Derailing the Geek Track: Attracting and Retaining NonTraditional Students for High School Computer

1
Derailing the Geek Track Attracting and
Retaining Non-Traditional Students for High
School Computer Science

• Rita Vasak

2
Derailing the Geek Track

• Enrollment trends
• Recruiting Strategies
• Best Practices for Retention and Student Success

3
Computer Science Where Are We Now?

• Enrollment in computer science is down
• Women and non-Asian minorities are seriously
  underrepresented in college computer science
  programs and in AP computer science

4
Computer Science Degrees in Decline

• Just 14 of all CS bachelor's degrees were
  awarded to women in 2005/2006

FOR MORE INFO...
Computer Research Association http//www.cra.org/
5
Enrollment Trends my classroom

• CS class offered as an elective beginning in 2002
• Low enrollment 3-6 students per semester
• Frequently all male enrollment
• Young women who did take the class were harder to
  engage

6
Increasing Enrollment Why Does It Matter?

• Increased need for skilled IT workers
• More representative workforce means better
  product engineering
• Computer science skills translate to a more
  general increase in problem solving skills

7
Bureau of Labor Statistics projections 2006-2016
8
Computer Science and Problem Solving Skills
Inquiry

• Diagnostic given August 2007 and January 2008
• Students ranged from 9th-12th grade
• Current math enrollment from Algebra I
  Pre-Calculus
• 12 word problems, 5th-8th grade mathematics
  required

9
Students became better problem solvers
10
Students became faster or more confident problem
solvers
11
Recruiting Strategies

• Targeting non-traditional populations
• Identifying Candidates
• Generating Interest

12
Strategies and Incentives for Recruitment

• Targeted invitations to students and parents
• Math classes, language classes, teacher
  recommendations
• Direct recruitment

13
Student Retention

• Teach concepts separately from syntax
• Use real-world projects for relevance
• Use code challenges and competitions to push
  students to think critically, work cooperatively,
  and push their problem-solving boundaries

14
Teach concepts separately from syntax

• Alice is a 3D Programming Environment developed
  by CMU with funding by NSF
• Graphic, interactive programming language
  specifically designed for teaching computer
  science and it is FREE
• Covers concepts such as step-wise refinement,
  flow of control, selection, iteration, objects
  and methods, parameter passing, and event
  handling.
• Does not require syntax knowledge interface is
  drag-and-drop
• Presents as a story-telling language

15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
After using Alice for 1 semester and beginning
Java 2nd semester

• Material covered by last years students in 9
  weeks took 4 weeks with comparable test results
• Conditionals and Loops took 5 weeks last year
  and 2.5 this year
• Frustration levels are much lower Java is
  picky instead of Java is HARD

19
For more information

• www.alice.org
• NECC (In San Antonio this year)
• Computer Science Teachers Association

20
Use real-world projects for relevance

• Real world examples such as this snack bar (or
  school store program hold student interest.
• Return to the same program to scaffold skills.
• Students see this program first when they learn
  conditionals and iteration
• Later they will use functional decomposition to
  break it down into objects and methods
• Theyll see it a third time for file i/o

21
Code Challenges

• Use code challenges and competitions to push
  students to think critically
• Programming teams help students to work
  cooperatively
• Carefully chosen problem sets help students to
  push their problem-solving boundaries and become
  more independent learners

22
Code Challenges

• Teams should be assigned by instructor and
  rotated each time
• Problems should be presented from least to most
  difficult
• Each problem should have point value commensurate
  with its degree of difficulty
• There should be some problems that every student
  can complete successfully
• There should be some problems that require
  knowledge that pushes beyond what the students
  currently know
• There should be more problems than any team can
  complete in the time allotted
• Students should have access to text books and
  reference materials
• Only one computer can be on per team.

23
Off the Geek Track

• Target and invite a diverse group of students
• Teach concepts and syntax separately
• Use and scaffold real world problems
• Push students with contests and competitions

24
Resources

• The Computing Research Association
• http//www.cra.org/
• The ALICE 3D Programming Environment
• http//www.alice.org/
• Computer Science Teachers Association
• http//www.csta.acm.org/
• International Society for Technology in Education
• http//www.iste.org/
• HP Code Wars
• http//www.hpcodewars.org/