Category: 2019

– authored by Dr Jenine Beekhuyzen, Founder & CEO Tech girls movement foundation

The signature Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero (SNTGS) competition and other TGMF initiatives are soundly based on international research into how best to encourage female participation in STEM-related careers and education. The TGMF has administered both pre and post-competition surveys for all participant groups (schoolgirls, mentors and coaches) for the past three years of the competition. The same survey with minor adjustments is administered each year. It consists of open and closed questions, drawn from three sources – an internationally recognised instrument for measuring STEM career interest (Kier et al. 2014), a survey carried out by Technovation, the organisation which provides the curriculum on which the competition is based (Rockman et al Research, Evaluation and Consulting, 2016), and the results of interviews carried out with 8 mentors from the 2015 competition.

In the Australian Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero (SNTGS) competition, school girls form teams and register on the TGMF website via a coach – a teacher or a parent who becomes the contact point for the team. One coach may have multiple teams. Each team is then matched with a female mentor working in STEM who commits to meeting the team virtually, or if co-located in person, for one hour per week for 12 weeks. Teams then brainstorm problems that bug them in their local community, from personal problems such as anxiety, mental health, wellbeing, healthy eating, to broader school issues such as lost property, or family issues such as “grandad can’t read” or wider issues such as sun safety or global warming.

Teams then research how others have tried to solve the problem around the world, and then they design their own solution to the problem through a business plan and a wireframe. Teams as young as 11 are building 50-page business plans. Once they have a wireframe and business plan they build the working prototype through free online software such as AppInventor. Then they develop a 4-minute pitch video to sell their idea, and a 3-minute demo video to exhibit how their app works.

METHOD

The post-competition surveys aim to evaluate the impact and success for student participants in the Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero competition, specifically:

i. The impact of participation in the competition on girls’ self-perception and career perception in relation to STEM, and of their intentions to pursue further studies and careers in STEM-related fields. The evaluation is based on well-established research in this area.

ii. Students’ perceptions of the curriculum areas. The evaluation did not attempt to measure objective improvements in skills because of wide variations in curriculum, facilities and teacher practices.

iii. Issues, benefits and problems of participating in the competition.

In 2018, the demographics of the 191 respondents were very similar to those from 2017. Most of the girls live in Queensland (90) and New South Wales (50). Of the New Zealand schoolgirls represented in the 2018 survey more live on the South Island (10) as compared to 2017 results where more were from the North Island. Most students attend co-education schools (117) and are currently in grade 6 (48).

RESULTS

Several areas that showed improvement in 2018 were students’ time management, support from mentors and coaches, and satisfaction with teamwork.

Students are asked how much knowledge of coding they had before participating in the competition, most reported less than an adequate amount of knowledge of coding (Figure 1).

Figure 1 – 2018 Students’ Previous Coding Knowledge

Although the students’ perceptions of their knowledge of coding in 2018 was reported to be similar to 2017, there was a substantial increase in their perceptions that participation in the competition had improved their knowledge of coding (from 58% to 85%).

Figure 2 – 2018 Students’ Improvements in Coding Knowledge

The Curriculum

In relation to the curriculum, the Revenue lesson continues to be the least popular and students wished there had been more focus on coding, even though their perceived competency in coding increased substantially.

The biggest challenge reported was shortage of time.

The program consists of the following 12 lessons. Lesson 8 and 2 are the most popular and lesson 7 the least popular.

1: Introduction to the curriculum and meet your mentor

2: Defining the Issue

3: Brainstorming Solutions

4: User Centred Design

5: Competitive Analysis

6: Branding and Promotion

7: Potential Revenue

8: Pitch Guidelines

9: Demo Guidelines

10: User Feedback

11: Video Editing

12: Submission!

Student Support

Overall the support from schools, coaches and mentors is perceived as good, or satisfactory, and the students thought they worked well in teams. A small percentage reported that team members dropping out caused problems. Responses to the questions regarding attitudes to STEM showed similar improvement after participation to that of the 2017 survey. Some of the questions regarding career interest showed a small improvement over the 2017 results.

Motivation to participate in the competition

In 2017, 12 girls mentioned that their involvement in the competition was due to it being a part of their school curriculum; this was not mentioned in 2018. The most frequent responses in 2018 were; to learn about coding, to work with friends and solve problems, similar results to those of 2017. More students mentioned being encouraged to participate by friends and/or siblings who had previously participated in the competition.

Benefits gained from participation

Students gained a variety of benefits and experiences from their participation in the competition.

