No abstract

While in the ideal world, everyone should have the same chance to succeed in a given profession, in reality, often the probability of success is different for people of different gender and/or ethnicity. For example, in the US, the probability of a female undergraduate student in computer science to get a PhD is lower than a similar probability for a male student. At first glance, it may seem that in such a situation, if we try to maximize our gain and we have a limited amount of resources, it is reasonable to concentrate on students with the higher probability of successi.e., on males, and only moral considerations prevent us from pursuing this seemingly economically optimal discriminatory strategy. In this paper, we show that this first impression is wrong: the discriminatory strategy is not only morally wrong, it is also not optimal-and the morally preferable inclusive strategy is actually also economically better.

Abstract-In situations when several participants collaborate with each other, it is desirable to come up with a fair way to divide the resulting gain between the participants. Such a fair way was proposed by John von Neumann and Oscar Morgenstern, fathers of the modern game theory. However, in some situations, the von Neumann-Morgenstern solution does not exist. To cover such situations, we propose to use a fuzzy-inspired hierarchical version of the von Neumann-Morgenstern (NM) solution. We prove that, in contrast to the original NM solution, the hierarchical version always exists.

This paper describes a program to introduce computer science (CS) to middle school students in rural Alabama, USA, and presents research on the impact of the program on teachers and students. The hands-on program established a dedicated area equipped with grade-appropriate CS resources, in which students receive mentored, structured, and continuous hands-on activities using the Micro:bit system. The goal was to have students engage in "learning CS through making", a pedagogical approach grounded in educational research that is expected to promote deep awareness, interest, skills, and learning about CS. The teachers participated in intensive professional development and received regular follow-ups from the course instructors. Researchers utilized a mixed method, repeated measures design to investigate the impact of the project on teachers and their students. The main research question is: What is the impact of the Maker-Space Project on participating middle-school teachers and their students? Teacher attitudes and skills were measured at baseline and at two points in the first 2 years of the project. Other measures related specifically to the teacher professional development (PD). A survey was used to collect student data at participating schools. All students completing the 8 th grade were surveyed to collect baseline and comparison data. The survey included demographic data; prior experience with computing; and confidence, enjoyment, attitudes, and identity. In addition, pre-post survey data from students in the maker-space course was collected and analyzed. Post-course student data was compared to the baseline and comparison group data. Researchers also visited the schools to observe the maker-space classrooms, visit with students and interview teachers. Researchers talked to the students and videotaped their discussions and their demonstrations of their projects. They also interviewed the teachers using a semi-structured protocol. The professional development positively impacted the teachers' understanding of computer science and their use of active learning and hands-on learning in their own classrooms. The teachers reported being optimistic about their own ability to learn computer science education content and about their ability to teach the content to their 8 th grade students. Teachers reported changes in skills, competencies, interests and behaviors of their students. The teachers are pleased with the progress of their students in learning about computer science, especially coding. Working cooperatively, creative problem solving, and classroom engagement were behaviors seen in the Makerspace classrooms. Teachers reported seeing increased interest taking courses in high school and in computer science careers.