Input from a student
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Barbara Shaurette
Sep 10, 2012, 12:44:31 PM9/10/12
to operation-computer-sc...@googlegroups.com
Yesterday, on one of the legs of my flight back from DC, I lucked out and got seated next to a female civil engineering student. She's working on her Masters at MST, and also works as a staff engineer in infrastructure at a company called ARA (http://www.ara.com/About%20ARA/corevalues.html).
When I mentioned this project, she offered a few ideas from the viewpoint of a student. She said that the things that motivated her and other students most were challenges. At her high school, they had an extracurricular club that held contests - build a robot, build a remote control car and see whose wins the race at the end, etc.
The key thing was knowing that she could be doing more than just building video games. Kids are interested in going beyond that model, if you just offer them the chance. Get them started with a few different ideas, not just the things that we always assume kids want to do with their skills.
.......
On a side note, we didn't actually talk during the flight - I was coding and she was watching a lecture. It wasn't until we were deplaning - a woman in the row ahead of us mentioned to her seat mate that she was in an engineering role at the FAA. Then my seat mate chimed in, and I followed up that I was just coming back from an open source conference. The three of us looked at each other and had one of those 'whoa' moments - three science-y women in the same place at the same time, what are the odds?
When I mentioned this project, she offered a few ideas from the viewpoint of a student. She said that the things that motivated her and other students most were challenges. At her high school, they had an extracurricular club that held contests - build a robot, build a remote control car and see whose wins the race at the end, etc.
The key thing was knowing that she could be doing more than just building video games. Kids are interested in going beyond that model, if you just offer them the chance. Get them started with a few different ideas, not just the things that we always assume kids want to do with their skills.
.......
On a side note, we didn't actually talk during the flight - I was coding and she was watching a lecture. It wasn't until we were deplaning - a woman in the row ahead of us mentioned to her seat mate that she was in an engineering role at the FAA. Then my seat mate chimed in, and I followed up that I was just coming back from an open source conference. The three of us looked at each other and had one of those 'whoa' moments - three science-y women in the same place at the same time, what are the odds?
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