PGE/PLN Spurring the Entry of Women into Information Technology in West Virginia Planning Grant

West Virginia University Research Corporation, Morgantown WV

Investigators

Abstract

West Virginia University is teaming with Step-Up for Women to prepare a full proposal. The objective of the proposed project to be implemented beginning in fall 2003 is to increase the number of women entering and remaining in the computer science major at West Virginia University. The research question to be addressed is whether an adaptation of the approaches used by Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher at Carnegie Mellon University [Margolis, 2002] and by Jane Zimmer Daniels, formerly at Purdue University and now at The Henry Luce Foundation, are applicable at a university in a rural state with modest admissions requirements. Central to the work is a two semester course sequence which will be discovery-based with a real-world orientation. The results of this work should be transferable to colleges and universities in similar states seeking to increase all students and particularly female students in computer science.