SGER: Bringing Historical Minorities to Computer Science

近年来，高校招生人数在性别人口结构上趋于平衡，女生人数有多于男生的趋势。然而，在计算机科学领域，女学生的数量正在下降，尤其是研究生。这个探索性项目计划让14岁和15岁的女孩(其中一些是美洲原住民)在为期两周的暑期讲习班期间接触到各种计算机科学活动，并在学年期间提供进一步的指导。研讨会的课程包括对计算机科学的简要介绍、编程原理，以及与机器人和计算机的多项动手活动(例如，创建网页；为自己的音乐文件创建数据库等)。此外，计算机科学相关领域的当地专业女性也参与了该项目，这样她们就可以与女孩们互动，当校园里的几周结束后，这些女性将在接下来的两个学年担任导师。该项目是在蒙大拿州博兹曼当地高中的支持下进行的。这个探索性项目的目标之一是确定在激发和保持年轻女性，特别是美洲原住民对计算机科学研究和职业的兴趣方面最成功的活动类型。参与该项目的计算机科学研究人员正在与教育评估研究人员合作，设计活动并分析该项目的影响。随着项目的进行，项目网络site(http://www.cs.montana.edu/defrance/WorkshopMentoring/)将提供进一步的信息。

In recent years the enrolment in colleges and universities has become balanced in gender demographics, with a trend for more female students than male students. However, in computer science the numbers of female students, especially in graduate degrees are dropping. The goal of this project is to motivate the high school girls to study more science and math in their time in high school, and thus to have them better prepared and more motivated to pursue a computer science degree when they attend college or to select a computer science or information technology career. This exploratory project plans to have fourteen and fifteen-year-old girls (some of whom are Native Americans) exposed to various computer science activities during two week-long summer workshops extended with further mentoring during the school year. Curriculum for the workshop includes a brief introduction to computer science, principles of programming, and multiple hands-on activities with robots and computers (e.g., building web pages; creation of a database for their own music files, etc.). In addition, local professional women in the computer science-related areas are involved in the program, so that they can interact with the girls and when the weeks on campus are over, the women act as mentors during the next two school years. The project is carried out with support from the local high schools in Bozeman, Montana.One of the goals of this exploratory project is to identify the types of activities that are most successful in motivating and retaining the interest of young women, especially the Native Americans, in computer science studies and careers. The computer science researchers involved in this project are collaborating with education evaluation researchers in designing the activities and analyzing the project's impact. The results will be published and presented at relevant computer science and educational conferences.The project has significant potential for broad impact nationally by providing a methodology for increasing the number of women who choose computer science or a closely related field as their major in their academic education or career. The project web site(http://www.cs.montana.edu/defrance/WorkshopMentoring/) will provide further information as the project proceeds.