girls love to dance. So I was observing that those girls were not doing the technology."

Chaves was already heading a technical class where she coached interested students in coding, graphic design and filmmaking. When she tried to find a middle ground for both groups, something clicked.

ANDREA CHAVES, PROJECT'S CREATIVE DIRECTOR THE YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP SCHOOL OF ASTORIA "In my mind somehow one day I just had an aha moment and I said, 'oh my God we could create a digital dance'."

This year the "Digital Dance" tells the story of three friends trapped inside the world of video games.

The show uses rover robots, dancers on hover boards, and blinking ghosts from Pac-Man, all coded to sync with music and dance by students between the ages of 11 and 17.

Chaves said that the school offers coding classes to students starting from 6th grade. She sees coding as a language skill, such as French or Spanish.

Students say the coding classes for the performance gave them more confidence.

MIREILLE KNOX STUDENT "I am not really into technology but when I did that, I was like 'wow'. When I learned how to photoshop and things like that I was like 'wow I can really like take this subject'."

Seventeen-year-old Tania Najnin, who programmed a rover robot in the performance, said she is inspired to pursue an engineering career after learning how to code at school.

TANIA NAJNIN STUDENT "It's not going to be hard unless you make it hard for yourself. So I decided that you know this is where I want to do in my future. And to girls who think that they can't do it they definitely can."

According to the U.S. National Science Foundation, female workers remain underrepresented in the science and engineering fields.

While women make up half of the college-educated workforce, less that 30 percent of science and engineering jobs are filled by women. The biggest gender gap is found in the engineering field, with only 15 percent of engineers being women in 2016, according to the foundation.