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Draft – finally published in: Sagbauer, N.N., Pollak, M. & Ebner, M. (2022). How Activities Related to Maker Education
Contribute to Overcome Entry Barriers for Girls into Formal Technical Education Pathways – Case Study of Holiday Camps at
a Technical Secondary Vocational School in Austria. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp.
463-469). New York City, NY, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved
June 30, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/221329/
How Activities Related to Maker Education Contribute to Overcome Entry Barriers for
Girls into Formal Technical Education Pathways – Case Study of Holiday Camps at a
Technical Secondary Vocational School in Austria
Nanna Nora Sagbauer
TU Graz, Austria
nanna.sagbauer@htl-hl.ac.at
Michael Pollak
TU Graz, Austria
research@michaelpollak.org
Martin Ebner
TU Graz, Austria
martin.ebner@tugraz.at
Abstract
This research considers the suitability of holiday camps as possible entry routes into technical education pathways.
Therefore, two very successful holiday camps at a technical secondary vocational school (HTL) in Austria were
observed. Using a mixed method research approach, a gender-mixed camp for 13-year-olds with a technical theme
is compared to an all-girls event for 8- to 12-year-olds focusing on creativity. We show the recruitment success of
given events, but also consider potential biasing factors in the evaluation. A discussion of the most successful
activity specifically designed for girls during the camp, creating luminous jewelry, is provided, and an analysis of
the stakeholders´ perception reveals the importance of adapted wording in promoting technical activities for girls,
as well as the need for the actions and artifacts produced to be meaningful in order to spark participants' interest
in the tools used and, beyond that, into formal technical education pathways.
Introduction
Traditionally, formal technical education is a male-dominated field in the Austrian educational system. “Typically,
young women choose schools or apprenticeships with social or commercial specialization and young men choose
some form of technical education” (Böheim et al., 2013). Only about a quarter of the students of technical or
vocational secondary schools (Höhere Technische Lehranstalten - HTL) in Austria is female as illustrated in
Figure 1. This number was also identified by Kellermann and Sagmeister (2000) for technical tertiary education.
Classical technical fields of study in secondary and tertiary education such as electrical engineering and mechanical
engineering have an even lower proportion of women at around 7% (Statistik Austria, 2021a). Therefore, ways
and means are being sought to overcome the apparent barriers to girls' access to formal technical education
pathways by using activities related to maker education specifically designed to appeal to girls. This approach was
shown to be promising by Boyle in 2019 when their specifically designed “project did appear to successfully
engage all of the girls, some of whom were originally not particularly interested in pursuing STEM careers,
confirming Making’s scope for broadening participation” (Boyle, 2019).
Draft – finally published in: Sagbauer, N.N., Pollak, M. & Ebner, M. (2022). How Activities Related to Maker Education
Contribute to Overcome Entry Barriers for Girls into Formal Technical Education Pathways – Case Study of Holiday Camps at
a Technical Secondary Vocational School in Austria. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp.
463-469). New York City, NY, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved
June 30, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/221329/
Figure 1: Number of school-leaving certificates or diplomas from technical and vocational secondary schools in
Austria (year 2000 to 2020); Data Source: (Statistik Austria, 2021b)
Research Design
This research is designed to contribute to the following research questions:
Q1) Can holiday camps be utilized as recruiting instruments for formal technical education pathways?
Q2) Are activities related to maker education specifically designed for girls effective recruitment tools for formal
technical education?
Q3) How do the involved stakeholder perceive activities related to maker education just for girls?
Using a mixed method research approach, we accompany a school in its efforts to inspire children in general and
girls in particular to pursue technical education through holiday camps. These camps are conducted at HTL
Hollabrunn, a higher secondary vocational school in Austria, by members of the school. This practice-based
research of a work-in-progress project uses statistical data obtained in HTL Hollabrunn in order to answer the
question of whether holiday camps can be utilized as recruiting instruments for formal technical education
pathways (Q1). The second research question determines if holiday camps can be utilized as effective recruitment
tools for formal technical education (Q2). Making activities specifically designed for girls in the 2021 autumn
holiday camp were evaluated also using qualitative research methods to reveal the perception of the involved
stakeholders (Q3). To this end, the children participating in the autumn camp completed questionnaires at the
beginning and the end of said event, and their parents received a feedback form to fill in online a couple of days
after. Structured interviews were used to gain insights from the organizing teachers and the participating HTL
peers.
