Neopets

So I don't know how many of you played Neopets as a young kid, but I definitely DID. 


For those of you who don't know what Neopets is it's a virtual world where you are given a pet and you are in charge.  The majority of the game deals with your shop, obtaining Neopoints, and figuring about cheap ways to feed your pet (if at all).:-)

At this point, your probably asking..."Serena, how does Neopets even remotely resemble engineering?" I'll give you 4 ways:

1. This game is about commerce. The world of ours revolves around commerce and the economy.  You own a shop, and you need to do everything in your power to sell your stuff/ not get it stolen from the ghosts.
2. Finance skills. You set up a bank account and collect interest.  I think it's a great way to show kids how their money grows in the bank.  Also, you build a shop, where you can sell things.  I would often undercut the market price to ensure that my items would sell... That is called business. :-)
3. Programming skills.  I learned how to program HTML for my shop.  I started doing this because was jealous of other kids whose shops would overflow with backgrounds and icons.  All I really remember is <img src= " ">, but it was definitely a start.  What kid site teaches them how to program?!
4. Efficiency.  You name the game, but my goal was to get as much money as possible.  This means that you don't play the games that give you only 50 neopoints per play...You find that game, and you dominate!

I was talking about this with other SWE girls, and we all talked about our slightly coy childhoods of ripping people off and finding the best ways to deal with a "free market." I think it's the closest thing to real life that kids can get involved in....The sad thing now is that they have commercials for the games :-(

Yay for Women in Tech...wait What?

A few weeks back, I bought an issue of Glamour for my occasional fix of girly-brain candy.  I came across this article.  My first thought was "Cool! They are going to actually address this issue about girls in STEM." After reading the article, I do have some critiques, since the article does not address the REAL issue.

The article concentrates on computer science only.  Now, nothing against computer science, but STEM is the WIDE field that incorporates more than you can imagine.  There was no talk about the ground-breaking work in other fields.

It concentrates on women in management and entrepreneurial roles.  Again, there's not a problem with these roles.  However, management isn't for everyone.  Neither is entrepreneurial-ship.  I think we should encourage these, but we need to get down to the basics- How do women gain the skills to take on these roles? Through STEM degrees!

The "Hang In!" section completely dismisses the whole reason behind STEM. Most of this article is about money and power.  They talk about how a women's salary in STEM is 33% higher.  Sure, it's important. But why am I really spending countless hours in the computer lab to finish my homework? The reason is WAY beyond the money.

Programming can be a huge turn-off to some people.  To be honest, I don't enjoy programming very much.  I do it when it makes my life a whole lot easier, but I don't go around creating new iPhone apps or anything like that.  If I would have read this article when I was a freshman in college, I would have been very scared.  It isn't all about programming, and Glamour makes it seem like it is.

I like the work that Glamour is doing to try to promote girl power, but the article completely dismisses anything outside of computer science.  STEM is much more revolutionary in many different fields.  Sure, computer development is VERY big right now.  However, politics show that it goes beyond that. Take a look at Energy politics for an example; there aren't too many computer scientists in that.