attracting girls to engineering & technology: reach them before they're turned off...

Attracting Girls to Engineering & Technology: Reach them before they're turned off

Attracting Girls to Engineering & Technology

Frank Lanzer, P.E.Associate Professor,Engineering & Engineering Technologies

Mid-Atlantic Section Conference April 25th 2009


• About me• The challenge• Data to support approach• What we did• How it went

• What worked and ….What could have been better

• Resources

Presentation Content


That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

Frank Lanzer, P.E.B.S., Electrical Engineering, United States Naval AcademyM.S., Business Administration, Boston UniversityM.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland

Major, United States Marine Corps (Retired)Teacher and Business Department Chair (7 years)Founder and Director, Academy of Information Technology

Reader, AP Computer Science (8 years)

Seventh year at AACC. Department Chair next year2008 NISOD Award for Excellence in Teaching

Now, why are you here?


The Challenge• Increase knowledge and experience of Girls

in fields of engineering and technology

• Counter the misconceptions and doubts of their own potential that may tarnish images of success

• Emphasize importance of math and science


Over a seven-year period, technical summer camps have opened the eyes (and minds) of many pre-teens and teenagers so they can become what they want to be

How we sought to meet this challenge


How we got here……

7 years ago…… we started camps focused on technology, for girls only – Tech Camp for Girls. After 6 camps we decided to offer a camp for both boys and girls but keeping the two groups separated for activities where the boy-girl interaction might be distracting.

We first envisioned this activity as an Imaginary Worlds Camp, pioneered by Joel Adams of Calvin College, using Alice. Joel strongly recommends keeping girls and boy separate in these camps because of the different ways they view creativity and social interaction.


How we got here……

In the beginning …

“There are not enough women enrolled in technology based programs at AACC - - what’s up with that??”


The National numbers…..

Michael Gibbons, Engineering by the Numbers, accessed online http://www.asee.org/publications/profiles/upload/2007ProfileEng.pdf

The dwindling percentage of female undergraduates continued this past year. Only 18.1 percent of engineering bachelor’s degrees went to women in 2006-2007, the lowest share since 1996.

Female enrollment remained virtually unchanged from last year at 17.5 percent. This is significantly lower than the total student body, where women comprise 58 percent of enrolled undergraduates. It is also the lowest percentage since the mid-1990’s.

Interestingly, women pursue graduate engineering degrees at a higher rate.


The National numbers…..

Michael Gibbons, Engineering by the Numbers, accessed online http://www.asee.org/publications/profiles/upload/2007ProfileEng.pdf


The AACC numbers…..• Data from AACC technology programs

• % Female Enrollment in Technology Programs from 2003 - 2007

Department of Architecture, Interior Design and Construction Management

Program 2003FA 2004FA 2005FA 2006FA 2007FA

AAS- Architecture 34% 38% 41% 36% 29%

AAS-Construction Management 6% 33% 35% 27% 33%

AAS-Interior Design 96% 96% 97% 95% 97%

Certificate-Computer Aided Drafting 31% 50% 18% 57% 49%

Certificate-Construction Management 22% 29% 29% 0% 20%

FACULTY: 3 WOMEN & 4 MEN



• % Female Enrollment in Technology Programs from 2003 - 2007

Department of Engineering Technologies

Program 2003FA 2004FA 2005FA 2006FA 2007FA

AAS-Electrical Engineering 10% 8% 7% 7% 4%

AAS-Telecommunications, Engineering 18% 15% 0% 7% 0%

AS-General Engineering (Transfer) 16% 11% 9% 7% 9%

Certificate-Engineering CAD 50% 50% 33% 50% 33%

Certificate-Electrical Engineering 17% 17% 14% 0% 9%

Certificate-Mechanical Engineering 100% 0% 0% 20% 0%

Certificate-PC Repair 43% 20% 25% 50% 0%

Cert.-Telecommunications, Engineering 33% 20% 0% 0% 0%

FACULTY: 1 WOMAN & 3 MEN



• % Female (Fall) Enrollment in Technology Programs from 2003 - 2007

Department of Computer Information Systems and Computer ScienceProgram 2003FA 2004FA 2005FA 2006FA 2007FA

AAS-Computer Network Management 20% 24% 25% 14% 17%

AAS-General Technology 71% 48% 50% 40% 22%

AAS-Information Security Systems 0% 0% 31% 21% 13%

AAS-Personal Computer Systems Tech 58% 64% 51% 43% 44%

AAS-Programming/Analysis 28% 27% 30% 26% 31%FACULTY: 14 WOMEN & 13 MEN


So, why was this happening??

We asked these questionsWhy are women not enrolling in these programs?

What is it about programs that is NOT attractive to women?

How can we change this trend?

Again, this is how we began“Girls-only” to address a very well identified need. What we

learned applies to both girls and boys.


Research led us to emphasize girls“……boys invent things and girls use things

boys invent….”“……a cyberspace culture will inevitably reflect

the desires and sensibilities of males to the exclusion and often denigration of females.”

Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher, Unlocking the Clubhouse: Woman in Computing

If you have not read this, then you should


Girls at 9 or 10 are feisty, filled with spirit and confidence, but as puberty hits, they begin to pull within themselves, doubt themselves, swallow their own voices, and doubt their own thoughts.

Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher, Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing

The Phenomenon


Our Mission

To introduce girls and boys to the technology of today in hopes that they will get involved and impact the technology of tomorrow. Emphasize middle school!Last year’s camp, TechnoSleuth, sought to provide experiences while retaining the uniqueness of each sex.


When we went down this trail we had two goals. This guided our choices of classes, instructors, methods and materials.

1. Introduce new technologies not only as gadgets or cool things to do, but useful tools

2. Emphasize the importance of math and science to the discovery and development of those new technologies

Remember….the purpose


• And… you know what they say about “The Plan”• Five camps (3 middle school, 2 high school)

• Middle School – Tech Camps for Girls• Middle School – Robotics Camp (G/T)• High School – TechnoSleuth*• High School – Engineering and Technology*

• One or two weeks, M-F, 9-4 *contract Anne Arundel County Public Schools in 2009

How we did it….


What we did…….What workedoDigital photography – Analog vs. digital, sensing

color/brightness, A-to-D conversion, storage, color depth and resolution related to bytes storedSoftware: Serif PhotoPlus 6, Photoshop, Picasa (free 2008)

oWebpage design –Networks, WWW, size vs. time to retrieveSoftware: HTML (2004), FrontPage (2005-6), Serif WebPlus (2007), Dreamweaver and Flash (2008)

oVisual Programming – Sequence of execution, objects, physics of motion Software: Alice (2005-8)


What we did…….

What workedoCryptography and Cyberforensics – probability,

statistics, frequency tables, patterns, cryptograms. How to extract information and data from computer storage media and guaranteeing its accuracy and reliability. Steganography. WebHex (hex editor).


What we did…….

What workedoDesign and Construction – strength of materials,

structures that support. Physics problem challenges. Software: West Point Bridge Design Project, Armadillo Run, Google SketchUp! (ALL 3 = Big Winners!)


What we did…….What workedoHands-on Activities – bridge building, egg-carriers,

solar cars, trebuchets, LEGO Mindstorm NXT robots, geocaching, cyberforensic crime scene


Free Software …….Alice http://www.alice.org/ Sketch Up http://sketchup.google.com/ Sketch Artist http://flashface.ctapt.de Cryptograms http://teppo.tv/cryptogram/ Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net Armadillo Run http://www.armadillorun.com

(the demo is free, comes with limited games, the full version is $19.99 at this time, author will give free to schools)

West Point Bridge Design http://bridgecontest.usma.edu/ Picasa http://picasa.google.com/ JPHide/JPSeek – Steganography – Hiding pictures or text files within pictures

http://www.freewr.com/freeware.php?download=jphide-and-jpseek&lid=258

With the exception of Dreamweaver, we tried to use software that students ortheir parents could download and use for Free.


What we did…….

What workedoField trips –One day was dedicated for a field trip to a

technology-related site for every camp. o The National Cryptologic Museum is a vast, interesting

resource operated by the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland.


What we did…….What worked

o U.S. Naval Academyo Presentations on solar power and the Academy’s entry

in the SOLAR SPLASH ® - The World Championship of Intercollegiate Solar Boating

o Hands-on demonstrations in the Center for Biometric Signal Processing


What we did…….What didn’t work so well …o PC Hardware – Most of the girls were not interested in how PCs worked.

They mechanically disassembled/reassembled the machines without significant learning

o Concrete garden pads – Risk of reaction to concrete dust and latex gloves. The girls enjoyed the activity; however the theory of chemical reactions was a bit too advanced and just not exciting

o Survivor Challenge (competition using all of the skills learned) – While this was of interest to a few of the girls, most did not like competition and working under pressure. The two hours allowed is now better used for a new skill

o Guest Presenters – This is one of those Catch-22 situations where you want women in industry to share experience there is always the danger of a presentation that way over the their heads or just not of interest. This can work but requires extra care.


Gender IssuesDue to far fewer girls enrolling in the

TechnoSleuth Camp than boys, we had to mix one of the groups. Five girls and the eight youngest boys (5th graders) were grouped. The other group was all boys (grades 6-8).

We “rediscovered” some differences between boys and girls


Questions?


a warm thanks and gratitude to all for attending today’s presentation on

Attracting Girls to Engineering & Technology Reach them before they're turned off

Frank Lanzer, P.E.Associate ProfessorEngineering & Engineering Technologies

Mid-Atlantic Section Conference April 25th 2009

This paper and presentation are available online at

http://ola3.aacc.edu/fplanzer

attracting girls to engineering & technology: reach them before they're turned off...

Documents

electrical engineering

fields of engineering

experience of girls

technology counter

technology frank lanzer

challenge slide

science slide

past year