Soronko Rotary Girls Coding Project Cohort 4 – Week 4 Report

On 13th April 2021, the fourth week of the training kicked off with the students how to apply and code HTML and CSS languages into a website. In previous classes, the students were introduced to the basic difference between the computer language HTML and CSS. A brief recap on HTML tags and their uses was given to the students before the commencement of today’s lessons.

The training session was interactive and practical. The trainer demonstrated a step-by-step procedure of how to build an HTML Structure is built. According to her HTML describes the structure of a Web page and consists of a series of elements that tells the browser how to display contents. An HTML element is defined by a start tag, some content, and an end tag. A browser does not display the HTML tags but uses them to determine how to display the document. The trainer also introduced the students to code editors such as VScode, Notepad++, or TextEdit. She advised the trainees that using simple text editors such as Notepad or TextEdit is a good way to easily learn HTML. The students also learned about HTML Attributes, headings, paragraphs, and HTML Style. Later the class broke out into groups to practice the lessons learned at freeCodeCamp.

After the breakout sessions, the lead trainer delivered a presentation on how to style HTML using CSS. According to Miss Oreo, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is used to format the layout and enhance the feel of the webpage. The syntax of a CSS rule consists of a selector and a declaration. She further explained the meaning and functions of the various types of CSS which included; Inline CSS, Internal CSS, and External CSS.

According to the trainer, an internal CSS is effective when styling a single web page. It requires that a style tag is added to the head section of the document. An Internal CSS allows one to use “class” and “ID” selectors. She further explained that, with external CSS, web pages are linked to an external ‘CSS file’, which can be created by any text editor. An external style sheet is used to define the style for many HTML pages. With Inline CSS, you only need to add the style attribute to each HTML tag, without using selectors. After the presentation, the students were taught how to create and edit a CSS file using Notepad ++. 

In closing the students were tasked to complete a CSS exercise on www.freecodecamp.org. The students broke out into teams to complete the assignment given and practice more coding. The students showed great interest through the session and stayed longer even after the class practising.

For the second training session of the week, the objective the day’s lesson was to provide the students a more practical session on Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), a programming language used in styling documents written in a markup language such as HTML. 

The lesson started with Miss Oreo providing a detailed summary of HTML and CSS. She used this training period as an opportunity to address questions raised by the students and review assignments submitted by them. The Soronko Academy website was used as a demonstration to explain how CSS can enhance the feel and outlook of a website. The students later created a CSS file and linked it to their previously created HTML webpage. With this, the students were able to change the font style, size, and background color of their HTML elements.

After the first session, the students logged into www.freecodecamp.org to start the CSS lessons. This involved styling multiple elements with a CSS class, importing a google font, adding borders around elements, and making circular images with a border radius. The session continued with students brainstorming on how to further complete their assignments on this e-learning platform.

In closing, Miss Oreo encouraged everyone to practice more to get familiar with the programming language. The students were later given an assignment to further complete the CSS course on freecodecamp.org. After class, the students stayed a bit longer to assist their friends in completing their lessons which fostered teamwork amongst themselves.

The final training session of the week was to provide the students a recap lesson on CSS and introduce them to Phone Photography.

The Media Officer for Soronko Academy Jerry Aidoo delivered training on Photography and the various career opportunities available for women in the digital media sector. According to him, Photography is simply the process of capturing light with a camera to create an image. The participants later explored the various different types’ photography such as; Landscape, Wildlife, Aerial, Sports/action, Portrait, Architectural, Wedding/ Event, and Fashion Photography.

The ladies were later paired up for an activity where a student played the role of the photographer and the other person a model. This activity was to help them practice the different types of shots they had learned in product shoot and the type of angles shoot. The trainer emphasized the importance of having a clean and clear background, the positioning of your product, having a clean clear background, a steady camera, and lastly, using props that enhance the looks. 

The lead trainer of the program, Miss Oreo took over the class and introduced them to WordPress and how to setup WordPress on a local environment