Gender differences in reverse engineering

The purpose of this study was to investigate possible gender differences related to Reverse Engineering unit of the Engineer Your World curriculum. A pilot study took place in 4 schools in Texas and 1 in Massachusetts. The sample size was 160 students: 121 males and 39 females. Students taking EYW (both as an elective and as a required course) were surveyed about their experiences and interest in reverse engineering before and after the Reverse Engineering unit. Results reported some differences in responses between genders. Females reported a higher curiosity for taking things apart but fewer experiences than the males did, although the difference was not necessary statistically significant. A difference between genders was reported differences in learning about how things that they use on a daily basis (IPhones, digital cameras) work. Despite the students' reported lack of expectation that they would use information learned in the reverse engineering outside of class, they reported an interest in learning more about how things work.