Arts Coding for Social Good: A Pilot Project for Middle-School Outreach

Abstract

Computer science, particularly in the United States, continues to suffer from underrepresentation by women and students of color. Increasingly, evidence suggests that we need to approach student perceptions of computer science and self perceptions of "who does computer science" before college, at ages in which students have not yet formed difficult-to-change viewpoints. In an effort to address underrepresented groups in computing, as well as to change common, stereotypical perceptions of what a computer scientist is, we ran a pilot summer camp that drew students from our local community and sought to increase their self-efficacy and change the way they conceptualized Computer Science. In designing the course, we leveraged approaches that have shown success at the college level - particularly Computing for Social Good and Media Computation - to introduce students to important concepts. The camp was structured as a week-long, full-day camp in one of the Computer Science department's computer-equipped classrooms, We taught programming in Processing to 28 rising 5th-9th grade students, focusing on artistic aspects and real-world inspiration. In this paper, we report on the project (both successes and failures) and the effects the project had on students' self-efficacy and attitudes towards computer science. We also provide some recommendations for others planning to offer similar camps.