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Launch-IT“Launching at risk Lehigh Valley students
toward college & careers in Information Technology”
www.lehigh.edu/launchit
Glenn D. Blank and Henry U. OdiComputer Science & Engineering Department
Academic Outreach & Special ProjectsLehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA
With support from the National Science Foundation (Grant No. EIA-0624553)
and the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance
Need: widening the pipeline
The pipeline for women and minorities entering information technology is shrinking, at a time when projected demand for IT professionals is growing CS degrees for women: 36% in 1984 to 22% in 2004 Interest in CS among women fell 80 percent since 1988 Taulbee reports show declining trends for minorities
Computing Research News, May 2005
“We must take direct action to attract and retain more women to computing at all points in the pipeline (i.e., K-12, undergraduate, graduate, faculty and industry).” (Camp 1999)
Pieces of the pipeline in place S.T.A.R. Academies (now in 18th year at Lehigh)
Students That Are Ready for STEM Promotes academic achievement for at-risk students Saturdays (once a month) and summer (three weeks) College students provide tutoring and mentoring Corporate partners and parents 98% of S.T.A.R. students go to college
LV STEM, an NSF GK-12 project (www.lehigh.edu/stem) First project, 2003-2006, continuing project 2007-2010 Graduate fellows & teachers develop new STEM curricula IT in middle school (Mars rovers) and high school (Java)
Launch-IT connects the pipeline
Combines strengths of S.T.A.R. & LV STEM Targets at risk students with high standards and tutoring Connects pipeline from middle to high school 70-80 in academic year, 55 in summer program Over 70% from underrepresented minorities Over 55% are girls
Focus on Information Technology
IT-oriented field trips IT at local airport, REU E-Nose Lab, Mobile Robotics Lab, etc.
IT-oriented guest speakers from regional corporations Dilivium Graphic Arts, Alcatel-Lucent, Merck, Johnson & Johnson Initiating conversations concerning college and IT careers
One-on-one tutoring by college students PSAT/SAT prep Self-directed multimedia and intelligent tutoring systems
MultimediaintroducingObject-orienteddesign andJava
A tutoringsystem preparing students for SAT math
E-NOSE Lab
Mars Rovers Team 6th and 7th graders Science/math/IT ‘missions’ with remotely controlled robots
in a simulated Martian landscape Isaac Rieskts, “Mars Rovers in Middle Schools,” at
5:20pm
Rocketry experiments with physical and virtual rockets
Assembling a Mars RoverSummer 2007
Building math skills atwww.FirstInMath.com
Fuego Flash team 8th and 9th graders Flash™ animations and interactivity: web-based juke box
Programming logic with ActionScript Math inquiry-based activities: shapes and tessellations Daily journal entries via blogging
Design First with Java team 10th – 12th grades “Design First with Java”
curriculum Multimedia-enhanced Learn design concepts and
UML before coding Prepare for AP Java test PSAT/SAT prep Ethics in IT Resume writing and mock
interviews with industry professionals
Results Satisfied with working on computers: 3.5/4 Flash animation rubric: 3.7/4 Action Script rubric: 3.0/4 Java project rubric: 3.3/4 High participation of girls and minorities Several seniors admitted to higher quality colleges
than envisioned, in Computer Science Increasing email connection with fellows and tutors
between sessions Need to improve parental involvement Need to monitor of progress in school
