Who Are You? We Really Wanna Know... Especially If You Think You're Like a Computer Scientist

We developed a short, easily implemented survey that measures the similarity in phrases describing the self and a computer scientist. Additionally, we took initial steps in determining adjectives or phrases that describe a stereotypical computer scientist. We then administered this survey before and after an eight-week summer computer science program for high school girls. We found that phrases or adjectives used to describe the self converged with those to describe the computer scientist. In addition, descriptions of both were more positive at the end of the program compared to the beginning. Finally, the stereotypical of a computer scientist decreased from the beginning to the end of the program. Future work includes refinement of the stereotype measure and assessing different types of computer science programs.