0 Scaffolded Intro to Dynamic Website Development

A Scaffolded Introduction to Dynamic Website Development for Female High School Students -wConnect is a project that is "building an online community of women in computer and information science at Penn State University. The workshops are designed by women for high school girls, with hands-on construction of dynamic web sites." The undergraduate girls develop and deliver the material to high school girls. The results are online (http://wconnect.ist.psu.edu/). The girls are using a pre-build java-based database called bridgetools to develop the websites (by Jack Carroll). The workshop included 56 girls, across four sessions, mostly rising juniors and seniors. Each session was 90 minutes and they completed a pre and post survey. The pages created varied from 1-6, average was 2.72.

Comprehension had mixed results:
- 75% could explain difference in query specification
- Only 50% understood filters

Last year, we introduced TLI students to databases using two approaches: (1) creating a YouTube listing of their favorite videos and (2) Creating a personal blog. Students were given a simple interface (ie. template pages so they don't have to learn php, etc.) Most students successfully completed each project successfully, but I think that starting with something similar that wConnect uses to teach the girls querying and filters will be useful. Databases and dynamically generating web pages is an interesting topic for students, but tools to teach these topics are very much needed.