Article

CS girls rock: sparking interest in computer science and debunking the stereotypes

Authors:

Sandy Graham,

Celine LatulipeAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '03: Proceedings of the 34th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

Pages 322 - 326

https://doi.org/10.1145/611892.611998

Published: 11 January 2003 Publication History

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Abstract

Declining female enrollment in undergraduate Computer Science programs is a serious problem. Part of the solution lies in retaining more of the female students currently enrolled; even more important, however, is increasing initial enrollment. Many believe lack of interest to be rooted in stereotypes of computer science formed early in high school: that it is a boring subject, devoid of interesting applications and stimulating only to 'geeks'. To attract high school females to CS, and to determine whether early exposure to the interesting breadth of CS and its applications might ameliorate such attitudes, a week-long Computer Science Seminar for Grade 9 and 10 girls was held at the University of Waterloo. The seminar consisted of lectures, labs and activities chosen to demonstrate the breadth of CS and to dispel the negative stereotypes. Pre- and post-seminar surveys indicate a substantial increase in interest, translating directly into increased desire to take high school CS courses.

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Jacob SMontoya JNguyen HRichardson DWarschauer M(2022)Examining the What, Why, and How of Multilingual Student Identity Development in Computer ScienceACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/350091822:3(1-33)Online publication date: 22-Sep-2022
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Index Terms

CS girls rock: sparking interest in computer science and debunking the stereotypes
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Published In

SIGCSE '03: Proceedings of the 34th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

February 2003

444 pages

ISBN:158113648X

DOI:10.1145/611892

Conference Chair:
Scott Grissom
Grand Valley State University
,
Program Chairs:
Deborah Knox
The College of New Jersey
,
Dan Joyce
Villanova University
,
Publications Chair:
Wanda Dann
Ithaca College

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 35, Issue 1
January 2003
406 pages
ISSN:0097-8418
DOI:10.1145/792548
Issue’s Table of Contents

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 11 January 2003

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SIGCSE03: SIGCSE 2003 Symposium

February 19 - 23, 2003

Navada, Reno, USA

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Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

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Mejias MWashington GBurge LWilson DKouaho LMarshall J(2024)A Framework For Discussing Black Student Threats to Belonging in Computer Science2024 Black Issues in Computing Education (BICE)10.1109/BICE60192.2024.00011(15-20)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/BICE60192.2024.00011
Katuka GAuguste YSong YTian XKumar ACelepkolu MBoyer KBarrett JIsrael MMcKlin TDoyle MStephenson BDorn BSoh LBattestilli L(2023)A Summer Camp Experience to Engage Middle School Learners in AI through Conversational App DevelopmentProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3545945.3569864(813-819)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3545945.3569864
Jacob SMontoya JNguyen HRichardson DWarschauer M(2022)Examining the What, Why, and How of Multilingual Student Identity Development in Computer ScienceACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/350091822:3(1-33)Online publication date: 22-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3500918
Joyner DBernstein LBolger IDittamo MGorham SHudson RMerkle LDoyle MSheard JSoh LDorn B(2022)Anonymity: A Double-Edged Sword for Gender Equity in a CS1 Forum?Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education - Volume 110.1145/3478431.3499289(766-772)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3478431.3499289
Sun CClarke-Midura J(2022)Testing the efficacy of a near-peer mentoring model for recruiting youth into computer scienceMentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning10.1080/13611267.2022.205710130:2(184-201)Online publication date: 25-Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2022.2057101
Peña JHanrahan BRosson MCole C(2021)After-Hours LearningACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/344696421:2(1-31)Online publication date: 9-Mar-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3446964
de Wit SHermans FAivaloglou E(2021)Children’s Implicit and Explicit Stereotypes on the Gender, Social Skills, and Interests of a Computer ScientistProceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research10.1145/3446871.3469753(239-251)Online publication date: 16-Aug-2021
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Fletcher AMason RCooper G(2021)Helping students get IT: Investigating the longitudinal impacts of IT school outreach in AustraliaProceedings of the 23rd Australasian Computing Education Conference10.1145/3441636.3442312(115-124)Online publication date: 2-Feb-2021
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Lawlor GByrne PTangney B(2020)“CodePlus”—Measuring Short-Term Efficacy in a Non-Formal, All-Female CS Outreach ProgrammeACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/341151020:4(1-18)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2020
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Mejias MJean-Pierre KWashington GBurge L(2019)Underrepresented Groups Threats to Belonging in Computing2019 Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT)10.1109/RESPECT46404.2019.8985905(1-4)Online publication date: Mar-2019
https://doi.org/10.1109/RESPECT46404.2019.8985905
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