Engaging Secondary Female Students in Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing

女性学生在计算机和工程领域的代表性不足可归因于不同的因素，如性别刻板印象或不熟悉计算机和工程领域。该项目将发生在许多中学女生没有机会参加STEM和信息与通信技术课程的地区。该计划旨在通过让中学女生参与无处不在的智能和计算，扩大她们在STEM和信息和通信技术领域的参与。研究人员将通过为期五周的夏令营和STEM竞赛，让中学女生参与智慧城市相关项目和应用，如智慧市民服务、智能交通系统和智能能源规划。本研究旨在提高中学女生对STEM职业的知识、技能和兴趣，并有助于研究女生对STEM的自我概念建构和学习动机。该项目的主要目标是：1)透过建构主义的学习环境，提升中学女生在计算机及工程领域的学术自我概念；2)提高中学女生在这些领域的知识、技能和兴趣；3)增加中学女生参加STEM比赛的人数；4)调查影响女生在STEM和信息通信技术领域职业选择的因素。该项目将涉及120名6-11年级的女学生参加为期五周的夏令营，学习Python和Arduino编程。然后，他们将整合这些工具，在大学生和STEM教师的共同指导下，在分层团队中开发无处不在的智能系统。每年举办为期一周的导师培训工作坊，培训导师；举办为期两天的秋季STEM竞赛工作坊，推动STEM教师组队参加STEM竞赛。在夏令营期间和之后，将使用虚拟学习云来吸引学生和导师建立学习社区。定量和定性相结合的研究方法，包括调查、访谈和学生文物分析，将用于评估项目活动对中学女生在STEM领域和职业选择方面的知识、技能和兴趣的影响。该项目由“面向学生和教师的创新技术体验”（ITEST）项目资助，该项目支持有助于提高学生对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）以及信息和通信技术（ICT）职业的知识和兴趣的实践、项目要素、背景和过程的理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The underrepresentation of female students in computing and engineering fields can be attributed to different factors such as gender stereotypes or unfamiliarity with computing and engineering fields. This project will occur in a region in which many secondary female students have not had opportunities to take STEM and Information and Communication Technologies courses. The project aims to broaden the participation of secondary female students in STEM and Information and Communication Technologies fields by engaging them in ubiquitous intelligence and computing. The researchers will engage secondary female students through a five-week summer camp and STEM competition to work on smart city-related projects and applications such as smart citizen services, intelligent transportation system and intelligent energy planning. The project is expected to increase secondary female students’ knowledge, skills, and interests in STEM careers and contribute to the research on female students’ self-concept construction and motivations for learning STEM. The major objectives of the project are to: 1) enhance secondary female students’ academic self-concepts in computing and engineering fields through a constructivist learning environment; 2) enhance secondary female students’ knowledge, skills, and interests in these fields; 3) increase the number of secondary female students participating in STEM competitions; and 4) investigate the factors that influence female students’ career choices in STEM and Information and Communication Technologies fields. The project will involve 120 female students from Grades 6-11 in a five-week summer camp to learn Python and Arduino programming. They will then integrate these tools to develop ubiquitous intelligent systems in tiered teams co-mentored by college students and STEM teachers. In each year, a one-week mentor training workshop will be held to train the mentors, and a two-day Fall STEM Competition Workshop will be organized to promote STEM teachers to organize teams to participate in STEM competitions. A virtual learning cloud will be used to engage the students and mentors in building the learning community during and after the summer camp. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods including surveys, interviews, and analysis of student artifacts will be used to assess the impact of the project activities on secondary female students’ knowledge, skills, and interests in STEM fields and career choices. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.