Sept. 8 was a special day for Heather Russell’s grade 3 morning language arts students, who became the first at Harker to use virtual reality (VR) technology as a teaching tool in the classroom. Students wore headsets equipped with smartphones that displayed special YouTube videos, giving them a full 360-degree view of the area shown in the videos.
The students used the technology to take a virtual trip to Tokyo’s Shibuya Station, one of Japan’s busiest rail stations. Russell instructed them to be on the lookout for the statue of Hachiko, an Akita dog famous in Japan for waiting at Shibuya Station every day for nearly a decade for his deceased owner to return. Hachiko’s perseverance made him a national symbol of loyalty.
Russell’s students, who had been reading a story about Hachiko, watched two videos with the use of the headsets and wrote out their reactions to each video, describing how they might feel if they had to travel that way to school each day and how they might feel if they were Hachiko himself.
Every summer, Harker’s learning, innovation and design department offers career development opportunities to Harker teachers looking to broaden their teaching methods and areas of expertise, often by incorporating the use of new or emerging technologies.
Lower school math teacher Mira Vojvodic used her LID grant to look into expanding the use of games in her classroom to “make difficult math concepts a bit more approachable to the kids,” she said. Working with a group of math teachers from other campuses, Vojvodic was excited to discover how many different ways there are to learn. “Even when it’s only a game, a lot of things are happening,” she said. Although she already had been using games provided by BreakoutEDU, Vojvodic found that “creating [games such as] treasure hunts, Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit are great ways to make the introduction of new concepts or chapter reviews more fun. I will definitely try to implement as many of these games as possible in my classroom.” Having observed that students become more engaged with math problems when they are made into games, Vojvodic said “this LID grant gave me inspiration and ideas to create and implement more games in my classroom.”
Andy Gersh, a middle school math teacher who was in the group with Vojvodic, also has been interested in furthering his use of games to instruct his students. Specifically, he looked into various ways that board games can illustrate how to solve math problems. “I think a lot students struggle with math because they try to memorize methods rather than take problems as opportunities to explore new ways of thinking,” he said. “Once you’ve memorized how to win a board game, it quickly becomes boring. Good board games require you constantly evaluate your next move, seek familiar patterns, discuss your methodology (sometimes), play and problem solve within a confined set of rules.” Noting the many similarities in the strategies used to solve math problems and win at board games, Gersh hopes to use board games to “get students out of the habit of thinking of a math problem as a procedure and instead as an opportunity where creative thinking will be rewarded with newfound insights.”
Intrigued by a virtual reality demo put on by Google at the lower school last year, grade 2 teacher Sejal Mehta used her LID grant to explore ways VR could be implemented in her social studies and language arts classes. “Students learn five U.S. regions and U.S. landmarks as a part of the second grade social studies curriculum. [With VR] students will have an opportunity to visit the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, the Liberty Bell, the Grand Canyon, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Lincoln Memorial, etc.,” she said. Using cost-effective technology that incorporates smartphones, Mehta said, “students will be able to learn geography and visit historical sites, historical monuments and historical events. They will observe and explore these places while in their own classroom.”
This story was originally published in the Summer 2017 edition of Harker Magazine
Technology is bred in the bone at Harker. Classrooms have enhanced learning hardware and software, students use a variety of technology tools in class and at home, and kindergartners through grade 12 students take challenging computer science classes.
Teachers at Harker introduce students to high-tech tools they can use in a host of settings. STEM classes and hands-on experience are part and parcel of the school’s education that extends beyond computer science labs. Starting a decade ago, Daniel Hudkins, director of information technology service and support, helped pioneer the integration of various technologies throughout Harker’s campuses. Harker has always had the attitude that the process and the product were more important than the tool, so the school avoids relying on any one hardware or software product when competitive alternatives are available, he noted.
Early Days
Harker, founded in 1893 as Manzanita Hall, opened its upper school in 1998. Long known for its science-heavy curriculum, the opening of a high school allowed Harker to continue its tradition of excellence while developing best practices as the high school grew. Both the middle and upper schools had the usual array of desktop computers for student use, but to ensure students had access to adequate tools, the school instituted a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy for the upper school in its third year, 2000-01, Hudkins said. The math department began using Mathematica for certain classes, requiring students in those classes to bring their own laptops, which laid the groundwork for more widespread BYOD plans.
“By 2002-03, it was decided to require Mathematica, and therefore laptops, for all students taking pre-calculus or above, which extended the program to many other students,” Hudkins said.
About the same time, computers were being introduced in the lower and middle schools. That use has now hardened into routine. “Apple iPads are frequently used in K-grade 2,” Hudkins said. “K-5 also have access to two Mac labs and a full class set of Mac desktops in the library.” Grades 3-5 students are provided with Chromebooks, with a 1:1 ratio of devices to students beginning in grade 4. Grade 5 students bring the devices home with them.
