Future-Proofing Kiwi Kids Through the Use of Digital Technology

Abstract

The common approach for introducing middle school and high school students to computational thinking and engineering is through programming or robotics activities that were designed without much social context. Therefore, one of the challenges such outreach programs pose is further stereotyping of students who are interested in computer science, by presenting them as people who ought to be hyper-intelligent and very much focused on computers with no social skills. Realizing the above, and wanting to attract a diverse audience to study computer science, we developed a one-day workshop which showcases the interdisciplinary nature of computer science and the various ways computing can help students discover and solve societal problems. We chose multiculturalism, cyber security and air pollution as the context of our computational thinking activities. This paper describes our experiences in developing and teaching the workshops that runs three to five times a year, hosted either in our institute or at local schools. Regardless of students' previous STEM experiences and socioeconomic statuses, both students and teachers reported that the knowledge gained enabled them to either create a computer program or a robot and also led to a better understanding of how computers can be used in daily life. In other words, the workshop successfully opened the minds and perspectives of the middle school and high school students on computer science. Additionally, over time, we also observed an increased number of students and schools participating in such workshops.