Guest Blog post by Mari Glatter
What are ways that we can help young women to develop the skills necessary to enter into the field of computer engineering?
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The statistics are daunting
Your 12-year-old daughter rushes up to you bubbling over with excitement. She just watched a movie where a computer engineer created a microprocessor that was used to catch the criminal. Now she is convinced that is the perfect job for her; after all, she loves math and science and thinks computers are great. How can you help her realize this new career dream? The statistics are discouraging: only 20% of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) jobs in the United States are held by women. This similar statistic holds for the number of female engineers. When we look at the field of computer science we see that the numbers are worse. According to Leham, Sax & Zimmerman (2016), the current percentage of women earning computer science degrees is 18%. Perhaps the most discouraging statistic is that your middle school daughter is part of 68% of young ladies who like math and science but if you fast forward to her senior year will she be among the 48% who still like these subjects?
Non-competitive environment
Young women can thrive in a non-competitive STEM experience. While LEGO competitions can be a terrific draw for many, collaboration is an important element to consider when designing computing and engineering experiences for young ladies. By introducing play and tinkering times girls can comfortably draw on previous creative times to apply in new STEM situations. Martinez & Stager (2013) found that "When we allow children to experiment, take risks, and play with their own ideas, we give them permission to trust themselves. They begin to see themselves as learners who have good ideas and can transform their own ideas into reality." Another environmental element to consider is the physical room that the class is being held in. Cheryan, Ziegler, Montoya & Jiang (2016) analyzed research and concluded
High school girls who see a classroom that contains objects stereotypically associated with computer scientists express significantly less interest in enrolling in an introductory computer science course than high school girls who see a classroom with nonstereotypical objects.
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More than just code
Wing (2006) was forward thinking when she stated that “computational thinking is a way that humans solve problems; it is not trying to get humans to think like computers.” We want to encourage our young women to be creative, artistic, passionate and still develop terrific computational thinking skills. It is important that female learners recognize that computer science is more than simply learning Java or playing with block-based programming. While these are important foundational components of understanding CS they should not be interpreted and promoted as the only elements needed to help prepare learners. As Chris Granger (2015) so passionately expressed, “We don't want a generation of people forced to care about Unicode and UI toolkits. We want a generation of writers, biologists, and accountants that can leverage computers.”
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Stereotypes are problematic
So you have encouraged your daughter to do an Hour of Code, cheerleaded her algebra conquests, and purchased a LilyPad for her wearable technology project surely, she is all set, right? Actually, research indicates that she has a mountain of stereotypes to climb over on her way to a job in computer engineering. Riegle-Crumb & Morton (2017) state that “as they actively contemplate their possible futures, young people are subject to a multitude of messages from those around them regarding what is appropriate and expected for their gender.” Cheryan, Master & Meltzoff (2015) hunted through the research to identify many potential pitfalls ahead for your 7th grader. Most students see computer scientists and engineers as nerdy guys who lack social skills and who love video games and other technology. Cheryan et al., (2015) also noted that the physical characteristics of pale skin and glasses were strongly correlated to the fields of computing and computer engineering. Another stereotype is that these individuals are isolated and don’t want to work with others to solve societal concerns. If your daughter falls into these stereotype traps she may push away from her dream of saving the world through microcontrollers. Providing opportunities for your daughter to have “exposure to female peers and adult role models whose own behaviors and accomplishments in STEM fields (can) contradict larger stereotypes” and help to “increase young women’s own sense of identification with STEM fields, and in doing so promote their own subsequent choices. (Riegle-Crumb & Morton, 2017)
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Encourage math and her
Research tells us that strong math achievement is needed for any STEM skill and particular the CS fields and engineering. (Lehman et al., 2016) According to Lehman et al. (2016) confidence in one’s abilities helps shape students’ computing identity or the extent to which they see themselves as a computer scientist; computing identity is central to students’ success in the major, particularly for women. Cheryan et al., (2016) found many studies showing that young women had lower self-efficacy and self-views in computer science and engineering, compared with their male peers, even when their grades or standardized test scores were equal or higher! It is important to encourage young ladies to be confident of their ability to start in computer science or engineering and keep encouraging them through the classes. In fact, “women who select into a competitive engineering program may be no less likely than men to believe they will do well in the courses, but they may still perceive their engineering ability as lower.” (Cheryan et al., 2016)
Resources to help you on the journey
I have curated a list of references that girls and/or their adult mentors can utilize to be encouraged on the journey toward computer engineering.
