[Tyler]

Dear Diary: Girls love Robots
     

In 2006, CMU researches began thinking about how to use robot building as
a way of boosting technological fluency in middle school girls. They
hoped to improve the "dismally low number" of women in computer science
and engineering fields by offering a more motivating alternative to
traditional education. The result was Robot
Diaries, a series of workshops
where girls built robots (photos
of another workshop). A huge amount of feedback and analysis was
collected during the workshops, to learn what worked and what didn't. The
participants spent almost as much time keeping activity logs, being
interviewed, debriefed, surveyed, and observed as they did building
robots. The end result was a program and curriculum researchers believe
engages the girls, while at the same time changing the attitudes of
their parents, which tends to force girls into stereotypical roles. To
read more about how the programs worked, what they tried, and what
worked, check out the verbosely named paper, "Robot
Diaries Interim Project Report: Development of a Technology Program for
Middle School Girls" (PDF format). Like
to try it at your school? CMU has made the curriculum
for the one-day workshop available online. This research was
done by the CMU Robotic Institute's CREATE Lab.
   

http://robots.net/article/2587.html