STAR :: Social and Technological Action Research Group » sigcse

Harnessing Hacking: Inspiring Girls to get Creative with Computing

ghayes — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:58:01 +0000

The term “hacking” has, over time, had many different interpretations. Most recently, it has been associated with an emerging movement of creative technological design celebrating ingenuity, appropriation, and repurposing, a blend of hardware and software design practices that adopt and adapt systems and components to new ends their originators might never have imagined. Such problem-based and construction-oriented approaches to science and technology can reach and engage new audiences. We have been developing and conducting workshops for introducing girls to digital media through crafts-style physical computing. Through this effort, we can examine the role that ubiquitous and tangible computing education can play in harnessing creative practices to broaden participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Girls get to “play engineer” by rotating through four roles each class period and wearing a button that says who they are and the great things they can do!

Multi-level mentoring includes professors working with college students working with high school students working with middle school girls! We are all there together as a team, figuring things out. Everyone has someone they can learn from and everyone has someone to mentor. In this way, we are able not only to introduce girls to technology but also to reinforce the interest in teenagers and young adults.

Special thanks to Barb Erickson for her guidance on this project as well as to Microsoft Research, NCWIT, and Google for their support. And of course, thanks so much to Girls Inc, Sarah Drislane, and the ladies of WICS for their continued hard work!

Marcu, G., Kaufman, S.J., Lee J.K., Black, R.W., Dourish, P., Hayes, G.R., Richardson, D.J. Design and Evaluation of a Computer Science and Engineering Course for Middle School Girls. Proc SIGCSE 2010.

Girls Inc. Project Blogged at NCWIT Site

ghayes — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:07:48 +0000

Gillian posted a new blog entry on our summer camp from last year targeting teaching girls about computing and engineering through the use of PicoCrickets and the chance to “play engineer” through hands-on arts and crafts style computing activities.

http://ncwit.org/news.blog.php?action=display&editorial_id=524

It’s also a good time to let everyone know that the women from WICS (Women in Information and Computer Sciences) at UCI are continuing this great work with their own workshops throughout this year!

New Girls Inc. Video

Michael — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:01:58 +0000

The Eureka! Summer Program is a 4-week intensive enrichment program for 60 girls who will be entering 7th, 8th or 9th grades. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the program. The goal of Eureka! is to provide girls an opportunity to interact with science and relative technology in a fun and exciting environment with the desire that girls become more interested in these fields. Girls Incorporated is a national nonprofit youth organization dedicated to inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold.

SIGCSE paper accepted

ghayes — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:25:14 +0000

Our paper “Design and Evaluation of a Computer Science and Engineering Course for Middle
School Girls” was accepted for publication at this year’s SIGCSE. The paper describes the workshop held over the summer in conjunction with Girls Inc. to introduce middle school aged girls to programming through hands-on interactive engagement with PicoCrickets.

Authors: Gabriela Marcu, Sam Kaufman, Kate Lee, Rebecca Black, Paul Dourish, Gillian Hayes, and Debra Richardson