Technology has been at a rapid development rate where more people are getting involved, especially women taking classes at Woodland Regional related to technology. Whether it could be a computer science class for learning how to code or figuring out the impact drones have for society.
Zoë Bronn, Woodland Regional student in drone class, talked about her time in class.
“I liked flying drones around tracks and trying to do different shapes,” said Bronn.
She had a small interest in the class and decided to enroll. Her teacher, James Belinsky, drones teacher, would teach parts involved with drones, the potential they carry to impact our daily lives, and how they’ll play a role in the future.
“Building the drone is kind of difficult,” said Bronn. “You have to go through and calibrate propellers.”
Designed to work with drones to help people like Bronn by connecting it to a computer. The software gets used to adjust how fast the propellers are moving and determine the way it flies.
“It’s definitely a great career path. It’s very fun. There’s a lot to learn,” said Bronn.
Speaking of career paths, another class in particular that girls are taking at Woodland is computer science.
Yasmeen Galal, AP computer science student, has great experience in robotics and programming.
“I ended up taking computer science classes and became more interested in the programming element of robotics,” said Galal.
Computer science helps with robots as coding can help them move and do actions.
“When I first got involved with robotics, I was kind of weirded out by it,” said Galal. “But then it ended up being something I love.”
Computer Science focuses on website programming by using HTML to give a website structure, CSS for design like colors and text fonts, and Javascript to provide logic with math, variables, if arguments, loops, etc for a website. These are just a few programming languages and there are others like Python, Java (which is different to Javascript), Lua, C++, and so many more.
“I definitely want to learn C++. That’s kind of next on my to-do list,” said Galal.
Languages can also be applied for different scenarios like doing video game development with C++. There are many possibilities when someone knows how to program.
“When I was on the trip with the Center for Women and Information Technology, they had a setup where they demoed different virtual reality programs that the Bank of America was using to train their employees for bank robberies,” said Galal.
AP Computer Science runned by Michael Cullen, computer science teacher, has been nominated on January 18th for the female diversity award from the College Board. More girls are taking classes related to coding or computers which can be pursued into a STEM field that have been dominated by men.
“I was proud of Woodland,” said Cullen. “That is not a reflection of one teacher, that’s a reflection of a culture and community here at the school.”
Having proficient skills in understanding computer science and knowing how to code leads to plenty of job opportunities. Getting paid to hijack into a company’s database so the people running the business can improve from what vulnerabilities are present is penetration testing. Becoming a developer to script video games that consumers can engage with, or working as a website designer to build and design online sites to list a few jobs related to computer science.
“I hope that they pursue or anyone pursue their interests, irregardless of past stereotypes, go follow that, [it’s] not just a passion but something that you’re very intrigued and interested in doing,” said Cullen.
Computer science being vast in how different girls and everyone have to think about and the problems they have to face and people have different interpretations as to what computer science is.
“My definition of computer science is the use of digital information as a tool to get a problem solved,” said Cullen.
CS has fun things to learn for girls and boys especially for new students who want to learn how computers work. For the computer science field, it has been mostly males with 31 percent of females working at Facebook, according to Wired. They also included a graph sourced by Center for Education Statistics revealing the majority of males are involved in CS compared to women.
“Even though it’s a male dominated field,” said Galal. “I’m constantly asked ‘Can I speak to your programmer?’ and I’m like ‘you’re already talking to her.’”
Graph provided by Wired under “Women and Minorities in Tech, By the Numbers.”
