Effective and sustainable computing summer camps

  • Authors:

  • Barbara Ericson;Tom McKlin

  • Affiliations:

  • Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA;The Findings Group, Decatur, GA, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 43rd ACM technical symposium on Computer Science Education
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

universities. But, it is not enough to offer computing summer camps and hope that students like them. The camps should be effective by some measure, such as broadening participation by underrepresented groups and/or increasing learning. Summer camps should also be financially sustainable, so that institutions can continue to offer them regularly. The summer camps at Georgia Tech have become effective and financially sustainable. This paper presents the rationale for our camps, the evaluation results that demonstrate positive attitude changes and increases in learning, and the business model that makes them financially sustainable. It also reports on the evaluation results from seven other colleges and universities in Georgia that offered computing summer camps during the summer of 2011 with assistance from Georgia Tech.