Holiday Camps as Recruiting Instruments for Formal Education Pathways
HTL Hollabrunn, a higher secondary vocational school in Lower Austria, offers two separate holiday camps with
different focuses and target groups.
“Sommer@HTL” is a one-week (Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) holiday camp for boys and girls in the last
week of summer holidays before the participants enter the grade level eight, in which they need to make a decision
about their secondary school (grade level 9 to 12/13). The participants get to know the school as a whole and get
some insights into the focal points of the school´s departments. The seven departments introduced at the camp are
electronics and technical computer science, information technology, electrical engineering, mechanical
engineering, mechatronics, industrial engineering, and food technology. Groups of eight participants are each
assigned a peer from the school for support and to organize breaks. The groups go through three workshops before
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Draft – finally published in: Sagbauer, N.N., Pollak, M. & Ebner, M. (2022). How Activities Related to Maker Education
Contribute to Overcome Entry Barriers for Girls into Formal Technical Education Pathways – Case Study of Holiday Camps at
a Technical Secondary Vocational School in Austria. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp.
463-469). New York City, NY, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved
June 30, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/221329/
lunch, each lasting about 1.5 hours. Every workshop focuses on another topic which is assigned to a department
of the school and is led by teachers from the different departments. In the afternoons, sport coaches take care of a
varied activity program. The first Sommer@HTL camp started in 2016 with 48 teenagers. The initiative has now
grown to 96 participants annually. There were 86 boys and 10 girls in the camp in 2021, so the girls´ share was
only 10.4% as illustrated in Figure 2. In 2020, this ratio was slightly higher at about 15% (Sagbauer et al., 2021).
The low number of females relates to the findings of Moote et al. in 2020 which “showed that even from age 10,
girls were notably less likely than boys to aspire to engineering careers” (Moote et al., 2020, p. 45). Still, the school
considers this event to be a great success, as the feedback from the participants and their parents is very positive.
The recruitment success for the HTL Hollabrunn as the chosen upper secondary school of 60% among the
participating girls and an even higher 72% among the boys underlines that. We suggest that other factors may be
held responsible for these high numbers as well. A possible factor is that the choice of school might be made in
advance and only the field of study needs to be clarified during the summer camp. Whether this theory is correct
and for how many young people the camp actually has a significant influence on the decision to attend this school
cannot be determined within the scope of this work.
Figure 2: Participants and recruiting success of “Sommer@HTL” 2021 for HTL Hollarbunn (this school)
The second event hosted by the school with a focus on creativity is called “Kinder@HTL”. For these workshops
the schools´ makerspace is extended by the lecture hall and the assembly hall, where diverse maker activities can
be explored by the participating children. A concept of utilizing creative activities to introduce children to technical
tools and production processes was pursued for the “Kinder@HTL”. This is supposed to awaken curiosity and to
enable first successes with technology, which hopefully leads to technical education pathways for the participants.
HTL students act as peer-tutors, coaches, and role-models. Teachers of HTL Hollabrunn organize and supervise
the activities. “Kinder@HTL” was held for the first time in October 2021 for three days (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.). It was
attended by 34 children aged 8 to 12 (compare to Figure 3) and seven students of HTL Hollabrunn aged 15 to 18.
This event was held as a special “girls´ edition”, so it was for girls and female HTL students only. The three
organizing and supervising HTL teachers were also female. This concept was chosen according to the guidelines
proposed by Schön et. al in the context of the “DO IT” project (Schön et al., 2020). The all-female approach was
also deployed to avoid “taking on gendered roles in relationship to the materials at hand” (Bevan, 2017). The
participating girls were free to choose their activities according to their interests and could switch between the
various craft stations at any time. In addition, there were a daily guided programming workshop and a movement
Boys
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other 28%
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other 40%
Draft – finally published in: Sagbauer, N.N., Pollak, M. & Ebner, M. (2022). How Activities Related to Maker Education
Contribute to Overcome Entry Barriers for Girls into Formal Technical Education Pathways – Case Study of Holiday Camps at
a Technical Secondary Vocational School in Austria. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp.
463-469). New York City, NY, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved
June 30, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/221329/
session, alternating in two groups with half of the participants each before lunch. The movement sessions were led
by additional sports teachers.
