In the virtual course Electricity, electronics and environment, developed in the E-Girls – Towards technology – project, the senior secondary school students selected three out of seven practical questions to be answered. 97 (90,7 %) of them answered the question: ‘What would it be like to spend a day without electricity?’. This topic was clearly the most popular one both among girls and boys.—
107 students (54 girls and 53 boys) have completed the course ‘Electricity, electronics and environment’ so far. Six of the participants were girls from the upper classes of comprehensive school and the rest were senior secondary schools students..
Practical assignments form one part of the course. The students get to choose at least three of them. It is, of course, possible to answer even more questions. The students answer the question on their own and send the answers to the teacher as part of the feedback diary.
We received altogether 373 answers. The most popular assignment was the very hands-on question discussed in the introduction ‘What would it be like to spend a day without electricity?’ It inspired almost all the students (90,7%). The most distinctive difference in popularity between girls and boys was with the practical assignment ‘Find out how electric appliances are recycled in your own hometown’. Girls were more interested in this one than the boys were. In fact, girls formed 62% of the respondents. For girls this was the third most popular topic, whereas for boys it was the least popular.
The second most popular topic for boys was ‘Find out where there is a pole-mounted transformer station or pad-mounted substation closest to your home” As for girls, this topic shared the third position with the above mentioned recycling theme. No clear distinction was to be found between the topics chosen by girls and boys.
The most interesting fact in the results was to see how much interest the topic about a day without electricity roused. Electricity is quite essential for us today even if we do not always see it. Maybe that is why the topic was so interesting even to senior secondary school students. Admittedly, the fact that the task was the first exercise of the course might have had an effect on its popularity.
E-Girls – Towards Technology project was concluded at the end of 2006. However, the course is being developed further in the E-girls project of Vaasa region in the Faculty of Technology at the University of Vaasa, which is due to last till the end of 2007. This project is funded by European Social Fund (ESF) and the State Provincial office of Southern Finland.It will be interesting to see which exercises will be the most interesting ones in the future. The lively debate in media about global warming is most probably reflected in the interest of the senior secondary school students.
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