The Program yoUr Future (PUF) Girls in Technology Summer Camp exposed the middle school girls to various STEAM/CS-related knowledge and skills and much more! The girls were introduced to Computer Science through multiple demonstrations, fun hands-on activities, and interdisciplinary applications! They learned App Inventor and Scratch programming techniques, worked on tutorials, and presented their own app, game, and animation projects to their community at the International Computer Science Institute on the last day! The girls enjoyed great snacks and lunches as well as awesome prizes from our generous supporters! While working in various teams, they designed and presented App business and design plans and competed in an unique Engineering Design Challenge! During lunchtime, they waived the UC Berkeley Cal Flag near the tower, sat by a famous water fountain and pond, toured the various trails, statues, and buildings across Cal campus, visited Starbucks, heard their voice echo at the famous echo-ing bench, and saw amazing fossils and exhibits at the Museum of Paleontology! Students performed conversions and other numericals with binary, decimal, hexadecimal, and octal numbers! They created their own professional resumes! They were also provided studying and research tips and tools as well as a list of activities to pursue during their middle school and high school adventure and beyond! At the Computer History Museum, the girls interacted with various technical tools and exhibitions, tracked the evolution of computing systems, completed a Treasure Hunt activity in groups, enjoyed jeopardy with Watson (computer), sat in Google vehicles, and enjoyed a great healthy high-end lunch! In the Women in Computing docent-led tour, they were introduced in unique ways to key futuristic technical concepts, such as artificial intelligence, as well as inspirational and famous technical leaders and women engineers/entrepreneurs. Chaperones enjoyed coffee on behalf of PUF as well! The last day was a blast! This fun-filled day concluded with awesome Scratch and App Inventor presentations, the graduation ceremony, prizes and awards, and an amazing feast! By the end of this summer instruction, the girls truly emerged as great public speakers, leaders, and basic programmers! Thank-you to all of the parents, sponsors, and volunteers involved in the program! The girls have now Programmed their Future! Together, we will bridge the gender gap in STEAM/CS fields!
http://scratch.mit.edu/studios/478046/projects/
"That girls are bad at STEM (science, technology, math and engineering) subjects is a pervasive and harmful stereotype that remains far too common today. But in an introductory computer science class at UC Berkeley last spring women outranked men in enrollment — there were 106 women and 104 men — for the first time."
http://www.policymic.com/articles/83207/there-was-a-major-step-forward-for-women-and-tech-at-berkeley Technology increasingly permeates every aspect of society, yet girls and women in the U.S. are significantly underrepresented in its creation. Girls' lack of participation in this important and growing area has serious consequences, not only for them but for the future of technology innovation.
» Girls comprise 56% of all Advanced Placement (AP) test-takers and 46% of all AP Calculus test-takers, but only 19% of all AP CS test-takers. » Women earn 57% of all undergraduate degrees, 42% of all undergraduate math and statistics degrees, and 40% of all undergraduate physical sciences degrees; but only 18% of all undergraduate computer and information sciences degrees. » Inadequate computing education shortchanges all kids, especially girls and youth of color who are less likely to have informal opportunities for computing experience outside of school. Just 14 states and the District of Columbia allow computer science to count as a math or science graduation requirement, and the number of high schools offering AP Computer Science is down 35% since 2005. » Computing jobs are among the fastest-growing and highest-paying: the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that by 2022 there will be more than 1.4 million computing-related job openings. At current rates, however, we can only fill about 39% of those jobs with U.S. computing undergraduates. » Girls represent a valuable, untapped talent pool. » If technology is mostly designed by the half of our population that's male, we're missing out on the innovations, solutions, and creations that 50% of the population could bring. (See http://www.ncwit.org/infographic/3435 for more statistics.) College Board statistics don't look too pleasing: "In 2013, no female students took the AP computer science exam in three states (Mississippi, Montana, and Wyoming). In eight states (Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wyoming), no Hispanic students took the exam. And in 11 states (Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming) no black students took the exam. Notice that the three states where women test takers were absent all also appear on the other two lists. It’s not a good scene. " Find out more at: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/01/13/no_women_took_the_ap_computer_science_exam_in_mississippi_montana_and_wyoming.html and look at exact male to female student ratios here! http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/01/14/ap-test-shows-wide-gender-gap-in-computer-science-physics Check out this article!
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/leaning-in-can-be-uncomfortable/?_php=true&_&_r=0 This past year, as described by San Jose Mercury News, an independent student advocacy group used data from the California Department of Education to create A-F letter grades and numerical rankings of the Bay Area Cities based on student performance, size of achievement gaps and college readiness, and academic improvement over five years. The grades from these four factors were all to form overall grades of each city in the Bay Area. The following is the trend of overall grades of few of the major cities surrounding Berkeley over the past five years:
BAY AREA DISTRICT OVERALL GRADES DISTRICT 2011 2012 CHANGE Alameda City D+ D + Antioch D D+ + Berkeley D+ D+ same Hayward D D same Milpitas D+ C- + Oakland D D- - Palo Alto D D+ + San Francisco D D same San Jose D+ D+ same These statistics show that this program will serve as the necessary guide and inspiration for middle school students so that they may form their future around their aspirations. This program is an attempt to keep the younger generation interested in technology and promote local talent and work in the technical jobs available in the Silicon Valley. The PUF program targets to recruit middle school girl participants, especially those who are low-income, recent immigrants, or disabled. Girls from such families have limited exposure to technology. Many families do not support their daughters to venture into technical fields. Though Bay Area is home to latest technology, it is also home to populations where girls still live an impoverished life. By recognizing such young girls who take courage to apply to the program, it becomes our duty to support their dreams and aspirations. PUF promotes such girls, who break the shackles of barriers preventing them to reach high, by helping them believe in their dreams and participate in our program and get aware of the power the computers can unleash in shaping their future. |
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