Changing Perceptions of Computer Science
Jaimie Elizabeth Sauls · UA Campus Repository (The University of Arizona) · 2012
Students misperceive computer science as only programming; such misperceptions may contribute to students' negative views and reluctance to join this field of study. The Laboratory for Computer Science creates online lessons for high school students that introduce computing theories in an interactive way. A study was conducted to examine how students' perceptions of computer science change upon completion of these labs. The focus of the study is on the student's perspective of computer science and their place in the field irrespective of their identification with a specific minority group. Identifying whether the stigmas of stereotypes are present with the students that experience these lessons and whether a deeper knowledge of the underlying theories in computer science will change these views is the goal. Based on the student feedback from this study, a standardized method of developing and organizing these student labs was proposed and used to create a series of four labs on Little's Law.