In middle school, students are issued schoo-lowned computers, with the choice of a Mac or PC. Students receive administrative rights during grade 7. Students are responsible for bringing the device home for homework and back to class charged up. At the end of grade 8, families can purchase the computer at a discounted rate.
The early requirements for Mathematica students to have laptops opened the door to all students being permitted to register their own laptops for use at school. By the 2004-05 school year, Hudkins said, the BYOD laptop program was required for all upper school students. With that change, all of the student-use desktops, except for journalism and graphic design, disappeared from Harker upper and middle school classrooms, though the lower school still supplies computers and one desktop resides in the middle school library.
With so much access to technology, Harker aims to ensure that all devices are used safely and appropriately by students. The school uses graduated filtering of the internet on campus to control access to the Web, with the restrictions diminishing as students get older, Hudkins said. Most of the monitoring is done by a combination of direct supervision and appropriate education for self-monitoring. “We do not ‘embed’ any monitoring programs in the devices themselves, although some parents choose to add this on their own,” he added.
One of the greatest advantages of having students bring their own devices to school, Hudkins said, is the ability to move the classroom focus to the students’ work and the students’ control instead of spending time making sure students are able to log on, reach needed software, etc. Furthermore, having students concurrently use a variety of tools to collaborate means they and their teachers spend less time on “click here” techniques and more time on learning new skills.
“As tool sets continuously evolve, students might collaborate in a Google Hangout while preparing a presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint,” Hudkins said. “Some students might be participating on an iPad.” The ultimate goal, he said, is to cultivate technology fluency – how best to find the right tool for the task or problem, how to learn how to use it and how to apply what it can do in effective, and sometimes even novel, ways.
The Other Half of the Equation: Software
The use of software has intertwined with the adoption of hardware in the classroom. Supported apps and software include Microsoft Office 365, Google G Suite and Apple’s software collection, to name just a few. A variety of operating systems, especially MacOS and Windows, are supported; at one time, a significant number of students used Linux variants.
Students at Harker can use Google Apps for Education, for example, to access Docs, Sheets, Forms, Drawings, Slides and Hangouts. “Google Docs has largely replaced Word in the [middle school] English classroom,” said Scott Kley Contini, learning, innovation and design (LID) director for grades 6-8. “The ability to collaborate live within a document has revolutionized English writing. Teachers can interact in real time with students and peer editing can happen in the moment.”
Hudkins noted that in the upper school, research writing requires more complex formatting and Microsoft Word is more frequently used.
The inclusion of technology in classrooms enhances Harker students’ education in myriad ways, Hudkins said. Via these apps and programs, students learn the rhetoric of presentation in a digital age, along with clarity of thought, synthesis of material and analytic thinking, he added.
“Each software and platform has its strengths,” Hudkins said. “iPads offer focused simplicity. Chromebooks offer easy access that is not device dependent. Laptops offer local computation and storage not relying on the availability of the cloud.”
Other software in use at Harker includes Logger Pro for digital data collection, Membean for vocabulary building, Wolfram Mathematica and Fathom for furthering math and statistics skills, and Minecraft for construction and synthesis, he said. “There is also a burgeoning list of tools used in the new Innovation Lab at the middle school,” he added.
All these apps and programs have real value, offering new approaches to understanding coursework. The Geometer’s Sketchpad software, for instance, is used heavily in geometry classes, Kley Contini said, letting students construct geometrical shapes, but the software can be used a variety of ways to understand math, “allowing students to play with mathematical equations and see visual representations of mathematical outputs.”
For higher math levels, the Mathematica program is used selectively to allow students to manipulate mathematical equations as well as begin to explore mathematical logic in a similar way to computer programming, Kley Contini said. This software is used across professional engineering, science and computer disciplines, which can include 3-D image processing and data mining. Students also can use Desmos, which lets them manipulate mathematical variables and see instant output changes. By using these tools, Kley Contini said, math becomes more real for students and helps make connections to concepts that might otherwise get lost in a series or in word problems on paper.
Computer Science in the Classroom
The momentum driving Harker’s use of hardware and software built up incrementally, driven, to a degree, by upper school computer science class development.
Back in 2003, computer science classes were only available in the upper school in the form of AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science AB and an introductory programming course, said Eric Nelson, upper school computer science department chair.
Computer science soon became a graduation requirement. Technology use began to spread in the lower and middle schools as administrators adapted curricula to build a foundation of computer classes to support the upper school requirements.
“In the lower school, students were learning how to work with technology using AlphaSmart word processors and a computer lab,” Nelson said. “The middle school also had computer labs where the students began to learn some of the fundamentals of programming.”
Since those early computer science initiatives, Harker has developed a full K-12 program. “The major changes occurred when I became department chair in 2008,” Nelson said. “I saw the need for a two-track program in the upper school to address the wide range of abilities and interests in our students. I worked with the department faculty to create two paths through our developing program.”
