Title:  Teachers Learn, then Teach Young Women in Summer Camp Computer
          Science Program
Date:   October 17, 1997




October 17, 1997

For more information on these science news and feature story
tips, please contact the public information officer at the end of
each item at (703) 306-1070.  Editor: Bill Noxon

             TEACHERS LEARN, THEN TEACH YOUNG WOMEN
             IN SUMMER CAMP COMPUTER SCIENCE PROGRAM

   Sandy Madison hopes to increase the percentage of young women
she sees in her introductory computer class at University of
Wisconsin, Stevens Point.  She is designing a summer program for
high school teachers and girls with the help of a National
Science Foundation (NSF)grant.
   "Girls don't see themselves as belonging in the culture of
computer science," Madison says, noting that only one-quarter of
her introductory students are women.
   Hoping to reverse this trend, Madison's program -- which will
be repeated twice next summer -- will bring about a dozen high
school computer teachers to the campus for a week to learn
computer information concepts.  They'll learn how to use the
Internet in their classes and receive training in gender issues.
In a following week, 25 high school girls will be taught by the
teachers, guided by college professors.
   Female college students will mentor the high school girls, and
professionals in the computing and engineering fields will talk
about their jobs.
   "It's forming a community," Madison said.  The high school
teachers will each receive a small grant to initiate a gender
related computer project, and will stay in touch through web
pages and e-mail.  [Beth Gaston]

          NEW PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE CHALLENGES TEACHERS

   The 1999 change from Pascal to C++ programming language for
high school advanced placement (AP) computer science tests means
that most AP teachers nationwide will need training in C++ and
associated teaching techniques.
   In the process of teaching teachers new programming language,
Allan Fisher at Carnegie Mellon University and Jo Sanders at the
Washington Research Institute in Seattle are also incorporating
gender equity techniques that will become a systematic part of
the teaching process in computer science.  The goal of this NSF-
funded training is to encourage women to stay in computer
science.
   Fisher and Sanders expect to reach 20 percent of the nation's
estimated 1,500 AP computer science teachers nationwide with the
new programming language.  By including the gender equity
material in a class most of the teachers will need, Fisher and
Sanders hope to reach a broader range of teachers.  The material
will be presented in a specific context, which may help the
teachers better incorporate new techniques into their lesson
plans.
   Girls are usually well-represented in early computer science
classes, Fisher said, but the numbers drop off in more advanced
classes.  Of the approximately 11,000 students who take the
computer science advanced placement exam each year, only about 16
percent are female.  [Beth Gaston]

                    FISH CAN HEAR ULTRASONIC
                     NOISES, SAY RESEARCHERS

   The American shad can detect high-frequency sounds, an
adaptation that may allow the fish to escape its principal
predator, dolphins.
   This conclusion, from NSF-funded researchers at the University
of Maryland at College Park, documents the ability of the
American shad, a member of the herring family, to detect sounds
with a frequency as high as 180 kilohertz.
   In the study, scientist Arthur Popper and colleagues speculate
that the ability to hear high-pitched sounds in this range
enables the fish to detect the ultrasonic clicking sounds that
dolphins use for echolocation.  The presence of this ability in
American shad, and perhaps in other shad and herrings, may be an
example of convergent evolution, the biologists say.  This
adaptation in fish is similar to that in certain moths and other
insects that can detect the ultrasonic sounds of their bat
predators.  The response to such sounds, whether in shad or
insects, is escape.
   Results of this work may help increase the effectiveness of
efforts to use sound to protect shad and related species from
being sucked into the cooling water intakes of power plants.
Ultrasonic sounds are already used to keep fish away from such
intakes, and knowledge of the range of sound shad can hear may
make it possible to more effectively use this protective
technique.  [Cheryl Dybas]

                              -NSF-