Figure 3: Age distribution of the participants of “Kinder@HTL” 2021
The recruiting effect of this event cannot be captured as directly as with the “Sommer@HTL” camp, since the
participants usually still have several years to decide on an upper secondary school. However, after the event,
parents were surveyed in an online questionnaire. Using a 4-point Likert scale, the parents were asked whether the
HTL would be a suitable school for their daughters to attend at the upper secondary level (Figure 4). Over 90%
of parents saw HTL as a possible educational option for their daughters' future. Questions covering planned
participation in other events showed, that 65% of the parents definitely plan to attend an open day of HTL
Hollabrunn with their daughters to gain insights and information on the educational offer and another 26% consider
it. When asked if they would like to attend an open house, 75% of the children responded positively, and another
16% were neutral (see Figure 5). Therefore, the “Kinder@HTL” is also considered a huge success, because
traditionally the number of girls attending open days corresponds to the number of female students each year.
Figure 4: HTL as a suitable school for Kinder@HTL 2021 participants – Parents´ opinion on a 4-point Likert
scale
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Parents opinion -
Would HTL be a suitable school for your daughter
to attend at the upper secondary level?
No Probably not Maybe Yes
Draft – finally published in: Sagbauer, N.N., Pollak, M. & Ebner, M. (2022). How Activities Related to Maker Education
Contribute to Overcome Entry Barriers for Girls into Formal Technical Education Pathways – Case Study of Holiday Camps at
a Technical Secondary Vocational School in Austria. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp.
463-469). New York City, NY, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved
June 30, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/221329/
Figure 5: Would you like to attend an open day at HTL Hollabrunn? – Participants´ opinion of “Kinder@HTL”
2021 on a 5-point Likert scale
Making Activities Specifically Designed for Girls and the Stakeholders´ Perception
The organizers of the camp intentionally placed the focus of the "Kinder@HTL" event on creativity. Science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) should be taught and learned in the background to achieve the
children's personal goals of producing desired artifacts. This approach was intended to appeal to a diverse audience,
such as educationally disadvantaged groups or persons who are not familiar with science or technology. Creativity
was also used as the main theme to attract girls, which worked quite well according to the organizers and confirmed
by the survey of parents. In the questionnaires over half of the parents stated that a major reason for their daughter's
participation in the autumn camp was that she likes to do arts and crafts. Only seven of 34 girls were according to
their parents interested in technology before the “Kinder@HTL” event which is supported by the findings of Baker
et. al who stated that “tinkering was not something women chose to do in their free time while growing up”
(BAKER et al., 2008). Though, in camp, all of the girls were interested in the technical tools and production
processes as means to realize their artifacts. So, it seems to us that the wording used when advertising such events
makes a big impact on the willingness of girls to participate. We also observed that the girls cared about the
meaning of their actions. They needed a concrete sense of purpose when working and they always had a specific
goal in mind when tinkering. Since “maker education aims to educate future makers to be creative and responsible
designers of a potentially better world“ (Ebner et al., 2021) it seems to fit the girls´ requirements perfectly.
The most successful activity during the camp was creating luminous jewelry. Here, a simple design was created
from soldered LEDs in combination with a coin cell as an earring or necklace pendant. In the children´s pre- and
post-camp questionnaires the girls were tasked to rate their opinions on certain tools and keywords using a 5-point
Likert scale, going from a sad smiley face to a happy one with an additional "I don't know that" option. Even
though 73% of the participants didn´t know a soldering iron before the camp more than 90% of the parents claimed
that their daughters were enthusiastic about the soldering of luminous jewelry after the camp. We also observed
the girl´s enthusiasm for creating electronic jewelry during camp as the soldering table was always busy and the
use of well over 500 LEDs and more than 70 button cells was recorded. The girls´ rating of the term “Soldering
iron” showed the highest pre- to post-camp increase with 1.5 points from 3.1 up to 4.6, which by the way was the
second highest given post-camp rating. The term “HTL” was rated highest with a score of 4.7 out of 5, leading to
the assumption that activities specifically designed for girls can be an effective tool to give the concept of HTL a
positive connotation. We are convinced that it is necessary to link the name HTL with positive feelings among
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Draft – finally published in: Sagbauer, N.N., Pollak, M. & Ebner, M. (2022). How Activities Related to Maker Education
Contribute to Overcome Entry Barriers for Girls into Formal Technical Education Pathways – Case Study of Holiday Camps at
a Technical Secondary Vocational School in Austria. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp.
