Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Promoting And Retaining Minorities In Technology, Soumia Ichoua

Soumia Ichoua

This paper presents an on-going research project which is motivated by the lack of minorities in technology fields. This shortage typically results in stereotypes amongst minority students and is likely to prevent them from effectively competing with others. The problem motivated us to encourage middle school students to dispel stereotypes and embrace technology fields by engaging them in hands-on activities that initiate them to programming and Robotics. Students are also introduced to various aspects of the IT field including HTML and Microsoft Office. Surveys are used to measure the students’ attitudes and knowledge about technology before and after the program.