From the BBC this week we hear that the number of UK students choosing to take the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) had fallen 33% over the last three years.

On June 28th, we kicked off the 15th year of the Artemis Project here at Brown University.  The Artemis Project is a free, five-week summer day camp for rising 9th-grade girls in the Providence area that teaches computer skills, programming, and computer science concepts through engaging activities, therby encouraging young women to join the field of computer science.

In the news this week ...

Do women shun STEM careers because they perceive these careers to be incompatible with “communal” goals, or engaging in work that helps others? 

This spring the University of Nebraska at Lincoln completed its 2nd Annual Girl Empowerment and Mentoring (GEM) contest.  Based on our introduction and exit surveys, we observed some interesting and encouraging results.  Overall, more than half of students who completed both surveys reported improved views towards computer science.  Participants also reported specifically inreased confidence in their CS knowledge and abilities and interests in majoring in CS.  They also reported that it does not make sense that there are more men than wo