Gender Balance in Computing

An opportunity to get involved with the Gender Balance in Computing project, a major new research project looking at how to engage more female students in computing, as part of the National Centre for Computing Education.

In 2018, only 20% of all GCSE Computer Science students were girls1, but girls are well-represented in extra-curricular learning programmes such as Apps for Good. So the first strand of the new project will investigate the links between extra-curricular learning and school subject choice, in order to discover new ways of encouraging girls to consider GCSE Computer Science.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is looking for secondary schools who are interested in being part of the project. It’s open to schools who offer GCSE Computer Science and who already run / are open to running the Apps for Good programme with their Year 8 pupils.

Key information:

  • The project will run from September 2019 to March 2020.
  • Schools taking part will be asked to use the Apps for Good App Development Standard Course with Year 8 pupils (girls and boys) at some point during this time; this course takes an average of 12 hours to deliver.
  • Schools may be asked to try out some new resources designed to encourage more girls to consider GCSE Computer Science. These resources will be very similar to the standard Apps for Good programme, with some extra activities.
  • Apps for Good will provide schools with ready-to-use materials to minimise the demand on teachers’ time.
  • Pupils will complete short online surveys at the start and the end of the project, in order to measure the impact of the new resources.
  • If you agree to take part, your school will receive the new resources in either September 2019 or March 2020

To get involved, complete this 2-minute form by Tuesday 18 June, and Raspberry Pi will send you further information.

1From the Roehampton Annual Computing Report 2018.

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