Coding Initiative Provides Different Approaches to Inspire Girls for Programming

Abstract

Attracting more women into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics continues to be a significant concern in the scientific research community. Especially the demand for specialists in computer science is increasing. However, interest drops significantly among teenage girls. Many coding initiatives aim to increase motivation and enthusiasm and provide young women with a bright future in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This paper demonstrates a one-week coding initiative with different approaches to encourage 21 teenage girls to program. The different approaches, game design, embroidery programming, and robotics provide a suitable setting to answer the research questions: 1) Are the girls inspired to program through the coding initiative? 2) Has the girl’s self-perception of programming skills improved? 3) Do these approaches arouse the girl’s interest? The results show that the girls’ enthusiasm and interest are successfully raised. We proved that the girls obtained a fundamental understanding of programming skills and computational thinking. Their understanding of loops, variables, data, if-else statements, objects, and local and global constructs confirms the results. The most interesting approaches are embroidery programming closely followed by game design. These validated and purposeful approaches teach (girls) programming and basic computational thinking skills. Researchers and practitioners will benefit from these findings. The results will advance the field of computing education.