ABSTRACT

Caitlin Kelleher, a professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Washington University (St. Louis), will present research on strategies for increasing diversity in STEM fields. Her research interests involve creation of Computational Learning Environments that engage a broad spectrum of children. In collaboration with Randy Pausch, she created and evaluated a system for middle school girls, Storytelling Alice, that presents programming as a means to the end of storytelling. Storytelling Alice includes high-level animations that enable users to program social interactions using a gallery of characters and scenery designed to spark story ideas. Girls who used Storytelling Alice spent 42% more time programming than users of generic approaches that did not include a storytelling component. Biography: Caitlin Kelleher is an Assistant Professor of Compute Science at Washington University. She is a former doctoral student of Randy Pausch. Kelleher developed an extension to Alice called Storytelling Alice. The tool has been demonstrated to be effective in raising middle school girl's interests in information technology and computing. Caitlin Kelleher had been coming to down for personal reasons. However, Caitlin found out that this semester, several Curry faculty and myself have been conducting a project at a local middle school with at risk girls. The girls have received mentors from UVA 1st year women. Part of their activities are developing Storytelling Aliced-based stories on correct social interactions. Other Recent and Upcoming Colloquia