in order to assist getting the skills necessary to teachers in order ◦ The teachers that are in schools do not have the skills that are needed to teach a coding class (for example a business major & teacher teaching java) • The curriculum for AP CS appears to be outdated which doesn’t help current students It is hard to convince tech students to graduate • Lack of school funding and teachers willing to teach ◦ Schools are dealing with this circular problem where kids need to learn coding, but teachers can’t teach it ◦ Salary differences: median for software developer is $84,360 and classroom teacher is $56,383
class was algorithmic thinking ◦ Which is a major step/resource for coding • Kids involved in video games could be gotten to be interested in how these things are made ◦ So targeting elementary school students even with the information of how did that iPad game get made • The hacker image in public media showing a hooded individual in front of green text that gives kids the wrong impression about computer science
hacking in the matrix • I went to a charter school and a teacher had the class compete in groups to build something that the school needed ◦ Seeing an idea and taking it to fruition • My first experience was on my own actually through Codecademy, after I was turned away due to not being in the major to take the classes • I didn’t have internet at home and I my own version of the internet, so I checked out books from the library on making websites at a young age
programming classes tend to be overwhelmingly male and asian • A hackathon for students that someone attended showed great diversity numbers (45% women, for example) demonstrate that there is an interest from these different groups • Kids that are learning about how to program tend to be boys from families that have the money that can get them a teacher or put them in a summer/afterschool programs (privilege)
teach coding skills, not necessarily coding an application • Kids like to see visual output • CodeDay Philly connects to kids’ interests in the arts by individualizes coding activities ◦ Kids already like to make music, draw, play games, etc ◦ Kids will learn how to make music, generate art, build games, etc, thru coding • Hour of Code website also helps with the skills for teaching the algorithmic method of thinking that can be built on top of • Direct family/friend encouragement • The game Roblox is powered by coding and empowers kids to make their worlds better by showing them all of the available options (similar example is Minecraft)
experience that the kids have by building up from building games in Scratch up to Unity ◦ As well as doing hackathons and other events • Normalize them to failure (bugs in code happen frequently), which is new to students
to pursuing a CS degree in order to teach CS. Around me however there are many of my peers that have been discouraging me (money, dealing with bad kids, etc.) while I have been going forward with this anyways, there are others that would not follow through on this after hearing it repeatedly • Others tend to be taught in workshops which are paid per class ◦ Shows how money is a major incentive for people wanting to teach • TEALS has classes that are free that people can use it in order to improve and provided curriculum to schools attempting to start a program
CS education for everyone • Something that high school hackathons desperately need are mentors, as majority of attendees are coding for the first time • Coding or game design classes in high schools are elective credits. Moving this towards a graduation requirement filler would be a great way to improve this ◦ Using your hackathon as a place to call the local government with participants (using a script) in order to campaign for this • Organizing with local schools and students so that they continue to have the resources that they need (updating school labs or more access on a campus for interested parties) ◦ “You can teach someone to fish but if they don’t have a fishing rod it doesn’t help them much in the long run”