Exposing Middle and High School Students to the Breadth of Computer Science

Daryl Bryant Stone; Quincy Brown

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Conference: 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Publication Date: June 15, 2014
Start Date: June 15, 2014
End Date: June 18, 2014
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Engaging Minority Pre-College and Transfer Students in Engineering
Tagged Division: Minorities in Engineering
Page Count: 11
Page Numbers: 24.588.1 - 24.588.11
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--20479
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/20479
Download Count: 391

Paper Authors

biography

Daryl Bryant Stone Bowie State University

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Dr. Daryl Stone successfully defended his Doctoral Dissertation, titled “African-American Males in Computer Science – Examining the Pipeline for Clogs”, at George Washington University. His goal is to find ways to recruit, prepare and retain more minorities in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) areas, specifically, the Computing Discipline.

He is currently an Assistant Professor in Bowie State Universities Computer Science Department. Dr. Stone is the Founding Director of the CPU Camp (Computer Programming for Youth). CPU Camp introduces the basics of computer programming and College to Middle and High School Students. Additionally, Dr. Stone teaches courses in the area of Internet Programming, Oracle Database Development and Programming in C/C++.

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biography

Quincy Brown Bowie State University

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Dr. Quincy Brown is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Department at Bowie State University. She is a 2009 recipient of the National Science Foundation/Computing Community Consortium CI Fellows Postdoctoral Research Fellowship award. She completed her doctoral work at Drexel University where she was a National Science Foundation GK-12 and Bridge To the Doctorate Fellow. As a GK-12 Fellow she taught and developed STEM curricula for middle school students.
Through her research she seeks to identify methods of facilitating human interaction with advanced technologies, including mobile devices, to support learning. Specifically, her ongoing projects examine the design of intelligent tutoring systems, delivered on mobile devices, to support middle school mathematics learning and exploring the design and usability aspects of mobile device use by children.

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Abstract

Exposing Middle and High School Students to the Breadth of Computer ScienceIn this paper, we describe our experience running a camp for middle and high school students. For foursummers have hosted PROGRAM with the primary goal of exposing students to the breadth of topics incomputer science. During the camp we engage students in activities related to computer science topics,such as robotics, mobile applications, and HTML rather than focus on one topic for the duration of theprogram. Over the course of five years nearly 200 middle and high school students, 97% of whom areAfrican American, have participated in our program. The camp began in 2009 as male-only and wasexpanded in 2011 to include girls. The camp is held at NAME University and is focused on providinglow cost CS education activities to students in the NAME, STATE areas.Through this program we aim to dispel the myth that computer science is narrowly focused onprogramming and have students experience, first hand, the variety of activities and career paths with thediscipline. Through exposure to multiple topics we want to provide campers with an opportunity todiscover the aspects of computing that is of interest to them. Our goals in hosting the summer camp areto 1) Expose students to the breadth topics within computer science, 2) Provide a low-cost summerprogram, 3) Expose students to role models who “look like them”, and 4) Provide students withtechnical skills.We expose students to a variety of topics that fall under the computer science “umbrella” by includingactivities from areas such as robotics, HTML, mobile application development, and 3D printing. Inaddition to the hands-on technical skill development, we provide students with opportunities toexperience life on a university campus and invite STEM professionals to talk to students about theirbackground and career paths. We also introduce students to role models who “look like them” by hiringAfrican American college students as staff.Pre-and post- camp surveys were run to examine the impact of the camp. We found that most of thecampers had difficulty defining computer science on the pre-camp survey and most of the campersdefined CS as “the science of computers”. However, on the post-camp survey definitions were moredetailed. For example, some of the campers listed areas within CS, such as programmers, networkengineers, and cyber-security specialists. We will present of lessons learned for others interested inhosting similar programs for reference including selecting activities and minimizing the cost of thecamp.We believe that exposing students to multiple aspects of computer science will deepen theirunderstanding of CS. We recognize that given the cost of many camps, $300 each week, the possibilityof a student enrolling in multiple camps for exposure to multiple facets of CS may be more than manyfamilies can afford. The combination of including multiple activities at a low cost enables students tofind their place in computer science and further dispelling the myth that computer science is solely aboutwriting software.

Citation
Format

Stone, D. B., & Brown, Q. (2014, June), Exposing Middle and High School Students to the Breadth of Computer Science Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--20479

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -   Exposing Middle and High School Students to the Breadth of Computer ScienceIn this paper, we describe our experience running a camp for middle and high school students. For foursummers have hosted PROGRAM with the primary goal of exposing students to the breadth of topics incomputer science. During the camp we engage students in activities related to computer science topics,such as robotics, mobile applications, and HTML rather than focus on one topic for the duration of theprogram. Over the course of five years nearly 200 middle and high school students, 97% of whom areAfrican American, have participated in our program. The camp began in 2009 as male-only and wasexpanded in 2011 to include girls. The camp is held at NAME University and is focused on providinglow cost CS education activities to students in the NAME, STATE areas.Through this program we aim to dispel the myth that computer science is narrowly focused onprogramming and have students experience, first hand, the variety of activities and career paths with thediscipline. Through exposure to multiple topics we want to provide campers with an opportunity todiscover the aspects of computing that is of interest to them. Our goals in hosting the summer camp areto 1) Expose students to the breadth topics within computer science, 2) Provide a low-cost summerprogram, 3) Expose students to role models who “look like them”, and 4) Provide students withtechnical skills.We expose students to a variety of topics that fall under the computer science “umbrella” by includingactivities from areas such as robotics, HTML, mobile application development, and 3D printing. Inaddition to the hands-on technical skill development, we provide students with opportunities toexperience life on a university campus and invite STEM professionals to talk to students about theirbackground and career paths. We also introduce students to role models who “look like them” by hiringAfrican American college students as staff.Pre-and post- camp surveys were run to examine the impact of the camp. We found that most of thecampers had difficulty defining computer science on the pre-camp survey and most of the campersdefined CS as “the science of computers”. However, on the post-camp survey definitions were moredetailed. For example, some of the campers listed areas within CS, such as programmers, networkengineers, and cyber-security specialists. We will present of lessons learned for others interested inhosting similar programs for reference including selecting activities and minimizing the cost of thecamp.We believe that exposing students to multiple aspects of computer science will deepen theirunderstanding of CS. We recognize that given the cost of many camps, $300 each week, the possibilityof a student enrolling in multiple camps for exposure to multiple facets of CS may be more than manyfamilies can afford. The combination of including multiple activities at a low cost enables students tofind their place in computer science and further dispelling the myth that computer science is solely aboutwriting software.
AU  - Daryl Bryant Stone
AU  - Quincy Brown
CY  - Indianapolis, Indiana
DA  - 2014/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Exposing Middle and High School Students to the Breadth of Computer Science  
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/20479
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--20479
ER  -