ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 11, 1997 TAG: 9702110034
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE
"It's better without [boys] because they're bossy and now we get to do whatever we want."
- Eva Oliver
Crouched on the floor of Tamara Oliver's classroom in Margaret Beeks Elementary School, four girls inspected their treasure on a recent Thursday afternoon.
With small flathead or Phillips screwdrivers in their hands and intense looks on their faces, these Blacksburg second-graders poked, pried, popped and twisted open their find.
It looks like a city, they said. "There's the mall, there's Fun Challenge, there are the roads ..."
What they found, actually, was the green and black electronic maze of a 10-year-old computer. But to them, it's something totally new that they got to discover on their own.
Nearby, two girls play a computer learning game called "Thinking Things." Down the hall, other second-grade girls write their own poetry and stories with a different computer program.
Conspicuously missing from these after-school activities are boys. And that's the point.
"It's better without them because they're bossy and now we get to do whatever we want," said Eva Oliver as she tore into a keyboard.
Eva was the inspiration for her mom, second-grade teacher Tamara Oliver, to begin a pilot computer club just for girls.
Oliver said girls tend to shy away from math and science, even in elementary school. She noticed her daughter stopped enjoying chess - a passion since before kindergarten - because she was in a chess club with only three other girls.
Once she started doing some research, Oliver was shocked. She found that only 4 percent of the 1995 computer science graduating class from Virginia Tech were women. That class lost 60 percent of its females from its freshman year.
Oliver obtained a $1,000 grant from Montgomery County schools to purchase CD-ROMs and other software. The Christmas Store and fellow teachers donated outdated computers, modems and printers the girls could examine to their hearts content.
The Association of Women and Computers at Virginia Tech, which has "adopted" the group, sends volunteers to each meeting to share their expertise. With their help, Oliver is learning right along with the girls about technology and the ways women contribute to it.
It wasn't until five years ago that Oliver herself became interested in computers, motivated by another family member. Her father, a retired Virginia Tech professor who lives in Blacksburg, loved to communicate through e-mail.
Since then, Oliver has received two grants for various projects and has been mastering computers on her own.
Fourteen girls attend the club twice a month; Oliver has a waiting list of other girls who want to join. The boys don't know too much about it - yet.
Oliver said she'd like to keep the pilot program running another year, but needs to purchase more sophisticated software for the blossoming technofiles. And, she'd like someone to research her group, to document any effects the club might have on interest or ability in math and science.
For now, the girls will continue to learn about computers in their unique way. Take, for example, how they learned about floppy disks: They took some apart, talked about how they work, then painted the parts and added sparkles and jewels.
The result: decorative pins to wear, plus knowledge to use for a lifetime.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Alan Kim. Margaret Beeks Elementay School teacher Tamaraby CNBOliver sits among her second-graders while they dismantle donated
computers. color.