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Drew  University

The Real Projects for Real  Clients Course (RPRCC) Initiative: Attracting Young Women to Computing Majors: An ACM-W Project

Presented by David Klappholz

Gender equity in computing has long been a national goal advanced by those concerned with fairness and by those who know that the female point of view improves the design and development of software systems. Unfortunately, though, the percentage of young women entering computing-related majors keeps falling, and the female dropout rate is higher than the very high male dropout rate.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a large increase in the need for B.S. and M.S. computing graduates in the next decade. The largest untapped pool of potential computing majors and, eventually, computing professionals, is science- and math-talented high school students, but only about 10% of entering undergraduate majors in computing majors are female. Despite the many initiatives aimed at attracting young women, the number of female computing majors keeps dropping. In this talk we will discuss results of an extensive psychological research study that followed thousands of science- and math-talented students from middle school to middle age and that explains why many previous initiatives have failed. We will also discuss a new high school and university level initiative that is supported by these psychological studies, and that has recently been designated an ACM-W project. We will invite interested attendees to participate in the initiative.
 

Introduction to Alice 2.2

Presented by Don Slater

This session is an overview of Alice 2.2, a tool that uses 3D models and a drag and drop interface to provide a first programming experience for students who have never programmed before. We will look at the use of Alice 2.2 in introductory technology courses, as well as the emerging use of Alice as a presentation tool in other curricular areas.

Introduction to Alice 3  

Presented by Don Slater

In this session we will introduce  Alice 3, designed to support more traditional introductory programming classes in Java. Students start with Alice 3D models (including models from Electronic Arts The Sims 2), and the drag and drop interface, and transition to a traditional Java programming environment, writing Java code.

Promoting a Code of Ethics and Professional  Conduct through Programming Examples

Presented by Steve Kass

The ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct contains this counsel:

"When designing or implementing systems, computing professionals must attempt to ensure that  the products of their efforts will be used in socially responsible ways, will meet social  needs, and will avoid harmful effects to health and welfare."

Through selected case studies, we'll look at how teachers might set the stage for these professional responsibilities within familiar corners of the curriculum (such as getting programs to work correctly).

Introduction to Programming Through Game Development Using Microsoft XNA Game Studio

Presented by Alfred Thompson

This is a multi-media generation who grew up playing video games and they have a low tolerance for the white text on black background console applications many of us used to learn programming. For many students, boys and girls, video games provide a more visual and stimulating development model which inspires them to work harder. A new curriculum using free development tools including the C# programming language (very similar to C++ or Java) and the XNA Game studio has been developed to teach programming and allow students to develop games for several game devices besides a Windows computer.

Learn about these tools and this new curriculum and find out how it can spice up your computer science curriculum as a new course or by incorporating modules into an existing course.