Electronics and Computing Service Scholars

迈阿密大学正在通过建立一个以服务学习为核心的生活学习社区来增加其计算机科学专业的女性人数。将计算机科学和工程课程工作与当地社区问题联系起来(例如，“为小学生设计一个低成本的轻型操场工具包，并在建立原型之前模拟其强度特征”)，增加了此类课程对所有学生的吸引力。这类课程的入学率和持久度的提高反过来又有助于培养动机良好和有能力的STEM毕业生，直接影响到满足国家劳动力发展需求。该项目实施的技术特点包括在住宅楼创建一个服务性学习生活社区，供两个年龄组各30名学生使用。该项目建立在汇聚的理论和证据的基础上，这些理论和证据指出了对STEM领域本科生参与的性别失衡的动机而不是基于能力的解释。通过专注于面向服务的课程和联合课程提供，该机构的计算机科学、软件工程、计算机工程和电气工程专业的性别平衡和多样性有望得到改善。这个项目的独特之处在于，它关注的是服务型学习生活社区，而不仅仅是奖学金的支付。这一强调将有助于确保学生不仅是为了经济利益而参与，而且在奖学金资助结束后，该项目可以继续进行。

Miami University is increasing the number of women in its computer science majors by establishing a living-learning community with service learning at its core. Connecting computer science and engineering course work to local community-based problems (e.g. "design a low-cost lightweight playground kit for elementary school students and simulate its strength characteristics before building a prototype"), increases the attractiveness of such courses to all students. Increased enrollment and persistence in such courses contributes in turn to the pool of well-motivated and capable STEM graduates, with direct consequences on meeting national workforce development needs.The technical features of the project's implementation include creating a service learning living community in the residential halls for two cohorts of thirty students each. The project builds on converging theory and evidence that points to motivational, rather than ability-based, explanations for gender imbalance in the participation of undergraduates in STEM fields. By focusing on service-oriented curricular and co-curricular offerings, gender balance and diversity within the institution's computer science, software engineering, computer engineering, and electrical engineering majors are expected to improve. This project is unique in that it focuses on the service-oriented learning living community, rather than just the disbursement of scholarship funds. This emphasis holds promise to help ensure that the students participate not just for the financial benefits and that the project can continue after funding for the scholarships has ended.