The fast track was Advanced Programming, Nelson said, which fed into AP Computer Science A with Data Structures. The slower track was Programming to AP Computer Science A to Honors Data Structures. “The content is the same, but the latter is done in four semesters rather than three,” he said.
Students who complete those courses can then take Advanced Topics offerings: AI Expert Systems, AI Neural Networks, Programming Languages and Numerical Methods, which are taught by Nelson on a four-year rotation. Computer Architecture, and Compilers and Interpreters, are taught by two other faculty members on a two-year rotation.
Courses are created and taught by faculty specializing in those fields, Nelson said. Harker also offers an introductory course called Digital World for students who really do not want to take computer science, but need to meet the graduation requirement. “The course is enriching enough where some students have moved on to programming after taking it,” he said.
The formal computer science structure in the upper school brought new requirements to the middle school, which then resulted in a reworking of their entire program, Nelson explained. The middle school introduced computer science entry requirements for their students, which, in turn, influenced changes to curriculum at the lower school.
As a result of this evolutionary process, Nelson said, Harker now offers computer science starting in the elementary school grades. “In kindergarten, the students learn the basics of algorithmic thinking using little robot bugs that get their instructions with cards that are placed on the floor,” he said.
Lisa Diffenderfer, computer science department chair and LID director for K-grade 5, said the lower school computer science department has added a plethora of opportunities for programming with robots in recent years. Grade 1 students, for example, take computer science classes three times per week in their third trimester. “Students have the opportunity to learn programming fundamentals by programming a mini robot called a Bee-Bot,” Diffenderfer said.
With its colorful, kid-friendly design, BeeBot is a tool for teaching young children problem-solving skills and estimation. Diffenderfer said students work as a team to move their Bee-Bot to specific areas on a game board, and use the related iPad app to practice using directional language and algorithmic thinking.
Students in grade 2 can work with another robot, called Dash, to learn programming fundamentals – but with visual programming to command Dash to perform specific tasks. The robot works with an app called Blockly that uses visual blocks rather than text to create code for Dash to follow.
Robots are finding their way into other curriculum areas, Diffenderfer said. For example, there are plans to have fifth grade students in an English class program a robot to retrace Bilbo’s hero’s journey after they read “The Hobbit.”
The robotics program is still growing, with changes made yearly at all levels, Nelson said. In the upper school the most recent additions are two robotics courses – one software- and one hardware-based – that sit between the programming and the AP courses (see Rise of the Machines, page 8, the story of Harker’s competitive robotics program).
These new courses serve two purposes, he said. One is to support the robotics program by giving non-AP level students a stronger background. The other is to catch those students whose enthusiasm has gotten ahead of their abilities. “In other words, if they get a C in Programming, they can still continue in computer science [via the robotics courses], even though they could not move directly into an AP course at that point,” Nelson said.
The AP computer science courses teach the students the foundations of objectoriented programming using Java with an emphasis on algorithmic thinking and good coding practices. Students learn to design and document first and then code second, which is an uphill battle even with professional programmers. “As my former colleague Richard Page was fond of saying, ‘four hours of coding can save you 10 minutes of design,’” Nelson said with a smile.
Because of Harker’s rich computer science offerings in the upper school, and the structure that goes with them, the middle and lower schools had to adapt to meet the newer entry requirements, he said. That subsequently drove new entry requirements between grades and across divisions. As a result, Harker students get early introductions to algorithmic thinking, robotics and programming.
“When combined with the science and mathematics offerings, as well as the research opportunities we have here, our students can discover early on if they have a passion for STEM and have opportunities to follow it,” Nelson said.
Contributor João-Pierre S. Ruth is based in the New York City area.
At the CTE Innovation Fair, Glass shared the accomplishments of Harker’s business and entrepreneurship (B.E.) program and discussed the advantages it gives students in the present and future. “Having Neil and Rajiv there allowed attendees to see firsthand how the students are benefitting from the resources the school is able to provide them in their technology and research endeavors,” Glass said. “Having Mr. Keller attend also showed the great support that our administration has for all that we are doing.”
Glass noted that being surrounded by other teachers and students was a source of inspiration: “Connecting with and hearing from students from all over the country no matter their organization showed that we can come together as one within CTE as a whole to improve education and ensure a stronger future for our country.”
June 30, 2015
Harker graduate Neil Movva, rising sophomore Rajiv Movva, business and entrepreneurship teacher Juston Glass and upper school head Butch Keller are in Washington, D.C., attending an event titled “Celebrating Innovations in Career and Technical Education,” held at the White House. As part of a select group of educators, business leaders and outstanding students, the Harker contingent will meet with administration officials and learn about the latest advancements in career and technical education (CTE).
The event aims to highlight programs developed by educators and students in the CTE field, which prepares students for success by integrating technical and career-based learning into academic programs. At the event’s CTE Innovation Fair, Neil Movva is slated to give a presentation on Project Pathfinder, a piece of wearable technology he has worked on that assists the visually impaired by using ultrasonic sensors to let its users know the proximity of nearby objects. Neil’s brother Rajiv will present his own research, which found that flavonoids found in common fruits and vegetables could provide a remedy for diabetes patients who eat meals rich in carbohydrates.
Meanwhile, Glass will speak about Harker’s B.E. program, discussing key aspects including Harker’s DECA chapter, TEDxHarker and BECon, as well as the ways in which Harker’s B.E. students are contributing to the field of CTE.
This story will be updated as details from the trip emerge. Stay tuned!
This article originally appeared in the spring 2015 Harker Quarterly.
Two afternoons a week, the lower school’s room 509 gets transformed into a movie and broadcast video production studio, thanks to two popular BEST (Bucknall Enrichment and Supervision Team) after-school offerings.
At the end of the regular school day on Tuesdays, students in grades 4-5 become producers in the new Harker Student Productions (HSP) class, where they hone their video broadcasting skills. Then, on Thursdays, it’s “lights, camera, action” for grade 3 students enrolled in the Movie Makers class, now in its second year. In that class, students work to create part of the third grade video yearbook.
Following on the heels of last year’s successful Movie Makers class, BEST launched the HSP course at the start of this school year. Sixteen students are enrolled in HSP, working in teams to plan, film, edit and prepare footage about school events, service projects and classroom happenings to be shared at the end of the class with the entire Harker community. HSP students learn how to use iMovie on iPads and can also apply to become volunteer mentors to the Movie Makers class.
In the Movie Makers class, students capture, import, edit and bring images to life, also via the iMovie app for iPads. The 14 students now enrolled work in teams and cover such topics as field trips, classroom events, playground fun, parties, service projects, sprit events and Eagle Buddies gatherings. These shorter clips are then put together at the end of the year to serve as a video yearbook at the grade 3 party (a link is shared with parents as well).
Max Blennemann, grade 4, participated in last year’s Movie Makers class and is now enrolled in the HSP class. He also volunteers as a mentor to students in this year’s Movie Makers class. Taking his newly acquired filmmaking skills a step further, he recently made a short documentary, titled “Day in the Life of a Fourth Grader,” which was shared at an event for grade 4 parents.
“My dream was for students to have a positive experience in the Movie Makers class and then want to give back as a mentor in the HSP class,” noted lower school teacher Heather Russell, who launched both the HSP and Movie Makers classes. “Max is an example of that dream becoming a reality.”
“We have fun making videos and playing on the iPad. This is my favorite class at Harker. Someday I want to be a movie director because of it,” said Blennemann.
The first video put out by HSP was a 14-minute-long labor of love for class participants and is available for viewing at http://youtu.be/eaYbJ4x1ca0. “The end result is a wonderful student-made production that captures lots of memorable moments inside and outside of the classroom,” reported Russell.
The HSP class evolved out of a Harker-sponsored technology project grant Russell received after being inspired as an exchange teacher in Japan last year. After seeing a similar student-led video broadcast at Harker’s sister school in Tamagawa, Russell led Harker’s Movie Makers class in a collaborative video yearbook to show to the Japanese students. She wanted to expand on the idea of a grade-level video and also provide a vehicle for students to cover schoolwide topics.
The HSP broadcast is a student-directed, student-created, organic celebration of happenings at the lower school, Russellexplained. The production includes concerns the students feel should be constructively expressed, reinforcement of the theme of the year and The Toolbox Project, and allows the students to be creative in communicating important issues and events at the lower school.
The iPads being used by students in both the Movie Makers and HSP classes were made available from donations to Harker’s annual giving campaign – a gift for which grade 3 student Ceren Erdogan is especially grateful.
“I appreciate that we get to use electronics, because most schools don’t,” said Erdogan.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2014 Harker Quarterly.
In spring 2012, Harker began offering online classes to students through the Global Online Academy, a consortium of schools that delivers online courses to students in 53 GOA member schools around the world. More than 20 Harker students are now enrolled in GOA courses covering a wide variety of topics, ranging from human rights to game theory to global health issues.
“It filled a little bit of a niche of trying something new and giving kids an opportunity to take some classes that we don’t offer,” said Evan Barth, academic dean at the upper school. “It’s offering a different medium for students who want to try [online learning] out.”
“I took a class through GOA because I wanted to take another math class, but there were no others in the main Harker catalog,” said Suzy Lou, grade 12. “So I looked on GOA and saw that there was an advanced statistics class and signed up for it.”
The global component of the classes also gives students a chance to interact with and learn the perspectives of students from cultures around the globe.
“When you have students from so many different places reflecting on where they’re from, you create a global community,” said Michael Nachbar, CEO of Global Online Academy, who shared his insights on a recent visit to Harker. “And that happens not just with kids from Jakarta and Jordan and the U.S. It also happens with kids from Atlanta and LA and Boston, that you start to see these varied perspectives being brought into the different topics that they’re learning about.”
