| Project: |
Computer Science Recruitment for the 21st Century |
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| Student Researchers: |
Lisa Guntly, |
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| Advisor: |
Daniel Tauritz |
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| Institution: |
Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) |
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| Webpage: |
Project Description: goals and purpose of the project
Though the demand for Computer Science (CS) is expected to keep on increasing for the foreseeable future, the enrollment in CS degree programs in higher education dropped 49% between the 2001/2002 and 2006/2007 academic years according to a March 2008 report by the Computing Research Association. Furthermore, the proportion of CS bachelors degrees awarded to females has fallen from 36% to 21% between 1983 and 2006 according to the National Center for Women & Information Technologys 2007 Scorecard report.
The purpose of this project is to reverse the decreasing enrollment in, and counter the negative stereotypes associated with, CS degree programs. Our approach is to target students before they begin to choose elective courses and still have an open mind as to their choice of career. We specifically target students in grades 3 and 4. Our goal is to open their minds to a possible career choice in CS by having them interact with our "Edutainment" software which is composed of highly visual games, puzzles, information on the field of CS as well as information on the personal experiences of the Missouri S&T alumni as they use CS in their everyday careers.
Process used on the project
Developing new ideas
Last year, interviewing the alumni was very crucial to this project. This year we have the information from the alumni and it was our job to integrate it into the software. While presenting the software to the students, we found that the students did not like to read while playing with the software. They mostly went straight to the games, which defeats the purpose of informing them about CS. Moreover, it hinders their view of CS majors in the fact that they think that CS majors just program video games. Our job this year was to brainstorm new ideas of how we can get the children to be interested in the text within the software rather than just the games. The solution to this problem was to include the reading within the games so that the students would have to read the information about CS if they wanted to progress through the games. This solution was incorporated in a new colorful two-player game and in the future an age sensitive dictionary will be integrated which allows the student to click on words they find challenging. This will give them a definition that is suitable for their age level. Moreover, we attended a parent/teacher conference night where we set up a booth to capture the interest of the passing parents. Many parents stopped by and were enthused about, and supportive of, our project.
Software
The software was designed as a tool that is used to educate students about CS as a career choice. This software is user-friendly and contains multiple clickable pictures and icons that navigate you through the software. The software is designed for the user to be able to close down any menu to get back to the main screen. It also includes a world map that shows where the alumni work in the world, a memory game where a correct match will display information about that item (what it is and how it relates to CS), an area where the students can just view information about alumni, an interactive maze, one new game called Mystery Match that is currently in the testing phase, and another new game called Color Conqueror that is in this version of the software.
Improvements of the Software
We are currently on version 2 of the software. The development of version 2 required several improvements which including fixing many bugs of version 1. One improvement was changing the underlying design of how the different parts of the software could be accessed. Instead of having multiple executable files, we made the software into only one executable file which increased speed and stability. Another improvement of the software was how the images were loaded. In the past, the images were loaded in many different ways and the Software Architect finally decided to build the images into the software instead of using dynamic loading functions. This allows the images to load much faster while running and also resolved a problem of the software not being cross-platform. A couple of other upgrades to the software included integrating more profiles to be shown on the map and in the filing cabinet and making a new game which was designed to get the students to read all of the information about CS and still have fun while playing.
Assessment
While optimally the assessment of our project would be in the form of a longitudinal study tracking the higher education program enrollment choices of our targeted students, within the scope of this project we are currently limiting ourselves to measuring the immediate impact of our software on the students through the use of pre- and post-surveys. The surveys include questions assessing their knowledge of CS and rating their willingness to take challenging courses in STEM disciplines. The students were then encouraged to take a CD containing our software home and continue to interact with it on their own time.
To present to the students, special permission from the Missouri S&Ts Institutional Review Board (IRB) was required. In order to allow the students to participate, each student was given a permission slip for their parent to sign as well as information for the parent to read which described the experiment. They were also given a copy of the surveys to view. For the student to be able to participate, the parent must sign and the student must return the permission slip.
Conclusions
The software was presented to the students of four third grade classes who returned permission slips signed by their parents. Not a single parent withheld permission, but getting the students to return their permission slips even with the promise of candy rewards (irrespective of whether the parent gave or withheld permission) turned out to be an obstacle to getting maximum participation. The students highly enjoyed the software. They not only found the software entertaining, but they were able to get a better understanding of what a computer scientist does. The percentage of grade 3 students that knew what people with degrees in CS can do for a job went up by 26% after they were exposed to the software. The percentage of them that would like to study computers, math, and science in college went up by 6%, 7%, and 9% respectively. The percentage of the students that will take challenge courses in computers, math, and/or science went up by 8%. It was obvious that the children liked the software from the following comments that some left on their post-surveys: "I loved it all and would like to do it again", "It rocked!!!", and "Your games and info. [were] awesome". Based on the results, we conclude that the students obtained a higher knowledge of CS in general. Our research shows that it is easier to pick up material faster and retain it longer if the material is presented in a way that it is interesting and/or entertaining. The students were able to take home their own copy of the Edutainment software. It is our hope that the students will continue to pursue more challenging courses and in the future, challenging and rewarding careers.
Websites Developed and Publications
Web pages developed: