Orpheus S. L. Crutchfield
Christopher D. Harrison
Guy Haas
Daniel D. Garcia
Colleen M. Lewis
Skip Abstract Section
Abstract
The Berkeley Foundation for Opportunities in Information Technology is a decade-old endeavor to expose pre-college young women and underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities to the fields of computer science and engineering, and prepare them for rigorous, university-level study. We have served more than 150 students, and graduated more than 65 seniors who have gone on to attend some of the top institutions in the country. Some of the lessons we have learned include the importance of sustained funding to support a continuing year-round program, world-class leaders and resources, and family and alumni involvement. In this article, we share the inner workings of our program, from its foundation during the dot-com heyday through today, in hopes that our best practices can be useful to others working toward the goal of broadening participation.
- ACM. 2003. A Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science: Final Report of the K-12 Task Force Curriculum Committee. Computer Science Teachers Association, ACM, October 2003.Google Scholar
- Aspirations in Computing Award. 2010. Available online at http://www.ncwit.org/work.awards.aspiration.html.Google Scholar
- BFOIT. 2010. Berkeley Foundation for Opportunities in Information Technology. Available online at http://bfoit.org/.Google Scholar
- Blum, L., Cortina, T. J., Lazowska, E., and Wise, J. 2008. The expansion of CS4HS: An outreach program for high school teachers. In Proceedings of the 39th Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE’08). 377--378. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bruckman, A., Biggers, M., Ericson, B., McKlin, T., Dimond, J., DiSalvo, B., Hewner, M., Ni, L., and Yardi, S. 2009. Georgia computes!: Improving the computing education pipeline. In Proceedings of the 40th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE’09). 86--90. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Camp, T. 1997. The incredible shrinking pipeline. Comm. ACM 40, 10, 103--110. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ceci, S. J., Williams, W. M., and Barnett, S. M. 2009. Women’s underrepresentation in science: Sociocultural and biological considerations. Psych. Bul. 135, 218--261.Google ScholarCross Ref
- CS4HS. 2010. CS4HS Summer Workshops. Available online at http://www.cs4hs.com/.Google Scholar
- CSTB, National Research Council. 1999. Being Fluent in Information Technology. National Acad. Press.Google Scholar
- Dabbagh, N. and Kitsantas, A. 2005. Using Web-based pedagogical tools as scaffolds for self-regulated learning. Instruc. Sci. 33, 513--540.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Dewey, J. 1938. Experience and education. Collier Books, New York.Google Scholar
- Downs, R. 2006. Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K-12 Curriculum. NRC.Google Scholar
- EECS. 2010. Outreach Programs. Available online at http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/department/OutreachPrograms.shtml.Google Scholar
- Eliot, J. and Macfarlane-Smith, I. 1983. An international directory of spatial tests. Windsor, Berks: Nfer-Nelson.Google Scholar
- Expanding Your Horizons Conferences. 2010. Available online at http://www.expandingyourhorizons.org/. Math Science Network, Mills College, Oakland, CA.Google Scholar
- Facebook. 2010. Welcome to Facebook. Available online at http://www.facebook.com/.Google Scholar
- Goode, J. 2008. Reprogramming college preparatory computer science. Commun. ACM 51, 11 (Nov. 2008). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Gordon, J. 1996. Tracks for learning: Meta-cognition and learning technologies. Austral. J. Educ. Technol. 12, 1, 46--55.Google Scholar
- Guay, R. and McDaniels, E. 1976. Visualization of viewpoints. Purdue Research Found, West Lafayette, IN.Google Scholar
- Haas, G. 2010. Introduction to Computer Programming. Available online at http://www.bfoit.org/itp/itp.html.Google Scholar
- Hadwin, A.F. and Winne, P. H. 2001. A software tool for promoting self-regulation. Educ. Res. Eval. 7, 2--3, 313--334.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Halpern, D. F. 2000. Sex differences and cognitive abilities. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.Google Scholar
- Harrison, C. 2009. Online learning and thinking in science: Uncovering how secondary school students learn about velocity in a Web-based environment. Ed.D. dissertation, Mills College.Google Scholar
- Harvey, B. 1997. Computer Science Logo Style (vols 1--3). 2nd. MIT Press. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Holden, C. 2009. Science needs kids with vision. Science 325, 1190--1191.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Humphreys, S. and Spertus, E. 2002. Leveraging an alternative source of computer scientists: Reentry programs. SIGCSE Bull. 34, 2, 53--56. Available online at http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/543812.543830. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jones, S. and Burnett, G. 2008. Spatial ability and learning to program. Hum. Technol. 4, 47--61.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Kekelis, L., Ancheta, R., and Heber, E. 2005. Hurdles in the Pipeline: Girls and Technology Careers. Frontiers: J. Wom. Stud. 26, 1, 99--109.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Kelleher, C. and Pausch, R. 2007. Using storytelling to motivate programming. Commun. ACM 50, 7, 58--64. Available online at http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1272516.1272540. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Khooshabeh, P. (in preparation). Turtle power: The effect of a CS enrichment program on spatial thinking.Google Scholar
- Kroll, L. Cossey, R., Donahue, D., Galguera, T., Laboskey, V., Richert, A., and Tucher, P. 2004. Teaching as principled practice: Managing complexity for social change. Sage Publications, Inc., London.Google Scholar