GOA teachers are trained to keep global perspectives in mind when conducting their courses. “So when they’re framing discussion prompts or projects, they’re thinking about, where in this topic can students insert that local perspective?” said Nachbar.
Maya Valluru, grade 10, found this perspective to be one of the most interesting aspects of the journalism class she is taking through GOA. “I enjoy this class because I can communicate with other students from around the world, sharing ideas that stem from our different cultural notions or habits,” she said.
Working with students and teachers in different time zones, she said, has helped her and other students work more independently. “Instead of going straight to the teacher for help, I first try to solve the problem on my own,” she explained. If and when she needs help, she coordinates with other students taking the course, learning to work within their schedules and time differences.
A typical GOA course consists of reading material and other resources posted for students, required participation in discussion threads and both group and individual projects. Course materials may include teacher-created content, online videos and other resources culled from the Web. Students frequently find themselves communicating via FaceTime or Skype and working together on Google Docs.
“The way that kids engage in that work is all active,” said Nachbar. “The teachers have laid out the course work for a week or two or whatever that unit is. Students are engaging actively at every single point of that unity, whether it’s reading or there’s a discussion. … It’s all active engagement with the material at every single point.”
Because students must be self-motivated, Barth takes careful steps to ensure that students who sign up for GOA courses are up to the task. He said students can sometimes be caught off guard by the amount of time required for GOA classes, but reminds them that because there are very few, if any, class sessions, the time spent weekly on a GOA class is about the same as an average on-campus course.
“The only thing that I tell the students is that they have to treat it like a real class,” he said. “They have to pretty much do a little bit each day. If they try to make up six, seven hours on a Sunday, forget it, it’s not going to work.”
In this way, taking a GOA class can have the side effect of teaching students how to more effectively manage their time and communicate with other students. “Since we don’t see each other face-to-face, the online communication we have has to be really good. Otherwise, we’d have no communication at all,” said Lou. “As a result, I think that whenever we communicate, it’s of pretty high quality.”
In addition to better time management, Nachbar said, students are “learning how to be better self-advocates, they’re learning how to engage with content differently, they’re doing a lot more writing in an online course. But then they’re also learning how to use these new skills to support their learning in other areas. So, how do you curate content on a topic, how do you research, how do you summarize, how do you connect ideas between different topics?”
Because of their interaction with students from different parts of the world, students are also thinking on a more global level. “You’ve got kids really thinking about what their personal perspective is on local and global issues,” Nachbar said. “The collaboration piece, the communication piece.” The heavy emphasis on discussion, he said, also helps to maintain a healthy variety of perspectives: “Every student is getting heard.”
Last week, grade 9 students Anooshree Sengupta, Mona Lee, Maya Kumar, Aria Coalson, Aliesa Bahri and Jessica Susai – collectively known as the Harker Infinities – were named champions at the Central Valley VEX Robotics Challenge held at Modesto Junior College.
The team had spent months in preparation, meeting every weekend since before the school year had even started. “Our team has been working on the robot since summer during four-hour practice sessions each Saturday and Sunday,” said Coalson.
In addition to extensive work on their robot, the team members maintained a successful spirit of cooperation. “The team did an amazing job of cooperating with each other, staying positive, and putting all of their effort into any and all tasks that they had,” said Bahri. “Also, I loved that our robot design was extremely creative. I didn’t see many teams that resembled our robot’s overall design.”
“I think our stamina throughout the day was incredible. We managed to stay focused and win every match we played,” said Sengupta. “This was helped in part by our adaptability. Although we ran into a couple issues with the mat setup, we either talked to the refs or programmed around it.”
The Infinities’ performance in Modesto put them in contention for the Northern California championship. They hope to perform well enough to qualify for the world championship competition. Lee hopes that by winning a world championship, the Infinities can set an example for girls who aspire to enter robotics, “as it would show that it is just as possible for an all-girls team to win the world championship as it is for any other team.”
This article originally appeared in the winter 2014 Harker Quarterly.
In October, more than 8,000 visitors poured into the Phoenix Convention Center in Arizona. For the week of Oct. 8, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing was the biggest show in town. Scientists, engineers, college students and faculty came from around the globe. An overwhelming majority of the attendees were female. As a rare high-school participant chosen for my research, I was honored to be a part of this intellectual mix.
For three days, the convention center was abuzz with activity. While the daylight hours were filled with informational and inspiring talks, evenings mixed in “mocktails” and entertainment. The conference was kicked off by Shafi Goldwasser’s keynote address. An electric engineering and computer science professor at MIT, Goldwasser is the world’s leading researcher in cryptography, working on privacy issues in our uber-connected world. She was followed by other luminaries from the computing world: Yoky Matsuoka from Nest Labs, Linda Northrop from the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, Lori Mackenzie from Stanford University, and many others.
