High school computer science classes are not just for geeky boys. They’re for everybody.
That’s the message from high school teachers from around the country who gathered for a three-day Tapestry Workshop at FIU last week to share strategies and ideas to attract more and diverse students, particularly girls, to their computer science classes.
While career opportunities are on the rise in computing and information technology, representation of women in these areas, which was already small, is actually on the decline, said Debra Davis, a faculty associate in the National Science Foundation Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Knowledge Enablement in FIU’s School of Computing and Information Sciences (SCIS).
That’s a detriment not only to women, but to society and computing in general, said Davis, whose background is in computer science and cognitive psychology.
“To really get more women in technology we need to start at a younger age with girls and let them learn what it is really about and also make it clear to them that yes, this is something they can do,” Davis said.
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