Today was the first day I was officially helping out with the AP Computer Science class. I'll continue to help out weekly on Wednesdays, so I'm excited to see the progression of the students through the rest of the year. From the teacher's description of the differing ability levels of the students, while some have really dived into the class, others have just lightly dipped their toes into the world of coding. My role will be to help students while they work in breakout rooms on projects. The class is being taught in Python, so my previous experience as a Teaching Assistant for the Introduction to CS class at Mines, which is also taught in Python, will hopefully help me make an impact in the class.
In terms of specifics of the first full class I visited, there were a few key takeaways. The first was my bit of shock at the chaos that is a high school classroom that is half virtual and half in person. The chaos was started by a student who innocently asked "Why is software so expensive?" in an effort to get the teacher off topic so he didn't have to answer the teacher's question, which he clearly did not know the answer to. The question resulted in outbursts from four different students about corporate America and other random outburst. While on some softwares, the teacher would have been able to mute the students, unfortunately Google Meets does not contain this functionality. Thus, the question resulted in 5 minutes of very passionate high schoolers talking over each other. I forgot about that aspect of high school. My experience in college so far has not included any class clowns who try to draw attention away from the teacher, so this break in concentration came as a bit of a shock to me. Lesson Learned: All video conferencing apps need to include a "mute all" function.
While working with a group of two senior girls in the class, I was able to ask them questions about their future plans and why they were taking the AP CS class. Both are planning on going to college nearby and continuing to live at home. Both are majoring in music/theater. Confused about why they would take an AP CS class if they were interested in music/theater, I asked them about why they took this class. The answer was because it counted as a "math class" without being Calculus. One of the girls then told me that she was good at math, but she didn't like it because it lacked the relevance and importance other subjects like English and History had. While agreeing with her on the fact that math does lack the multidimensionality of some other topics, her response made me hesitate. I wasn't sure if it was my place to explain to her all that can be done with math and other STEM areas, so I didn't say anything. I'm not sure what there was to say.
While the act of doing math does not contain any reflection on deeper subjects, the outcome of complex math is incredibly important. Coding has a depth too that just isn't seen on the surface. It's not about how you implement the code, but it is what the code does. The company I interned for last summer called Maxar Technologies uses complex code networks to intake satellite images. These satellite images are used during natural disasters to determine locations that were worst hit and to rescue people from them. According to "Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are," which was a book I read recently by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, satellite images can be used to determine the level of development of different areas in the world. This is done by using pictures of cities and countries at night, which show changes in the number of lights. This data about the lights then is inputted into Machine Learning algorithms that reveal changes in the level of development of those locations. These are only two examples on a specific type of data (satellite images), but the examples are numerous. Therefore, I couldn't fully understand how someone could say math lacks depth when I see it constantly in the world around us.
I wonder if there are less women than men in STEM because girls think that STEM areas "lack depth." The research points to other reasons, such as a lack of role models in STEM who look like girls and the fact that the stereotypical mathematicians and scientists are men. Not just that, but the stereotypical mathematicians and scientists are nerdy men who fit the image of characters from the TV show The Big Bang Theory. However, there are female characters on this show too. Despite this, the female characters also fit into the nerdy box and are predominantly white. Therefore, where do young girls who are minorities see their role models in STEM? The answer for the most part, is that they probably don't. Therefore, ensuring that girls see role models of women in STEM is essential to them seeing themselves in STEM careers in their future.
Switching back to my examples from above proving the depth of STEM areas, such as math and Computer Science, research shows that the way STEM classes are taught impacts retainment of girls. According to Microsoft's research, more hands-on projects retain girls interest in STEM long term better than other styles of teaching. Another problem is girls don't understand what STEM careers look like. Until I started college, I had no idea what jobs you could do with a math degree other than becoming a teacher. Role models fix this problem too because giving girls the opportunity to ask questions early on to mathematicians and scientists gives them the opportunity to learn what they could do with a STEM degree. This is also a way that girls can learn while STEM fields may lack the obvious depth that English and Social Studies courses reveal to them, the impacts of work in STEM are various and significant. Now, mathematicians are working to make predictions about the COVID-19 pandemic that is impacting all of us.
I hope in my time helping out with this AP CS class, I can prove to those girls and other students all that you can do with Computer Science and STEM, as well as serve as a female role model for them. Hopefully, it might even be enough for some of them to see future careers for themselves in STEM.
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