Launch-IT “Launching at risk Lehigh Valley students toward college & careers in Information Technology” Glenn D. Blank and Henry U. Odi Computer Science & Engineering Department Academic Outreach & Special Projects Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA With support from the National Science Foundation (Grant No. EIA ) and the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance

Need: widening the pipeline The pipeline for women and minorities entering information technology is shrinking, at a time when projected demand for IT professionals is growing CS degrees for women: 36% in 1984 to 22% in 2004 Interest in CS among women fell 80 percent since 1988 Taulbee reports show declining trends for minorities Computing Research News, May 2005 “We must take direct action to attract and retain more women to computing at all points in the pipeline (i.e., K-12, undergraduate, graduate, faculty and industry).” ( Camp 1999)

Pieces of the pipeline in place S.T.A.R. Academies (now in 18 th year at Lehigh) Students That Are Ready for STEM Promotes academic achievement for at-risk students Saturdays (once a month) and summer (three weeks) College students provide tutoring and mentoring Corporate partners and parents 98% of S.T.A.R. students go to college LV STEM, an NSF GK-12 project ( First project, , continuing project Graduate fellows & teachers develop new STEM curricula IT in middle school (Mars rovers) and high school (Java)

Launch-IT connects the pipeline Combines strengths of S.T.A.R. & LV STEM Targets at risk students with high standards and tutoring Connects pipeline from middle to high school in academic year, 55 in summer program Over 70% from underrepresented minorities Over 55% are girls

Focus on Information Technology IT-oriented field trips IT at local airport, REU E-Nose Lab, Mobile Robotics Lab, etc. IT-oriented guest speakers from regional corporations Dilivium Graphic Arts, Alcatel-Lucent, Merck, Johnson & Johnson Initiating conversations concerning college and IT careers One-on-one tutoring by college students PSAT/SAT prep Self-directed multimedia and intelligent tutoring systems Multimedia introducing Object- oriented design and Java A tutoring system preparing students for SAT math E-NOSE Lab

Mars Rovers Team 6 th and 7 th graders Science/math/IT ‘missions’ with remotely controlled robots in a simulated Martian landscape Isaac Rieskts, “Mars Rovers in Middle Schools,” at 5:20pm Rocketry experiments with physical and virtual rockets Assembling a Mars Rover Summer 2007 Building math skills at

Fuego Flash team 8 th and 9 th graders Flash™ animations and interactivity: web-based juke box Programming logic with ActionScript Math inquiry-based activities: shapes and tessellations Daily journal entries via blogging

Design First with Java team 10 th – 12 th grades “Design First with Java” curriculum Multimedia-enhanced Learn design concepts and UML before coding Prepare for AP Java test PSAT/SAT prep Ethics in IT Resume writing and mock interviews with industry professionals

Results Satisfied with working on computers: 3.5/4 Flash animation rubric: 3.7/4 Action Script rubric: 3.0/4 Java project rubric: 3.3/4 High participation of girls and minorities Several seniors admitted to higher quality colleges than envisioned, in Computer Science Increasing connection with fellows and tutors between sessions Need to improve parental involvement Need to monitor of progress in school

Thank you! Questions? “My program works!”