Offering Early Success Experiences in Software Construction: Experiences Teaching Dynamic Website Development to High School Girls

In spite of comparable levels of computer access and use by males and females at home and school, women continue to be underrepresented in careers and education related to the computer and information sciences. In this paper, we describe outreach activities taking place within the wConnect project, a research effort aimed at building a developmental learning community of women in which members at different levels of sophistication support each other at different stages of their education and careers in computing and related fields. More specifically, we report on a series of hands-on workshops that were designed and delivered by undergraduate members of the community to high school girls. We describe the design and conduct of the workshop activities, the girls’ reactions, our own reflections and implications for future work.