463-469). New York City, NY, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved
June 30, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/221329/
girls in order to enable later school careers. Therefore, making activities specifically designed for girls can be
effective recruitment tools for formal technical education.
The organizers are already planning the next “Kinder@HTL”. They stated that the “girl´s edition” worked
exceptionally well and there will be more pure female events. During the whole camp no rivalries or quarrels were
observed. The atmosphere was excellent and supportive all the time. If there were waiting times at machines or
equipment, the girls watched their colleagues patiently and with interest and already acquired initial knowledge
through observation. The participating girls rated the “Kinder@HTL” being for girls only with an average of 4.84
out of 5 points and the “Kinder@HTL” autumn camp as a whole with exceptional 4.9 points. When asked if the
parents liked that the event was for female participants only, 74% responded yes and 24% were indifferent, with
“no” also being an option. Furthermore, 16% of the parents even stated that they would not have registered their
daughter for a mixed-gender event. So HTL Hollabrunn successfully follows the suggestion of Clapp “to make
maker-centered learning experiences more inclusive and accessible to a wider and more diverse array of young
people” (Clapp, 2015).
Conclusions and Discussion
HTL Hollabrunn´s “Sommer@HTL” and “Kinder@HTL” events show, in answer to the first research question
Q1, that holiday camps can be utilized as recruiting instruments for formal technical education pathways. We make
this statement against the background of the high recruitment success of "Sommer@HTL 2021", a summer camp
for 13-year-olds with a technical focus, even though some influencing factors, such as decisions already made
beforehand, could not be determined in the observation presented here. 60% among the participating girls and an
even higher 72% among the boys chose HTL Hollabrunn as upper secondary school for the next school year
starting in September 2022 as enrollment figures reveal. The recruitment success of "Kinder@HTL", an autumn
holiday camp for 8- to 12-year-old children, in the extended makerspace of the HTL Hollabrunn could not be
recorded so directly because a decision about the educational future of most participants is not imminent. The main
theme of “Kinder@HTL” events is creativity and getting the children engaged in making activities. The 2021
holiday camp was launched as a special “Girls´ edition”, an event only for girls. Since women students are “less
confident in their tinkering and engineering application skills” (Buckley et al., 2019) we consider strengthening
the self-esteem of girls using tools and technologies in a fun way a feasible strategy to increase the number of
females in formal technical education. Over 90% of the “Kinder@HTL” participants´ parents envisioned HTL
Hollabrunn as a possible educational option for the future of their children. Considering the low rate of female
students in HTLs in Austria, this illustrates the success of specifically designed making activities according to
research question two (Q2). Conducting this research, we were aware that there was no control group, let alone a
randomized selection of participants. Furthermore, the group size of 34 girls was relatively small, so no well-
founded quantitative evaluations could be gathered. However, participants in the all-girls 2021 event indicated
how much they enjoyed "Kinder@HTL" with an average score of 4.9 out of a possible 5, and with an average
score of 4.7, whether they would return for another event at this school. Therefore, follow-up events for girls these
are planned to establish a long-term connection with the school and the girls will be explicitly invited to
“Summer@HTL” camps in the future.
The stakeholders´ perception of making activities just for girls was investigated in relation to the third research
question (Q3). The organizers of the maker activities identified the wording of the descriptions and the
meaningfulness of the activities or artifacts as crucial for the girls´ involvement. The girls were captured by
activities such as the creation of luminous jewelry. They loved soldering, even though most of the girls did not
know what a soldering iron was before the event. In the questionnaires over half of the parents stated that a major
reason for their daughter's participation in the “Kinder@HTL” making activities was that she likes to do arts and
crafts. So, the wording also seemed important for the parents´ perception, which is in our opinion a major influence
on the children´s educational choices for upper secondary schools.
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Draft – finally published in: Sagbauer, N.N., Pollak, M. & Ebner, M. (2022). How Activities Related to Maker Education
Contribute to Overcome Entry Barriers for Girls into Formal Technical Education Pathways – Case Study of Holiday Camps at
a Technical Secondary Vocational School in Austria. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp.
463-469). New York City, NY, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved
June 30, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/221329/
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