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Girls and Technology – Insights from a Girls-Only Team at a Reengineered Educational Robotics Summer Camp

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Robotics in Education (RiE 2021)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 1359))

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Abstract

In this paper, we present the results from a case study on an annual extra-curricular summer camp, in which participants (n = 126) engaged in STEM and Computational Thinking activities, facilitated through the usage of the micro:bit microcontroller platform. The camp was a reengineered version of an annual summer camp held by Teknologiskolen; a Danish non-profit organisation offering weekly classes in technology. The focus of the reengineering was to increase the number of girls participating in the camp. This was attempted by creating a girls-only team, which employed highly contextualised projects and had an emphasis on using everyday materials, like cardboard, paint and glue. The result was a significant increase in the number of participating girls and on their attitude towards technology, which at the end of the camp, matched that of the boys. Based on the results, we argue that the girls-only team was the main reason for the higher number of participating girls, while the change in attitude was due to the highly contextualised projects and selection of materials.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. SDU Game Development and Learning Technology, The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moeller Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Bjarke Kristian Maigaard Kjær Pedersen, Jørgen Christian Larsen & Jacob Nielsen

Authors
  1. Bjarke Kristian Maigaard Kjær Pedersen
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  2. Jørgen Christian Larsen
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  3. Jacob Nielsen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bjarke Kristian Maigaard Kjær Pedersen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Practical Robotics Institute Austria (PRIA), Vienna, Austria

    Munir Merdan

  2. Practical Robotics Institute Austria (PRIA), Vienna, Austria

    Wilfried Lepuschitz

  3. Practical Robotics Institute Austria (PRIA), Vienna, Austria

    Gottfried Koppensteiner

  4. Slovak University of Technology (STU), Bratislava, Slovakia

    Richard Balogh

  5. Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    David Obdržálek

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Pedersen, B.K.M.K., Larsen, J.C., Nielsen, J. (2022). Girls and Technology – Insights from a Girls-Only Team at a Reengineered Educational Robotics Summer Camp. In: Merdan, M., Lepuschitz, W., Koppensteiner, G., Balogh, R., Obdržálek, D. (eds) Robotics in Education. RiE 2021. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1359. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82544-7_12

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