- LEAD Engineering. 2010. Available online at http://www.leadengineeringsite.org/.Google Scholar
- Lewis, D. 2006. What is Web 2.0? Crossroads 13, 1, 3--3. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Linn, M. and A. Petersen. 1985. Emergence and characterization of sex differences in spatial ability: A meta-analysis. Child Dev. 56, 1479--1498.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Margolis, J. and Fisher, A. 2002. Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women and Computing. MIT Press.Google Scholar
- Margolis, J. 2008. Stuck in the Shallow End: Education, Race and Computing. MIT Press. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Marra, R.M., Peterson, K., and Britsch, B. 2008. Collaboration as a means to building capacity: Results and future directions of the National Girls Collaborative Project. J. Wom. Minor. Sci. Eng. 14, 119.Google ScholarCross Ref
- McLoughlin, C. and Hollingworth, R. 2001. Developing science students’ metacognitive problem solving skills online. Austral. J. Educ. Technol. 17, 1, 50--63.Google Scholar
- National Coalition for Women in Technology. 2010. Available online at http://www.ncwit.org/.Google Scholar
- National Girls Collaborative Project. 2010. Available online at http://www.ngcproject.org/.Google Scholar
- NSF. 2009. Broader Impacts. Available online at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/gpa/broaderimpacts.pdf.Google Scholar
- Papert, S. 1980. Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas. New York: Basic Books, Inc. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Pearl, A., Pollack, M. E., Riskin, E., Wolf, E., Thomas, B., and Wu, A. 1990. Becoming a computer scientist. Commun. ACM 33, 11, 47--57. Available online at http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/92755.92757. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Polya, G. 1973. How To Solve It. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
- Resnick, M., Maloney, J., Monroy-Hernández, A., Rusk, N., Eastmond, E., Brennan, K., Millner, A., Rosenbaum, E., Silver, J., Silverman, B., and Kafai, Y. 2009. Scratch: programming for all. Commun. ACM 52, 11, 60--67. Available online at http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1592761.1592779. Google ScholarDigital Library
- SAPEP. 2010. Business Operations -- Budget & Capital Resources -- Operating Budget -- Legislative Reports -- 2009-10 Legislative Reports. Available online at http://www.ucop.edu/budget/legreports/0910/legreq.html.Google Scholar
- Schraw, G. 1998. Promoting general metacognitive awareness. Instruc. Sci. 26, 1, 113--125.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Sheard, J. 2004. Electronic learning communities: Strategies for establishment and management. In Proceedings of the 9th Annual Conference on innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE’04). 37--41. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Shepard, R. N. and Metzler, J. 1971. Mental rotation of three-dimensional objects. Sci 171, 701--703.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Sotomayor, S. 2001. A Latina Judge’s Voice (transcript of 2001 Judge Mario G. Olmos Memorial Lecture). Berkeley La Raza Law Journal, 2002.Google Scholar
- Tate, E. 2005. Hanging with Friends, Velocity Style! Learning from multiple representations of velocity. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association.Google Scholar
- Techbridge. 2010. Techbridge Girls > Home. Available online at http://www.techbridgegirls.org/.Google Scholar
- Vandenberg and Kusem, S. G. 1978. Mental rotations, a group test of three-dimensional spatial visualization. Percept. Motor Skills 47, 599--604.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Vygotsky, L. 1978. Mind in society: Development of higher psychological processes. M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, E. Souberman Eds. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- Wai, J., Lubinski, D., and Benbow, C. P. 2009. Spatial ability for STEM domains: Aligning over 50 years of cumulative psychological knowledge solidifies its importance. J. Educ. Psych. 101, 817--835.Google ScholarCross Ref
- WGBH and ACM. 2009. New Image for Computing : Report on Market Research (April 2009). WGBH Educational Foundation and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).Google Scholar
- WICSE. 2010. WICSE at UC Berkeley. Available online at http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~wicse/.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Berkeley Foundation for Opportunities in Information Technology: A Decade of Broadening Participation
Recommendations
How to Plan and Run Summer Computing Camps: Logistics (Abstract Only)
SIGCSE '16: Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science EducationThis workshop will provide details on how to plan and run non-residential, week-long computing summer camps for 4th-12th grade students. Georgia Tech has been offering computing summer camps since 2004. These camps are financially self-sustaining and ...
Effective and sustainable computing summer camps
SIGCSE '12: Proceedings of the 43rd ACM technical symposium on Computer Science Educationuniversities. But, it is not enough to offer computing summer camps and hope that students like them. The camps should be effective by some measure, such as broadening participation by underrepresented groups and/or increasing learning. Summer camps ...
Computer Science Summer Camps: Making Summer Programs Fun and Sustainable (Abstract Only)
SIGCSE '16: Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science EducationHigher education has the opportunity (and often the mandate) to provide STEM outreach to their communities. Summer camp programs are one mechanism for providing quality CS learning experiences to a wide audience. This BOF will provide a platform for ...
Comments