Hello all,
I need your help. AAUW(American Association of University women) is sponsoring this event in one of the local high school so they made me a Co Chair of this program. The goal is to get more girls interested in Math and science fields as there is a lack of women in these fields. We would have to make up a presentation and speak in front of some 200 9th grade girls about these fields. We will be speaking about Chemistry, Computer science, physics, engineering, math, biology(bio medical etc) and forensic science or any other math or science related field
Khair I am going to speak about Computer Science. I have never done anythin related to public speakin thing before. So can you guys give me some suggestions.. If you are also a CS student then help me how can we motivate girls into Computers. Even in my college, if you go at any programming classes you will see 3 or 4 girls compare to some 30 guys. I will have around 20 mins for the presentation, plus we have grants available for this program too. So I am thinking how should I make things more interesting, cuz they are high school student and I really don’t wanan bore them by simply just talkin.
Not just for Computer Science but may be for engineering math or Science related fields. May be we can have some prizes, give aways, quizes…being a Co Chair I have to organized everything in 2 weeks…so give me some ideas, suggestions.. And i also wanan know what things i should be talkin to girls about Computer Science.
thank you very much for your time. your response will be highly appreciated
The gender imbalance situation is quite discernable... your example of 2 - 3 girls in classes of 30 - 40 is a very common obseration.
Well, how about you make your session a little interactive. You can start off by asking how many of the girls use computers to do assignments... how many of them use the internet for communication and the web for information-retrieval etc.
Chances are everyone's hands will go up... you can then continue by validating that it is predominantly men who are programming the applications you use, and inventing the technology that affects all aspects of EVERYONE's lives - so it is important for girls to think about a career in computing.
You could also talk briefly about some of the computing legends like Ada Byron who created the first computer program; Grace Hopper (I think?!) who created COBOL etc.
You can then go on to show how well some women have been doing in their careers over the recent years... Carlene Ellis at Intel and Dixie Garr at Cisco Systems are two examples that I can think of right now.
Amber, this is great yaar mashallah what u r doing, i’m so very proud of u
i was the only pakistani female engineering undergrad in my college, in fact prolly only muslim one, for yrs, and i always always wished there were more…
way to go yaar we need more pakistani girls in america like you :k:
its weird coz in pakistan a lot of girls r going in all fields, engineering, business, medicine, law, showbiz, everything but havent seen the same thing abroad among the paki gals…
khayr, back to the point
to answer your questions:
i think you should include these points:
tell them what basically computer science tracks in colleges consist of…programming, web design, graphics, animations, networking, human computer interaction etc etc…and you can tell them that there are many many fields and lots of choices to choose from…
theres a myth among girls that if they go into computer science or any engineering field they’ll be labelled as super techie/geeky/nerdy/boring etc etc and that these fields are unfeminine n too technical…so u have to debunk this myth and convince them that this is absolutely a stereotype and these days many girls r opting for this field, and we need more girls in this field b/c computer science is central to every profession…even girls who go into business or management say that they wished they had taken some programming classes…everything revolves around computers in the workplace and gone r the days when computers and techiness was labelled as a guy’s thing. u can include a joke like we cant let guys dominate this upcoming field and rule the workplace can we
im not sure but can u find anything related between computer science and typical girly stuff like fashion/makeup/clothes/music/movies…hmmm…animation? fashion design? makeup modelling etc…all this can be aided by computer science…so its not just about creating machines and doing math…theres a lot more to it and we girls have to enter this arena…
u can show some cool slides and websites etc for this which look all nice and pretty and colorful…might help attract the girlz attention…
oh and ofcourse the comp sci jobs pay well
how to make presentation interesting..hmmm…lets c
i think you can
give some real life examples and show websites or presentations or animations of things that girls would be interested in…like some things i mentioned above…
you can ask girls to give ideas about what they think would be cool and could be done in computer science and how they could apply it in their real life…u can get it rollin by giving examples…once the ideas get rolling there will be more participation…
prizes and stuff…hmm…yah not a bad idea…!
also give examples of women in computer science in everyday jobs and what they do, and they can also work from home so thats a big convenience
and oh i think microsoft and google and different colleges give scholarships specially for females in comp sci..mention that too…
they have a special name for this scenario, i think they call "jake and jennifer ratio" i read about it in some tech magazine.
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Haven't heard that expression before but it makes total sense...
Umar and Irem: thank you very much for the wonderfull suggestions.
i was thinking of how i should start my presentation but now as you said it will be interesting to ask how much they know about computers.. so this way i will know what they alreayd know about computers and what they need to know for their career
thanks for the examples as well.. let me find more information about them and then i will definately add them into my presentation.
irem: so true yar.. and thansk for the motivation.. i needed that as well..i remem how i used to be the only muslim(Asian) girl in High Tech major in school and in college i think thr will be only 10-20 girls into whole Computer Department. so i used to wonder tooo where are the other girls..
i think computer is very necessary infact if you are a medical student you still need to take a basic CIS pc Application for that too.. so you need computers everywhr.. being a computer assistant in CIS Lab i know how girls strugglin most of the time. its like whenever guys have problems they tend to fix it on their own but for girls they are like CAN YOU PLEASE DO IT… u wont imagine.. girls dun even try and think…
peoples are surprised to know when i tell them that i am taking calculas…they are like jaisay calculas nahi hogaya koi hathi ghora hogaya… and u r so rite Asians are more into tech things. its like hamaray mulk main telant hia to jobs nahi.. aur yehan jobs hi jobs hian laikin telant ki kaami hia (excludin all Ameircan asians)
thanks for your suggestions.. i will definately wanna add other majors of Computer science. (like web development, programmin n network related fields).. infact i myself is in doing two majors of computer Science(Programming and Webdeveloping)
thank you very much yar.. i will keep you guys updated with everything
actually there is a valid reason for girls not being maths , engineering and comp science wizards . Its the gender differences in brain .
Girls are better in predicting the social world . and men are better in systmizing skills which require observation, control and prediction.
your chance ot find out if u have the systemizing/male , empathizing /female or balanced brain
mere computer engineering class mein bhi 4-5 lakriyan hi hein… out of like…30 students…
hehe…kher
ummm…u can talk abouttttt…
howwww everything in the world nowadays uses computer technology n its one field thats appreciated like…all around the word…(i think bummer ) …n howww…like irem baji said… we cant let guyz dominate this field
n also…if girls go into engineering then…umm…well..there’ll be a lotta guyz around in there uni n…
argh wat am i talking about
newayss…umm…yeah…so
raat ke do buj re hein me sleepy
jaisay calculas nahi hogaya koi hathi ghora hogaya… and u r so rite Asians are more into tech things. its like hamaray mulk main telant hia to jobs nahi.. aur yehan jobs hi jobs hian laikin telant ki kaami hia (excludin all Ameircan asians)
out of like…30 students…
