Chiang, Feng-Kuang

Tang, Zhonghua

Zhu, Dan

English

The University of Sydney: Sydney eScholarship Journals online

2022. J. Bobis & C. Preston (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th International STEM in Education Conference (STEM 2022), University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, November 23-26. University of Sydney. AN ANALYSIS OF GIRLS' PARTICIPATION IN WORLD ROBOT OLYMPIAD Dan Zhua, Zhonghua Tanga, Feng-Kuang Chiangab Contact Author: Feng-Kuang Chiang (fkchiang@sjtu.edu.cn) aSchool of Education, Shanghai Normal University, 200234, China bSchool of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240, China THEME: Engaging students in STEM education BACKGROUND AND AIMS Robotics competitions play an important role in promoting STEM education, but the gender differences in this field have received relatively little attention, especially the research that lacks students' participation. This study focuses on the World Robot Olympiad (WRO), which aims to promote robotics in STEM education worldwide, explores the participation of girls and tries to understand the reasons behind it. The research questions are as follows: In the final of WRO held for the last five consecutive years (2015-2019), what was the level of girls' participation? From the perspective of four categories and three age groups, what were the characteristics of girls' participation? Table 1: Characteristics of four categories in 2015-2019 WRO and definitions of corresponding age groups  METHODOLOGY The research sample is WRO final participants in five years, including 1,031 girls and 4,925 boys. We obtained official and exclusive participant data from WRO Organizing Committee, including the number of boys and girls in the final each year, the percentage of girls in various categories and age groups. All the data were sorted and statistically analyzed by Microsoft Excel software. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The results showed that in the 2015-2019 WRO finals, girls remained at a low level (Figure 1), which could reflect their under-representation in computer science and engineering. Among the four competition categories, more girls participated in the Open Category (Figure 2). Gender traits such as better creativity and expressive ability made girls choose this category and give full play to their advantages (Israel-Fishelson et al., 2020). The participation of girls decreased with age, and the participation of Junior and Senior High School age groups was relatively unstable (Figure 3). This may be related to the gradual decline of girl's interest in STEM subjects after elementary school (Sadler et al., 2012). Overall, there were a low girl participation in robotics competitions. In the future, girls should be given more encouragement and opportunities to actively participate in STEM learning and activities, especially in junior high school. 2022. J. Bobis & C. Preston (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th International STEM in Education Conference (STEM 2022), University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, November 23-26. University of Sydney.  Figure 1: Percentage of boys and girls in 2015-2019 WRO finals   Figure 2: Percentage of girls in different competition categories in 2015-2019 WRO finals   Figure 3: Percentage of girls of different age groups in 2015-2019 WRO finals 2022. J. Bobis & C. Preston (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th International STEM in Education Conference (STEM 2022), University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, November 23-26. University of Sydney. REFERENCES Israel-Fishelson, R., Hershkovitz, A., Eguíluz, A., Garaizar, P., Guenaga, M. (2020). The associations between computational thinking and creativity: the role of personal characteristics. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 58(1),1415-1447. Sadler, P. M., Sonnert, G., Hazari, Z., & Tai, R. (2012). Stability and volatility of STEM career interest in high school: A gender study. Science Education, 96(3), 411–427.  FUNDING This work was supported by World Robot Olympiad Association: [Grant Number GR001/2019].  

AN ANALYSIS OF GIRLS' PARTICIPATION IN WORLD ROBOT OLYMPIAD

https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/STEMEC2022/article/download/15989/14455

AN ANALYSIS OF GIRLS' PARTICIPATION IN WORLD ROBOT OLYMPIAD

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