TechSERVE brings girls to math

Of the 10 fastest-growing occupations, eight of them are math, science, or… Of the 10 fastest-growing occupations, eight of them are math, science, or technology-related, according to the National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century.

However, by the eighth grade, girls’ interest in math and their confidence in their math abilities have eroded, even though they perform as well as boys in this subject, according to the Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science.

TechSERVE, with the help of volunteers from Pitt, is working to turn that around.

TechSERVE is a free after-school program for elementary school girls to help foster their interest in math, science and computers. By learning typing, playing math and science games on the computer and visiting educational Web sites, the girls not only become more familiar with math and science concepts, but with the Internet and computer use in general.

“We’ve found that this is the age when girls start to lose interest in computers and boys start to be interested,” Stephanie Gundry, the program’s coordinator, said.

Gundry and program director Cynthia Wetmiller attribute much of the disparity between girls and boys regarding computers, math, and science to differences in the way boys and girls use technology, as well as the way the respective genders feel about their abilities in math and science.

“Boys do gaming and computer repair, whereas girls use the Internet for chatting but not really for research,” Wetmiller said.

“There’s a gender fear that boys are better at it,” Gundry added in reference to math and science skills. She said that though several parents had complained that boys couldn’t participate, the advantage of the TechSERVE program is that there is no added pressure on girls by having both genders in the room at the same time.

After the students become more fluent with computer programs such as Microsoft Word and Publisher, they put their new skills to use in a community service project, Wetmiller said.

Some of these projects have included a Thanksgiving food drive for senior citizens in Penn Hills, where the girls used word processors to make fliers and then went out to collect the food. Another girl created a joke book for hospital patients. The girls also take tests before and after the program to measure their progress, which Gundry says show significant increases in typing skills and computer knowledge.

The program is a partnership between the Pitt, the Pennsylvania Service Learning Alliance, and Faith Tech, another computer service learning program working with the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. Though the program is a grantee of the Vira A. Heinz Endowment, part of its manpower comes from students at Pitt’s Student Volunteer Outreach who help instruct the students, Wetmiller said. The program administrators are still looking for more volunteers, she added, saying, “You don’t have to be Bill Gates to do tech service.”

Girls and volunteers can attend TechSERVE in several locations in the local Pittsburgh area, including New Brighton Middle School, Penn Hills Faith Tech Center in Saint James Church and Greenfield Elementary School. Students participate for two hours a week for a session of six to eight weeks, and are able to take up to two sessions. Since the program began two years ago, there have been 100 TechSERVE graduates and 80 students are currently in the program.

TechSERVE will be hosting a technology fair April 24 in the William Pitt Union to coincide with “Take Your Daughters to Work Day.” Gundry encouraged Pitt staff members to bring their daughters so that they might get better acquainted with technology.

“Maybe if we get them interested as children, they’ll pursue it in careers as adults,” Wetmiller said.