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Attracting Students to Computer Science
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by Steve Ehren
CSTA Member
Homewood-Flossmoor High School
Flossmoor, Illinois
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| | Building Excitement Through Events
Attracting students to high school computer science courses is a yearlong endeavor. At Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Flossmoor, Illinois, I have been able to attract a fairly large number of students to computer science courses by participating in the following activities.
Using the Annual Open House
Homewood-Flossmoor High School is a public high school in the south suburbs of Chicago. It has an enrollment of approximately 3,000 students.
Usually on the second Thursday of December, the entire high school holds an open house, called Voyage to Excellence, for the eighth-graders and their parents. Every department puts together a booth that the students can visit. Since computer science is part of the math department at our school, I set up my demonstration area as part of the mathematics booth. I demonstrate some of the "neater" programs that my students wrote the year before. (I make sure to give my past students credit for the projects I am demonstrating.) These programs might include graphics and animation projects as well as dice and card games. I allow the prospective students to sit in front of the computer and play the games. In our high school, we have two computer science courses: Computer Programming in Visual Basic and Computer Science Using Java. I make sure that I demonstrate at least one program from each language when I have interested students in my area. I also provide each interested student with a handout. This handout includes detailed descriptions of each course as well as a list of reasons for taking computer science in high school. I usually distribute close to 100 handouts at this event.
Presenting AP to Students and Parents
We present an AP showcase between the time we return from our winter break and the time students must sign up for their next year's courses. Homewood-Flossmoor High School invites a college admissions officer and several past and present AP students to talk to a group of prospective AP students about the advantages of taking AP courses. We invite all eighth- through eleventh-grade students and their parents to this event. After a main session where our speakers address the whole crowd, we have three breakout sessions. At these breakout sessions, teachers give a 10- to 15-minute presentation on their AP subject. I always make sure that I am available this night to give a presentation on AP Computer Science. At these sessions, I highlight the curriculum of both the Visual Basic course, which I view as a course to be taken before AP, and Computer Science Using Java (which is the AP-level course). I also spend time at these sessions trying to convince the students of the importance of taking computer science in high school. I provide each attendee with a handout very similar to the one I use for Voyage to Excellence. The only difference is a more detailed look at the AP curriculum. I usually distribute close to 75 handouts at this event.
Meeting with the Counselors
Every year before registration begins for the following year, the counselors meet with the chairs from each department. I ask if I can join the meeting with the math chair and spend a few minutes explaining to the counselors what computer science is. I also try to explain to the counselors the kind of student that could benefit from taking a computer science course in high school. Every time I have had the opportunity to address the counselors, they have been very appreciative of my comments.
Communicating with the Administration
My computer science students participate in a number of extracurricular activities. These activities include the American Computer Science League contests, ACT-SO (Academic, Cultural, Technological, and Scientific Olympics) computer science competitions, and the Technical Ambassadors Competition held by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Whenever a student or a team of students excels in one of these competitions, I immediately email my department chair, the principal, the district's public relations director, and the superintendent with the results. The principal will usually include the results in his monthly publication, which is distributed to the entire faculty. I also inform our parents' organization of the results, and they usually include it in their quarterly publication, which is distributed to the entire Homewood-Flossmoor community.
Soliciting the Help of Department Members
The day we return to school from winter break, about six weeks before registration, I place in the mailboxes of my math colleagues a packet of information on computer science. It contains the information I distributed both at the Voyage to Excellence and the AP showcase. It also contains a small computer science poster that teachers can display in their classrooms. But most importantly, it contains a letter requesting their assistance in promoting the computer science courses. The letter specifically asks them to encourage all their strong math students to consider enrolling in a computer science course.
In past years, I have also asked the math department head if I could present some of the work of my computer science students at a department meeting. When I get this opportunity, I like to show the students' graphics and animation projects. The students' work tends to be amusing and can keep the teachers entertained for 10 to 15 minutes. I also take advantage of this time to promote my computer science courses and explain to my colleagues what we do in computer science.
Getting Your Students to Promote Your Courses
I had only 60 students register for computer science courses for the 2005-2006 school year. This is after participating in all the activities I have described above. When I saw the numbers, I could have cried, and to be honest with you, the enrollment figures had me down for several weeks. Finally I decided that perhaps my present students could help me figure out why the number of students signing up for computer science was down. I asked each one of my students to complete a short survey. According to this survey, the number one reason students did not sign up for computer science courses was that they were unaware of the courses and their content. This answer came before "Because of the stereotype of a computer science student" and "Because computer science courses are too challenging, especially for an elective."
The challenge now became how I could get my information out to the students in a new way. In my opinion, the only way I hadn't tried was to have my own students spread the word. I had a meeting with the math department chair, and we came up with a plan. I would train the students to give a presentation on computer science, and the math chair would come up with a schedule of when they could visit higher-level mathematics classrooms.
Fortunately, I have several students who have registered for an independent study in computer science next year. Part of their grade will be to develop a PowerPoint presentation that can be used for visits to the math classrooms. Once I have accepted their presentation, I will begin to train them and others after school.
It appears I have the full support of the department head as well as my colleagues. I look forward to implementing this plan, and I am confident it will boost the number of students registering for computer science courses.
Steve Ehren earned his B.A. degree in mathematics from Lawrence University and his M.A. from National-Louis University in computer education. He has been teaching math and computer science at Homewood-Flossmoor High School since 1974 and has taught AP Computer Science there since 1992. He is a Reader for the AP Computer Science Exam and a Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) member.
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