Arts Coding for Social Good
Anita DeWitt, Julia Fay, Madeleine Goldman, Eleanor Nicolson, Linda Oyolu, Lukas Resch, Jovan Martinez Saldaña, Soulideth Sounalath, Tyler Williams, Kathryn Yetter, Elizabeth Zak, Narren J. Brown, Samuel A. Rebelsky · 2017
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.