Wednesday, October 23
1:30-1:50 PM
PDT
Las Vegas Ballroom 6

Traditional High School STEM Curriculum Ineffective in Promoting Female Interest in Computer Science

Brief Paper ID: 40625
  1. aaa
    Rohith Venkataraman
    CS Dept., The Charter School of Wilmington
  2. Eshan Agarwal
    CS Dept., The Charter School of Wilmington
  3. aaa
    David Brown
    CS Dept., The Charter School of Wilmington

Abstract: Females remain underrepresented in the field of Computer Science (CS) (Hill, Corbett, & St. Rose, 2010; Spertus, 1991). Gender differences in STEM fields have decreased. However, CS still shows diminished increase in female representation (Spertus, 1991). In a Northeastern United States, STEM focused high school, CS Freshman students were surveyed relative to barriers to female participation in the field of CS: experience, confidence, interest, and perception. Data gathering utilized a survey and semantic differentials. Analysis of data occurred through the SPSS™ tools utilizing the nonparametric, Kruskal-Wallis algorithm to mitigate unequal cell sizes. Students in higher level CS courses were also surveyed. Significant differences were found among gender at p < 0.05 (n = 77). Data suggest traditional STEM environments, even in a highly-ranked STEM high school, are ineffective at producing female interest in CS. Conclusions are drawn as to how this may be improved.

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