[game_edu] Implications of students going into a male-dominatedindustry?

[Maria Droujkova]

Anthony, thank you for the interesting article - the picture of the
60-year-old Klawe on skateboard was worth the click.

This paragraph caught my eye:
"The introductory course is now broken into three sections—one for those
with some background in programming, another for beginners, and a third with
a slant toward biology. “CS for Scientists,” as the introductory course is
nicknamed, focuses on teaching problem-solving skills that can be applied to
engineering, math, and other subjects. Instead of Java, the class uses the
Python language, which has simpler rules and is easier to deploy in Web
applications. One of the overarching goals is to “demystify the inner
workings of a computer,” according to the course website."

For many young women, their first CS course becomes their last one. Many
girls and women in our studies were turned off by "random puzzles" - tasks
that involve coding algorithms for solving problems that seemingly appear
out of nowhere. "But WHY would one want to code this piece?" - larger
context, meaning or significance of small tasks - is something women want to
know more frequently than men. It does not mean the reason has to be
applied, but there has to be a reason beyond, say, comparing two algorithms
for speed.

I am not surprised "CS for Scientists" is a draw!

Cheers,
Maria Droujkova
919-388-1721

Make math your own, to make your own math




On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 12:50 PM, Anthony Hart-Jones <
tony at dragonstalon.co.uk> wrote:


> On a related note, I just saw a post on Google+ by Felicia Day about Maria

> Klawe, who has apparently trebled the number of female students majoring in

> Computer Science.

>

> "On her watch, the percentage of female computer science majors at Mudd,

> one of California’s prestigious Claremont colleges, has more than tripled,

> to

> 42 percent. Nationally, women account for 14 percent of college graduates

> in the field, according to the Computing Research Assn."

>

> - http://www.businessweek.com/**magazine/a-campus-champion-**

> for-women-in-computer-science-**09222011.html<http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/a-campus-champion-for-women-in-computer-science-09222011.html>

>

> Not a bad achievement, getting so close to 50:50...

>

>

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