“The benefits that I have gained from participating in this competition have definitely been time management and organisation. Also developing new skills that I can apply to many other things such as my vocabulary, speaking on the spot, persuading, my writing skills and other larger topics I had no idea about, such as potential revenues and other elements within the business plan. Other benefits I have also gained from this competition are qualities such as commitment, trust, teamwork, prioritising and thinking about the bigger picture.”

The students’ motivations and expectations focused mostly on their desire to learn more about coding and to work in teams. In 2018 students were encouraged to participate in the competition through friends and/or siblings who had participated in a previous competition or knew someone who had.

OUTCOMES/CONCLUSION

While some respondents stated that they had always been interested in technology and their participation in the competition confirmed this interest (25), some now felt they were more likely to consider a science or technology career than before (22). Importantly, 26 responded that their confidence, awareness, knowledge or interest in technology had increased, but not necessarily relating to a direction in study.


“I believe from the competition our interest in technology is enhanced because of the amount of time and effort we put into using technologies. I believe the competition has made us more confident in starting a new business or designing and developing new ideas from technology. The experience was positive and worthwhile”.

“My mind was open to ideas, but the Tech Girls competition has pointed me in the direction of technology.”

“Tech girl superheroes has taught me that I can do whatever I want in the future … this competition has influenced my life greatly and I have become a more confident, better person because of it.”

– authored by Dr Jenine Beekhuyzen, Founder & CEO Tech girls movement foundation

The signature Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero (SNTGS) competition and other TGMF initiatives are soundly based on international research into how best to encourage female participation in STEM-related careers and education. The TGMF has administered both pre and post-competition surveys for all participant groups (schoolgirls, mentors and coaches) for the past three years of the competition. The same survey with minor adjustments is administered each year. It consists of open and closed questions, drawn from three sources – an internationally recognised instrument for measuring STEM career interest (Kier et al. 2014), a survey carried out by Technovation, the organisation which provides the curriculum on which the competition is based (Rockman et al Research, Evaluation and Consulting, 2016), and the results of interviews carried out with 8 mentors from the 2015 competition.

In the Australian Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero (SNTGS) competition, school girls form teams and register on the TGMF website via a coach – a teacher or a parent who becomes the contact point for the team. One coach may have multiple teams. Each team is then matched with a female mentor working in STEM who commits to meeting the team virtually, or if co-located in person, for one hour per week for 12 weeks. Teams then brainstorm problems that bug them in their local community, from personal problems such as anxiety, mental health, wellbeing, healthy eating, to broader school issues such as lost property, or family issues such as “grandad can’t read” or wider issues such as sun safety or global warming.

Teams then research how others have tried to solve the problem around the world, and then they design their own solution to the problem through a business plan and a wireframe. Teams as young as 11 are building 50-page business plans. Once they have a wireframe and business plan they build the working prototype through free online software such as AppInventor. Then they develop a 4-minute pitch video to sell their idea, and a 3-minute demo video to exhibit how their app works.

METHOD

The post-competition surveys aim to evaluate the impact and success for student participants in the Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero competition, specifically:

i. The impact of participation in the competition on girls’ self-perception and career perception in relation to STEM, and of their intentions to pursue further studies and careers in STEM-related fields. The evaluation is based on well-established research in this area.

ii. Students’ perceptions of the curriculum areas. The evaluation did not attempt to measure objective improvements in skills because of wide variations in curriculum, facilities and teacher practices.

iii. Issues, benefits and problems of participating in the competition.

In 2018, the demographics of the 191 respondents were very similar to those from 2017. Most of the girls live in Queensland (90) and New South Wales (50). Of the New Zealand schoolgirls represented in the 2018 survey more live on the South Island (10) as compared to 2017 results where more were from the North Island. Most students attend co-education schools (117) and are currently in grade 6 (48).

RESULTS

Several areas that showed improvement in 2018 were students’ time management, support from mentors and coaches, and satisfaction with teamwork.

Students are asked how much knowledge of coding they had before participating in the competition, most reported less than an adequate amount of knowledge of coding (Figure 1).

Figure 1 – 2018 Students’ Previous Coding Knowledge

Although the students’ perceptions of their knowledge of coding in 2018 was reported to be similar to 2017, there was a substantial increase in their perceptions that participation in the competition had improved their knowledge of coding (from 58% to 85%).

Figure 2 – 2018 Students’ Improvements in Coding Knowledge

The Curriculum

In relation to the curriculum, the Revenue lesson continues to be the least popular and students wished there had been more focus on coding, even though their perceived competency in coding increased substantially.

The biggest challenge reported was shortage of time.

The program consists of the following 12 lessons. Lesson 8 and 2 are the most popular and lesson 7 the least popular.

