Using Scratch and Female Role Models while Storytelling Improves Fifth-Grade Students' Attitudes toward Computing

Women are underrepresented in the computer science field. In fact, only 15% of bachelor degrees in pure computer science are awarded to women [1]. The literature reveals various reasons for the underrepresentation of women in computing, including lack of role models [2]. An experimental class at DePauw University continued a project to expose fifth-graders to both programming and female role models, in order to change attitudes toward computing -- in particular, the attitudes of both boys and girls to the inclusion of girls in computing activities. The DePauw class visited the children a total of 5 times, administering an attitude scale (CATS [3]) as both a pre-test and post-test instrument. The children learned the programming language, Scratch, and developed two storytelling endings for books they had read in their current English curriculum unit. Pre- and post-test comparisons of the 10 CATS items (Likert-type attitude scale) were obtained using one-tailed t-tests for the 10 paired responses from the 20 children (10 boys and 10 girls). The t-test for item number 7 ("Technology is as difficult for girls as it is for boys.") yielded a p-value of 0.019, which was significant at the .05 level. Since little girls and little boys should think that computing is equally easy and equally difficult for each sex, the results provide one piece of evidence that providing a series of lessons involving Scratch by a team of students with sufficient female role models (4 female students and 4 male) can change children's attitudes toward computing.