Personally, I thought this was two conferences in one. While much of the time was focused on how women are shaping modern technology, there was also a serious discussion around the role of society in shaping young girls, especially when it comes to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Ruthe Farmer, director of the National Center for Women & IT, spoke on the importance of getting girls interested in science at a young age. While some of us at Harker may not realize the problem, I agree with her when she argues that there is a significant STEM gender gap.
Megan Smith, CTO of the United States, was a surprise speaker. She reports to the president himself, and she talked about her role in the government in helping reverse this gender gap tide. Deborah Estrin from Cornell University commented that women should be “forming science circles instead of coffee groups.”
Interestingly, a casual on-stage conversation between Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College, garnered the most press. In response to a question around salary discrepancies between men and women, Nadella was “inarticulate” (as he himself later admitted), inadvertently implying that women should not be asking for raises and instead wait for “good karma” to play out. Many people in the audience, including me, were alarmed at his response.
Ironically, the ensuing media firestorm may have actually helped the cause. The dialogue went national, and certainly helped in increasing awareness around the disparities between men and women in the industry.
Beyond the engaging sessions, a personal highlight was the poster session. Over the last year, I have been working on research in data science. It was an honor to share my work at such a prominent venue. Hundreds of people stopped by to see my poster. They listened to my pitch. Some even hugged me and encouraged me. My project involved mining online thyroid cancer forums. My effort came about when a loved one was diagnosed with the disease. I found myself spending countless hours online, reading hundreds of “threads” and looking for answers. While these forums are valuable sources of data, searching them isn’t always simple. It was then that the thought of extracting “word-of-mouth” patient experiences came to me. By applying natural language processing techniques – part-of-speech tagging, topic modeling and association rules – I was able to develop models for discussion topics and thread summaries. I also laid the groundwork for discovering and correlating symptoms and treatments. My project ended up being a first-of-a- kind effort at mining such insights from free-form medical forums, making the data valuable to patients and health care professionals alike.
After three productive days, the conference came to an end. On my flight back, I went through my collection of more than 100 business cards, and remembered meeting my new friends, all of whom shared my passion for computing. While it’s true that women are severely underrepresented in STEM, and that females make up less than 20 percent of enrollees in our engineering colleges, I sense that a revolution is underway. It won’t be long before we turn this tide. I left the event inspired to double-down on my own dreams in the field of computer science. Rejuvenated by the energy, I am also committed to bringing more females into STEM.
I can’t wait for the conference registration to open next year. I hope some of you will join me there!
This article originally appeared in the winter 2014 Harker Quarterly.
By Mayra Flores De Marcotte
It’s identified as the gender gap and has been a topic of heated discussion in recent years. According to various organizations, statistics and studies, there is a significant gap between males and females entering – and staying in – the computer science fields.
The National Science Foundation found that computer science is the only field in which women are receiving fewer degrees since 2002 – only 18 percent compared with 37 percent 12 years ago.
Even before getting to the college level, only 23 states – including California – and the District of Columbia count computer science as a graduation requirement and those offering AP computer science classes are down 35 percent since 2005, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology.
These trends are important to note because of the impact computer science will have on the future job market. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there will be more than 1 million computer specialist job openings by 2020, but our universities will only produce 29 percent of the qualified graduates needed to fill these jobs.
At The Harker School, however, administrators, educators and students are setting their own trend by embracing computer science education and the school is encouraging all its students to explore the field by making it a graduation requirement. Robust class offerings include Digital World, a foundational class that offers insights into computer science history, the digital representation of data and computer architectures. Other classes offered include introductory and advanced programming, data structures, AP Computer Science and 11 courses in advanced topics in computer science, seven of which are UC-approved courses.
According to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, only 5 percent of U.S. high schools are certified to teach AP computer science courses and only 10 percent of U.S. K-12 schools offer computer science classes at all.
Harker’s dedication to teaching and inspiring all students equally, regardless of gender, makes for an inviting classroom atmosphere.
“I think Harker is unique because it creates a safe environment where everyone feels like they have the chance to try anything without worrying about factors that could potentially ostracize them such as gender,” said Shivali Minocha, grade 11. “While students at other schools may find it unconventional to take computer science classes, at Harker the class feels just as accessible and welcoming as any other class I’ve taken here.”
Classes spark Curiosity Minocha took her first robotics class in grade 7 as a part of the curriculum, which exposed her to basic code and the various applications of computer science. Her first programming course, during the Harker Summer Institute, was a prerequisite for the AP Computer Science course she’s currently enrolled in.
“It’s always exciting to have the ability to actually apply the skills I’m learning in class outside of it,” she says. “There are several clubs and programs at Harker that make this possible like the Computing Club, the Programming Club and the Robotics [Club].
“It’s also extremely cool to be able to successfully run a program after working on it for a long time,” Minocha said. “It’s a great feeling when your code finally compiles correctly.”