1: Introduction to the curriculum and meet your mentor

2: Defining the Issue

3: Brainstorming Solutions

4: User Centred Design

5: Competitive Analysis

6: Branding and Promotion

7: Potential Revenue

8: Pitch Guidelines

9: Demo Guidelines

10: User Feedback

11: Video Editing

12: Submission!

Student Support

Overall the support from schools, coaches and mentors is perceived as good, or satisfactory, and the students thought they worked well in teams. A small percentage reported that team members dropping out caused problems. Responses to the questions regarding attitudes to STEM showed similar improvement after participation to that of the 2017 survey. Some of the questions regarding career interest showed a small improvement over the 2017 results.

Motivation to participate in the competition

In 2017, 12 girls mentioned that their involvement in the competition was due to it being a part of their school curriculum; this was not mentioned in 2018. The most frequent responses in 2018 were; to learn about coding, to work with friends and solve problems, similar results to those of 2017. More students mentioned being encouraged to participate by friends and/or siblings who had previously participated in the competition.

Benefits gained from participation

Students gained a variety of benefits and experiences from their participation in the competition.

“The benefits that I have gained from participating in this competition have definitely been time management and organisation. Also developing new skills that I can apply to many other things such as my vocabulary, speaking on the spot, persuading, my writing skills and other larger topics I had no idea about, such as potential revenues and other elements within the business plan. Other benefits I have also gained from this competition are qualities such as commitment, trust, teamwork, prioritising and thinking about the bigger picture.”

The students’ motivations and expectations focused mostly on their desire to learn more about coding and to work in teams. In 2018 students were encouraged to participate in the competition through friends and/or siblings who had participated in a previous competition or knew someone who had.

OUTCOMES/CONCLUSION

While some respondents stated that they had always been interested in technology and their participation in the competition confirmed this interest (25), some now felt they were more likely to consider a science or technology career than before (22). Importantly, 26 responded that their confidence, awareness, knowledge or interest in technology had increased, but not necessarily relating to a direction in study.


“I believe from the competition our interest in technology is enhanced because of the amount of time and effort we put into using technologies. I believe the competition has made us more confident in starting a new business or designing and developing new ideas from technology. The experience was positive and worthwhile”.

“My mind was open to ideas, but the Tech Girls competition has pointed me in the direction of technology.”

“Tech girl superheroes has taught me that I can do whatever I want in the future … this competition has influenced my life greatly and I have become a more confident, better person because of it.”

Happy #IWD2019!

We had a brilliant kick off to our 2019! We spent 4 days around Newcastle and the Hunter Valley hosted by Regional Development Australia (RDA) Hunter and their ME Program – chaperoned by the fabulous Sarah and Rick to visit 9 schools, with 250 girls in grades 7-9.

We covered 300 kms running our 2 hour STEM Entrepreneurship workshop at Maitland High School, St Joseph’s Lochinvar, Warners Bay High School, Cardiff High School, Newcastle Grammar School, San Clemente, with Dungog High School hosting us with Gloucester High School and Bulahdelah Central School on Friday for International Womens Day. Whew!

Then we launched our Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero competition on Friday too! Registrations for teams and mentors are now open until the 20th April. Come on a STEM Entrepreneurship journey to remember! Hear from our tech girls Helpa about their experience in Silicon Valley last year as winners of the competition.

Thanks to Athena Baker for this volunteer blog post for Tech Girls Movement Foundation.

As a writer and former volunteer of  100 Girls in Code, I have been fascinated with the way languages are structured and why learning how to code is important.

Although I wasn’t the best programmer in the classroom(nor do I have the patience to sit through a coding problem while I’m busy typing up a five-page essay a week before it’s due, ha ha), learning how to code nevertheless taught me to think for myself in a world where hundreds of opinions surround me every single day.

Despite the fact that we now live in a world where more girls are participating in STEM fields, most girls are still dissuaded from learning how to code. This is not only disappointing, but it is very stifling to America’s evergrowing, technological based economy.

According to a leading learning expert at Project Lead the Way(PLTW), a non-profit organization, computer science builds skills in a number of areas including math, problem-solving, creative thinking, and so on.

As such, much of America’s economy depends on the brilliant minds of intelligent, creative individuals (including girls). Not to mention that most of the world’s greatest computer programmers such as Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper, are females, according to Dr Jenine Beekhuyzen from Tech Girls Movement Foundation and Adroit Research. So, it would especially be shameful if girls right now do not have access to the resources or even the privilege to become the next generation of successful engineers, web-developers, and programmers as their earlier counterparts.

In order to better understand why learning how to code is important,  let’s fire up our laptops and unleash our inner superhero(s) as we take a look into how teaching young girls how to code is beneficial to their future.