Although this costs money for girls to go to camps, they also have five lesson plans called Women in Tech that introduces students to different women who are involved with technology. These lesson plans cover topics such as decomposition, algorithms and user experience.
This is an international company focused on helping young women enter into technology fields.
This website is a place to help young women connect with female role models in STEM careers. As with any connection point between adults and youth caution should be exercised but primary funding comes from the National Science Foundation, which gives me confidence.
The National Girls Collaborative Project is an enormous group of agencies and programs focused on helping girls grow in STEM. Out of curiosity, I typed in my town, Houlton, and a program showed up - 4-H!
Is a fun website created by a youth for other young people. Lilia has a curated list of activities that can help other students get excited about learning to code. A true gem on Lilia’s site is the article’s page. I can’t wait to have the time to go back and read through her selected blog posts.
This is a competition for middle school girls and they also host workshops and clubs.
This is a searchable database of free and paid STEM opportunities for youth.
I love their STEM activities page, as it has lots of great fun things to do with (mostly) household materials.
Girls Communicating Career Connections comes out of the National Science Foundation. The website has quite a bit of interesting information but the interface is not as engaging.
This site is very feminine and engaging for younger girls. They have a number of Blockly projects that can be tried for beginners and links to other partner sites for additional coding projects.
My own daughter’s story
Part of my fascination with women in computer engineering is that my own daughter is currently a freshman computer engineering major. It happened through a series of unplanned events, which is intriguing but might not be very helpful for other young ladies, which is why I began to research concrete methods to encourage young women toward this field. When my daughter S was 10 she was convinced that she wanted to be a math professor. We encouraged her love of mathematics and worked with her as she accelerated her math learning. The coding came by accident. One Christmas my husband and I bought our son, S’s older brother, a Rasberry Pi. (See how we accidentally fell into the stereotype of the male being interested in technology!) He never became that invested but S. ended up spending hours learning Python with her dad. This led to volunteering as a tutor to younger students learning how to program, which led to two dual enrollment computer classes, which led to AP Computer Science. The whole time S kept pursuing math as well. S’s primary job during high school was babysitting for a family whose dad was a computer scientist, running an international company from his home office in our rural town. This fascinated S, who also wants to be a mother someday, and she felt the world of computers might be more conducive to all of her plans. Did I mention that S also loves art, plays the piano, sews, and bakes? Perhaps the only element that our family got right, without knowing the research, was to encourage that all of those interests can be pursued and that no one model of a computer engineering exists. When it came time to choose a college major, computer engineering fit the perfect balance of computer science, rigorous mathematics, and creative problem-solving. S still has a long way to go before she graduates and I am excited to share this research with her as she continues her journey.
References
Barr, V., & Stephenson, C. (2011) Bringing computational thinking to K-12: What is involved
and what is the role of the computer science education community? ACM Inroads, 2(1),
Bers, M. U. (2017a). Chapter 5 Thinking about computational thinking. In Coding as a
Playground: Programming and Computational Thinking in the Early Childhood
Classroom (pp. 57-69). New York, NY: Routledge.
Cheryan, S., Master, A., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2015). Cultural stereotypes as gatekeepers:
Increasing girls interest in computer science and engineering by diversifying stereotypes.
Cheryan, S., Ziegler, S., Montoya, A., & Jiang, L. (2017). Why are some STEM fields more
gender balanced than others? Psychological Bulletin, Vol 143(1), Jan 2017, 1-35.
Granger, C. (2015, January 26) Coding is not the new literacy. [blog post] Retrieved from:
Martinez, S. L., & Stager, G. S. (2013). Invent to learn: Making, tinkering, and engineering in
the classroom. Torrance, CA: Constructing Modern Knowledge Press.
Riegle-Crumb, C. & Morton, K. (2017). Gendered expectations: Examining how peers shape
female students’ intent to pursue STEM fields. Frontiers in Psychology, 8.
Salton, G. (2016, May 9). Gender Bias in Engineering: Root Cause Analysis. [blog post]
Wing, J. M. (2006). Computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, 49(3), 33–35.
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