Earlier this year, Minocha and a team of three other Harker students entered Technovation, an entrepreneurship program and competition for girls, with an app they developed called Aura, aimed at helping teenage girls deal with their emotions in a safe way. The app matches a girl’s mood with images, quotes and music and allows them to share with their friends. Teammate Sameep Mangat, grade 9, was first introduced to computer science and the world of coding by her father and older brother.
“Even at a young age, I was given the opportunity to contribute to the software and the design,” she said. “This experience overall fostered a curiosity that [grew] through the creation of an app called Aura with my friends. We submitted this app to a competition, and although we didn’t win, it was an amazing experience and helped me learn a lot more about coding and design.”
Investing in Our Brain Trust Eric Nelson, computer science department chair at Harker, teaches numerous computer science classes. He began his career as an experimental physicist in the defense industry and is well aware of the much-talked about gender gap, but says not engaging girls and women in computer sciences is a disservice to the greater population.
“I am a firm believer in investing in our brain trust, and ignoring half of that potential seems to go way beyond negligent,” he said. “New ideas and inventions require a critical mass. By encouraging women to join in the computer science revolution – and you have to capture their attention early in life – the probability of an earth-shattering discovery or idea is greatly increased, to the benefit of all.”
Nelson witnessed the power of this potential during his career prior to Harker.
“In all my years managing software engineers, one of my absolute best was a young woman in Albuquerque,” Nelson said. “She was methodical, organized and had an amazing attention to detail. Her ability to think algorithmically was also top notch.”
Nelson became the chair of the upper school computer science department in 2010 with a goal of better preparing students through a diverse portfolio of classes that would allow them to better explore multiple opportunities within the computer sciences.
Harker’s location within Silicon Valley also plays a role in its trendsetting. Being in the midst of technological developments, new ideas and even newer challenges helps to organically elicit interest in computer sciences from the student body – and the girls are no different.
Daniela Lee, grade 12, took her first programming class during the summer between her freshman and sophomore years to learn more about computer science. She and classmate Sadhika Malladi, grade 11, were regional finalists in the Google Science Fair competition this year, and received a commendation from the city of San Jose recognizing their effort. The online competition, open to students around the globe, has taken place every year since 2011. Lee and Malladi entered their project, “Non-Invasive Search for Optimal Cancer Treatment.”
“We love people, we’re good at programming and we want to predict cancer,” begins their video.
The basis of the project was to avoid unnecessary surgeries, particularly those related to triple negative breast cancer, through the use of a learning algorithm and a new type of MRI machine to better predict response to treatment.
“Since we live in the Silicon Valley, we see and experience a lot of the newest technological innovations, most which are related in some way to programming,” Lee said. “Moreover, a considerable amount of things in our lives come about due to some code someone programmed.”
Lee found computer science much easier than she first anticipated and an exciting field of study she hopes to continue to explore, particularly within graphic design and medicine.
Malladi caught the computer science bug early, after taking an elective class in middle school where she learned how to create websites using Dreamweaver.
“I was inspired by the potential that the rapidly growing field holds for solving a diverse set of problems that pervade society,” she said, adding that many people have the misconception that computer science is used just for creating programs and applications.
“In reality, almost everything is fueled by computer science,” Malladi said. “It’s at the forefront of revolutionizing everyday life and changing the world around us. Computer science is something that we experience through music, video games and the Internet, but it’s also something that is pioneering new interdisciplinary fields that solve important problems.”
Reading and hearing all about the gender gap never swayed her decision to enroll in a class.
“In a way, Harker’s subtle recognition of the minority position is one of the best ways to approach the issue,” Malladi said. “By not explicitly addressing the underrepresentation of females in computer science, Harker avoids perpetuating the stereotype that discourages so many high school girls. However, Harker still takes steps toward encouraging women into [computer science] careers.”
Providing a diverse list of classes, as well as a deep bench of educators to connect with students, is key to the program’s success. And it was within this deep bench of teachers that one educator made her mark on many of her pupils, particularly the females.
Passing It On Susan King joined the Harker faculty seven years ago after her family left their home in Florida and moved to the other sunshine state: California. Originally from Montana, King was first introduced to computer science in the sixth grade after her math teacher read a short article about the up-and-coming field of computer science.
“He said it offered equal opportunity for both men and women and you had to be good at math and I said to myself, this was for me,” she said.
King was part of the first group of graduating students to receive a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Montana State University and went on to receive her M.Ed. in educational technology from the University of Central Florida.
She spent the first decade after college as a programmer and loved it. “I just love the puzzles,” King said. “For many years, it was like being in a candy store – sampling all these candies that were puzzles. The other thing that I loved about the profession was the people. There were so many interesting people in this new field.”
She later left programming to start a family and then decided to pursue education as a career.
“I went into teaching and fell in love with it even more than programming,” King said. “I’ve been at Harker now for seven years and it’s a phenomenal place to work. It’s the first school where I wasn’t the only programming teacher and a great opportunity to work with other teachers in the field. I have been fortunate to have two careers that I loved.”
