Ambassador program for recruiting girls into engineering - Appropriate messages, messengers, and modes of delivery

Melissa Marshall, Michael Alley, Sarah Zappe, Karen Thole, Mary Frecker, Renata Engel

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Although women make up more than half of the U.S. population, the percentage of women entering engineering is much lower. To address this discrepancy, the College of Engineering at Penn State has initiated an Engineering Ambassador Program that sends female engineering undergraduates to give talks in science and math classes within Pennsylvania high schools and middle schools. The main goal of these talks is to clarify what engineers do. What distinguishes our program are the specific messages in the talks and the presentation style of our ambassadors. The messages of our program's talks come from recommendations in the recent text Changing the Conversation [1]. The primary presentation style that our ambassadors rely on is an assertion-evidence style taught in a special presentations course [2]. Evaluations of the presentations by almost 500 students at six different schools across Pennsylvania (including two all-girls schools) indicate that the presentations are highly successful at communicating the messages. More powerful evidence for the efficacy of this program lies in the volunteered responses of girls to these presentations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication40th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference
Subtitle of host publicationCelebrating Forty Years of Innovation, FIE 2010 - Conference Program
PagesF4H1-F4H6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010
Event40th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference: Celebrating Forty Years of Innovation, FIE 2010 - Arlington, VA, United States
Duration: Oct 27 2010Oct 30 2010

Publication series

NameProceedings - Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE
ISSN (Print)1539-4565

Other

Other40th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference: Celebrating Forty Years of Innovation, FIE 2010
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityArlington, VA
Period10/27/1010/30/10

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software
  • Education
  • Computer Science Applications

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