Teaching Computing to Everyone Mark Guzdial & Barbara
Ericson
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Story Computer science has been tasked for over 50 years with
teaching computing to everyone. Were not even close. How do we
create interest in Computing, and sustain that interest through
High School? Sustainable and Effective Summer Camps Competitions
Professional Development Sustaining Teachers through Communities
How do we teach Computer Science to adults who do not want to
become software engineers or computer scientists? Media Computation
Assessing CS1 Graphics Designers who Program
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The Two Cultures
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Learn Programming to Re-Think Process Everywhere (1961) Alan
Perlis argued that computer science should be part of a liberal
education. Explicitly, he argued that all students should learn to
program. Why? Because Computer Science is the study of process.
Automated execution of process changes everything Including how we
think about things we already know
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Today, theres a growing call
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High School Participation in AP STEM Disciplines Chris
Stephenson, CSTA, 2010
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Undergraduate Curriculum Has a Second-Order Effect Students
decide to avoid computing long before they have any idea what the
university curriculum is. 3. Source: Eric Roberts & Higher
Education Research Institute at UCLA, 2005
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Our work: Starting out better, then supporting adults NSF BPC
Alliance Georgia Computes! from 2006-2012 How do we create interest
in Computing, and sustain that interest through High School?
Sustainable and Effective Summer Camps Competitions in Scratch,
Alice, and AP CS A Professional Development for teachers Developing
a community of computing teachers How do we teach Computer Science
to adults who do not want to become software engineers or computer
scientists? Media Computation Assessing CS1: Valid and
language-independent Graphics Designers who Program
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Creating Interest in Computing Start early We start with 4 th
graders (9 10 years old) Provide lots of opportunities for
engagement Weekend workshops, afterschool programs, summer camps,
courses in 9 th 12 th grade, competitions, a lending library,
student helpers Use activities that are creative, hands-on, and
social Use a variety of activities No one thing appeals to
everyone
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Summer Computing Camps Engaging introduction to computing for 4
th -12 th grade students Adding elementary students made the camps
financially self-sustaining Reaches students that are not served in
formal education Majority-minority Test bed for new activities In
2011 App Inventor In 2012 EarSketch
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Summer Computing Camps: Effective The camps decrease the belief
that programming is hard The camps increase confidence and interest
Sorting by gender or race results: Girls show greater change on
"Programming is hard" Boys end up with greater confidence than
girls Black students show statistically significant changes
StatementNPre/Post Mean Paired t-test Effect size 2. Programming is
hard1692.78/2.56.007**0.21 6. I am good at
computing1683.8/3.96.032*0.16 7. I like computing1684.4/4.55.070.14
8. I know more than my friends about computing
1703.44/3.69.002**0.24 ** p
