CS4HS: an outreach program for high school CS teachers

  • Authors:

  • Lenore Blum;Thomas J. Cortina

  • Affiliations:

  • Carnegie Mellon University;Carnegie Mellon University

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 38th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

In this paper, we describe a pilot summer workshop (CS4HS) held at Carnegie Mellon University in July 2006 for high school CS teachers to provide compelling material that the teachers can use in their classes to emphasize computational thinking and the many possibilities of computer science. Diversity and broadening participation was explicitly addressed throughout the workshop. We focused on broadening the image of what CS is -- and who computer scientists are -- since the reasons for under-representation in the field are very much the same as the reasons for the huge decline in interest. We describe the design of the workshop along with results from initial surveys and evaluations. Short-term evaluations show that this workshop was successful in changing the perception of CS for these teachers and giving them the impetus to include broader topics in their programming courses for the upcoming school year. Future surveys will track the long-term effect of this workshop.