Katy Dickinson

Looking for Girl Geeks in Public High School

Looking for 2 More Panelists!

More information about Hopper 2007: http://gracehopper.org/2007/. See my About page for contact information if you are interested or know somone who is.

I am the moderator of the "Girl Geeks in High School – Technical Experiences of Future Inventors" panel at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2007. Sun is a Platinum Sponsor of Hopper 2007 and I am managing our participation. Sun has eleven panelists, and runners-of-BOFs at Hopper this year. I have 4 excellent and impressive "Girl Geeks in High School" panelists already confirmed:

• 1 recent grad from Harker who is now a Freshman at CMU
• 2 from Castilleja
• 1 from Menlo School

However, these amazing young women are all from private schools and I would also like to include two girls from public schools in the Silicon Valley. I am in touch with both Paly and Gunn but no luck yet.

Who am I looking for?

• Two rising Senior girls attending a Silicon Valley public high school. The two can be from different public high schools. Will accept an exceptional rising Junior.
• Must be seriously involved in Robotics and/or Computer Science and/or Programming and/or Engineering.
• Must be able to attend the Hopper Conference in Orlando, Florida, October 17-20, 2007. Our 1-hour panel is on 18 October - Thursday. I can't offer travel funds but I can guarantee an exceptional and inspiring experience for the participants.
• Must be mature and responsible enough to travel by herself or have a family or faculty member willing to come with her to Disney World. Two Moms of confirmed panelists are already attending.
• Must want a remarkable accomplishment to include on her college applications.

Hopper is an amazing annual conference for women in computing. I am on the Technical Advisory Board of the Anita Borg Institute which, with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), presents the Hopper conference. This is the third year I have run a panel at Hopper (the other two were on mentoring): I recommend the conference most highly.

Hopper offers many activities, panels, and talks aimed at college students as well as academics and people with jobs in the computer science industry. About half of Hopper's attendees are students (grad and undergrad). Hopper offers 1-day registrations or full 2-1/2 day registrations. The conference is based at the Hilton Disney World. Just for fun, Hopper offers these five good reasons to attend:

1. It's a geek utopia.
2. Awesome keynote and invited technical speakers
3. It's in Orlando!
4. You can bring your family. We've arranged tours for your companions and child care for children.
5. It will give you a reason to add another friend to your MySpace.

Panel Session Summary

What is it like to grow up a geeky girl? This panel provides direct communication from a panel of Silicon Valley girls about their recent computing, technical, and robotics experiences: what worked for them (or did not work) in terms of teaching, course content, approach, coaching, school resources, and technical internships. How does growing up in a world-class center of technical innovation effect young women in particular?

Girls are included from a broad range of educational backgrounds: both private and public high schools, girls-only and co-educational schools. The primary audience is those in industry interested in their employee pipeline, plus high school and undergraduate academics who want to hear directly from young women just about to start college about what their high schools offered and what was effective in their technical education and experience. The broader audience includes everyone interested in girls' technical education, particularly with a view toward encouraging innovation.

Questions for the panel include:

1. What teaching methods or tools particularly benefitted you, especially in encouraging your innovation?
2. What turned you off to computer science and math; what turned you back on again?
3. Does having your own laptop make a difference? (how?)
4. Does teaching theory work best for you, or were hands-on experiments, labs, and programming more effective? (examples?)
5. How does it make a difference if math, science, and technical teachers are female?
6. Do you have to be good in math to love programming?
7. How do you deal with social pressures and bias, did you feel you had to to “outboy the boys”? (stories?)
8. How do your parents feel about your involvement in technology? Are your parents technical?
9. What have you done so far with your technical or computer skills?
10. What do you see as your future in science or technology, and why?

More information about Hopper 2007: http://gracehopper.org/2007/. See my About page for contact information if you are interested or know somone who is. Thanks for your consideration!

Posted at 12:20PM Aug 03, 2007 by katysblog in Hopper - Anita Borg Institute  |