King has worked with countless students – including many girls – who have gone on to participate within the computer sciences through projects, research and professional careers after Harker.
Life After Harker Rashmi Sharma ’10 majored in bioengineering at Stanford University. She has a minor in computer science and now works at Genentech, in its process development rotational program.
She credits her time at Harker for instilling within her a desire to learn more about computer science.
“I definitely wouldn’t have had the guts to have minored in computer science without the confidence from Harker and Mrs. King,” Sharma said.
She really liked science and math and had already taken biology and chemistry during high school but computer science was the only “techie” class she hadn’t explored. Sharma wanted exposure to it before heading to college, so she signed up for AP Computer Science and immediately felt intimidated by the coursework. This quickly changed once the class began.
“The way Mrs. King approached introducing [it to] us, it all felt less intimidating and less abstract; a less obscure concept than what I thought it would be,” Sharma said. “She started all lectures from the ground level. I never felt disadvantaged. Everyone was on a level playing field.”
It was only after leaving Harker that Sharma realized how different the learning environment actually was.
“Before I went to college, I never felt there was a difference in expectations between girls and boys,” she said. “It wasn’t until college that I saw a difference.”
The disparity in the male-to-female ratio became especially obvious in Sharma’s computer science lectures and, for a moment, made the field feel intimidating once more.
“All these guys had been breathing computer science way longer than I had and [also had] more previous exposure than I had; it made it harder for me to be more comfortable in class,” she said. “But it’s evolving.”
Fellow Harker alumna Katie Siegel ’12 agrees. Siegel is now studying computer science at MIT. She began exploring computer science in a programming class at Harker.
“I intended it to be a one and done but found it fairly easy and I liked the projects we did,” Siegel said. “Mrs. King made it very interesting and explained the concepts in a comprehensive way. We were able to see the relevance of what we were working on and the infinite number of opportunities.”
She was unaware of the gender gap while attending Harker.
“I never felt like there was any sort of [gender] barrier at Harker,” she said. “I never paid attention to the gender ratio. I feel like it was fairly even. I didn’t know there was a gender problem until I got to college.”
This article first appeared on the Web log for the American Association of School Librarians. It is reprinted here by the kind permission of the author, Diane Main, director of learning, innovation and design at Harker.
When I work on family history research, whether it’s for my own tree or a friend’s, I often find I lose track of time, get totally “in the zone,” and sometimes even forget to eat and sleep enough. That combination of little successes and new challenges that pushes me to the edge of my abilities is something that is referred to as “flow.” If you spend a lot of time with kids, you will have seen it when they are playing video games and can’t seem to put them down. For others, it’s reading books or engaging in some hands-on hobby. Flow is the apex of engagement and motivation.
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi pioneered the research into this phenomenon. He was looking into happiness, creativity and motivation, and developed what we now refer to as flow. Flow is doing what you love and what you’re good at, but still being challenged by the activity. We see this in education as well, but sadly we perhaps don’t see it often enough. It is generally thought that the integration of technology into learning environments tends to instantly increase learner motivation and engagement. While this may be true for a short time, unless the use of technology tools builds skills while also presenting appropriate challenges, it loses its motivational value.
As seen in this image from Wikipedia, flow exists at the intersection of high skill level and high challenge level. The emotions that exist in the other regions of the chart are not really what we’re aiming for in learning situations. This can be where games can swoop in to the rescue, as long as their introduction is meaningful and their use well thought-out. Sometimes, it’s great to just have gaming breaks, using games of all kinds, to “reset” the brain and ignite motivation. A quick round of charades or five minutes with Zombie Drop can be a great way to get kids to transition from one activity in class to another.
But there are some games that are becoming the platform for the learning itself, and that are being used for entire class periods over days or even weeks. One such example is MinecraftEDU. Most parents and educators have at least heard of Minecraft. The educational version MinecraftEDU is only available to schools, and it is quickly becoming THE destination for teachers and students who want to maximize learner creativity and engagement in subjects from history and literature to math and science. I teach a computer science course that functions as a survey of the field of computer science without focusing exclusively on programming. We use MinecraftEDU to explore concepts in computer science (such as subroutines, abstraction, conditional statements, loops and algorithms), to engage in the design thinking process by building homes for one another, and to explore introductory level programming with in-game robots called turtles. Instead of learning about our content, my students get the chance to be immersed in a virtual world they can manipulate and learn from.
An unexpected benefit, the first few times I used MinecraftEDU with my high school students, was the community building that seemed to occur instantly when we began to use the game in class. Students who had formerly kept to themselves and not spoken much in class suddenly appeared comfortable with me and the rest of their peers when they started interacting within the game environment. And since most of them had never played Minecraft before, they had a lot to learn, which they did by figuring things out and then teaching each other. Before long, my hesitant high schoolers were losing hours in the game world, building and communicating in ways none of us thought possible. I had stumbled upon a way to bring them to a place of flow. And now I’m hooked too.