Columba pupils challenge computer stereotype

Columba College pupils (clockwise, from front left) Julia Isoyama (15), Ailsa Carroll (15), Holly Barclay (15), Amy Carruthers (14), Ryely Burtenshaw-Day (14), Nanako Shitara (14) and Holly Hanson (14), centre, who won gold, silver and bronze medals at the Programming Challenge 4 Girls competition at Otago Polytechnic. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.

The popular stereotype that girls and computer science do not mix is one pupils at Columba College are helping to turn around.

Eight pupils (three teams) from the school won gold, silver and bronze medals at the Programming Challenge 4 Girls (PC4G) competition held at the Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin on Monday.

The year 10 pupils spent two and a-half hours creating two cartoon movies using a computer program called Alice.

Holly Hanson and Nanako Shitara (both 14) won gold for creating a cartoon about a dance competition, in which they animated figures to look like they were dancing in time.

As a result, they will join PC4G winners from Auckland, Manukau, Hamilton, Gisborne, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Brisbane (Australia) and Waterloo (Canada) at the Australasian Computer Science Camp to be held in Sydney in late January.

Otago Polytechnic bachelor of information technology lecturer and competition co-ordinator Joy Gasson said the competition was established in response to a report from the United States Commerce Department which found less than a quarter of jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields were filled by women.

It also showed female representation in the computer science and mathematics sectors was falling.

Holly and Nanako were delighted with their success. Both study digital technology at school, and said their expertise in programming had become such, that occasionally the teachers turned to them for advice.

More than 20 year 9 and 10 pupils from Dunedin secondary schools took part in the competition, she said.

- john.lewis@odt.co.nz