Nerd Girls Blog
Girls Really ARE Good at Math
posted by Gail Carmichael on August 18, 2008
A lot of people think that girls just don’t “do” math. In fact, many of these same people believe that this is related to girls just being better at different things than boys. This might be true in some areas, but recent studies have shown that, when it comes to math, girls just might be as good if not better!
You might be surprised to learn that not all of these studies are recent. Janet Hyde, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, found that girls tested in math just as well as boys before high school. That was in the late eighties/early nineties
Women and the Quality of Code
posted by Gail Carmichael on July 25, 2008
A good way to stir up some controversy is to bring up possible differences between the way men and women write code. Add to it a tone that suggests that women write better code, and you’ll really get people talking. Is there something to it? Would you really be able to tell the difference between male and female code, and could you really say that one is better than the other?
Chic Geek of the Week: Danica McKellar
posted by Amy Lynch on July 25, 2008
This week’s brainiac bombshell: Danica McKellar. You may remember her as Kevin Arnold’s long-standing crush, Winnie Cooper, on the classic television show The Wonder Years. More recently, you might have caught her in her role as Elsie Snuffin on The West Wing or Trudy on How I Met Your Mother. Or perhaps you’ve perused a physics journal and stumbled across the Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem she co-authored before graduating summa cum laude in mathematics from UCLA.
Danica took a break from acting to pursue her studies in math and then took her education a step further by sharing it with anyone who would listen.
(photo credit: USA Today)
Chic Geek of the Week: Natalie Portman
posted by Amy Lynch on July 16, 2008
Starlets. They’re everywhere. On television, in magazines, splashed across the Internet, and constantly in our faces, the Hollywood It Girl is as ubiquitous as oxygen. We can’t seem to escape her, and some of us admittedly don’t want to. But to those of us who pride ourselves on our intelligence, aren’t some of these so-called role models rather… uninspiring?
Here at Nerd Girls, we like to give props to girls who say what they mean and mean what they say. And when they’re smart, isn’t what they say a whole lot more interesting?
Photo Credit: People.com
The Magic Behind Wall-E
posted by Gail Carmichael on July 16, 2008
If there was ever a doubt that computer science and engineering are exciting career choices, let the recently released hit animated picture Wall-E change your mind. What most people see when they watch this movie is a touching love story from an unexpected source. Sure, I saw this too, but I also saw some of the many reasons it would be really cool to work in the computer animation industry!