Becoming Better Organizers

As equally important as it is to make sure that your code works, it is also important to make sure that your code is well-organized. This can be as simple as typing up a lot of comments in order to help users understand how your code works or breaking your code up into readable functions.

To better understand what I’m saying, let’s take a look at this old magic-8-ball program that I wrote using Python2 code when I was in my second year of college:

In this example, I’ve created two functions: one called “def magic8ball(question)”, which allows the user to “ask the magic-8-ball” a question  while the computer “randomly” decides on either of the following “answers” as shown in the if-elif-else statements. In other words, this is the “front end” of my code.

The other is is called the “def countSixes(n).” This makes sure that the user can continue to ask the “magic-8-ball” a question. In other words, this is the “back end” of my code.

Altogether, these two functions help to make the code more readable, combined with the use white space.

This way, even if the user doesn’t 100% understand how the code works, at least he or she can get an idea. This is especially true when he or she reads the comments, which in this case are the the red letters right after the “#” sign.

Although I haven’t coded in awhile, it is because of these skills that I have learned to better organize my schedule and this article as a whole. This way, it’s as readable as the code that I typed into my old program shell.

Pretty cool, huh?

Becoming Better Problem-Solvers

Whether it’s creating their own full-fledged visual novels using RenPy or solving Math problems while creating the world’s greatest Minecraft game level, learning how to code can help young girls become better problem-solvers.

Because coding utilizes basic math principles and logic skills, even if someone isn’t a math expert, learning how to code can utilize these skills together.

For instance, let’s take a closer look at the magic8ball code:

As you can see in this def countSixes(n) function, the object of this function is to make sure that the magic8ball continues to work as long as the user “asks” a question.

To do this, the magic8ball “randomly” chooses a number after the user “asks” a question using a “while loop”, which makes the program run for as long as the user wants it to run,  and some basic math in order for the “magic8ball” to give the user any of the following “responses” numbered 1-6.

Although it takes a bit of trial and error in order for the program to work, it is because coding requires girls to use basic math and logic in order to create a program such as this.

In other words, coding is applied logic, math, and organization.

Becoming Better At Cracking Other Languages

To be fair, learning how to code won’t help you become fluent in French in less than a day. However, because coding relies heavily on syntax and all language depends on syntax (or how our English teachers would say, “grammar”), it can help girls especially learn to understand how human grammar works.

For instance, some high-level computer languages such as Python require users to type in the correct syntax byte by byte. Otherwise, the program will not be able to understand what the user typed in and therefore will not be able to run.

This is similar to how humans interact with each other on a daily basis and cannot understand each other’s languages(in some ways, more than one).

Fortunately, unlike learning human foreign languages according to David Dodge’s Coding for Beginners,

“There are many coding concepts that are common to nearly every programming language in the world. Barring slight changes in syntax, the concepts are still legible by nearly anyone with programming proficiency.”

So at least you would have a better chance of becoming fluent a bunch of coding languages in less than a year than a human language in one.

Becoming Better At Paying Attention to Details

As you might have already noticed in the examples above, there is a lot that goes into the making of a program. However, the more you learn how to code, the easier it is to catch whatever mistakes are made in your program. This can especially help young girls if they plan on going into the arts or sciences.

Fortunately, because some languages such as Python can detect if the user made a syntax error by highlighting that mistake in red (once compiled), it’s easier for users not to have to search around their program for that mistake.

However, for logic and math errors, it is best to run the code multiple times in order to catch whatever mistakes were “calculated” into the computer.

After all, wouldn’t it be embarrassing if your answer to “1” + “1” was “11” as opposed to “2” just because of a simple syntax error?

BUT Most Importantly…

Coding Helps Girls Build the Confidence that THEY Need To Succeed

The good thing about learning how to code is even if you are not the best programmer in the classroom, learning how to code is great way to help young girls especially learn how to succeed in life.

No need to be afraid of reaching for a manual or handling all of the dirty details just because you’re not “technical enough.”

If you would like to learn more about why young girls should especially know how to code, check out these free resources located on the Tech Girls Movement Foundation site.

In Conclusion

Because coding teaches young girls how to become…

1.      Better problem-solvers

2.      Better organizers

3.      More detail-oriented

4.      Better language crackers

5.      Become more confident

It is a highly valuable skill and thus should be taught to girls of all ages and backgrounds.

In the meantime, what did you find interesting about this article? Are there any other reasons as to why girls should learn how to code? Who is your favourite woman of code?

 —

Maryland born writer Athena Zhang Baker has been writing all kinds of various articles, stories, and reviews since she was in seventh grade. As of now, she is continuing to write various articles on Computer Science such as “Ada Lovelace: The Making of an Ideal Liberal Arts Student” while running a Manga and Manhwa Club in Memphis, TN.