Impact and Achievements of School Workshops as a University Outreach Activity in Computer Science

Abstract

With an ever increasing number of computing initiatives trying to engage and motivate children of all ages, we need to ask ourselves what these initiatives achieve and deliver. We therefore intend to investigate whether participation in a workshop setting changes students' approaches to solving selected computational thinking problems and extends their repertoire of problem-solving strategies. Methods used will include video analysis to collect data on the solutions and strategies, and a design-based research approach to create an effective task design for the workshop activities given to the students.