Computer Science (CS) Day for Middle School Students

In order to generate interest in computer science and its various fields, we designed a Computer Science (CS) Day, an enriched computing program, for middle school students in October of 2022. A group of 53 middle school students was invited to our campus to learn about computer science and tour the campus. These students attended a local public school and were involved in a robotics club at their school. This paper describes our workshops at CS Day, which aimed to provide students with a better understanding of computer science and its related fields. The CS Day provided students with the opportunity to learn about computer science as a career and computer science concepts. Several lectures and activities were created to provide a fulfilling and interactive day of learning for the students. Touring our campus and interacting with college students exposed middle school students to the idea of pursuing a college degree in computer science. The students learned about careers in computer science, basic computer programming concepts, the concept of binary and how it relates to computer hardware, artificial intelligence, game design and development, and the concept of blockchain. We presented learning activities that were interactive and hands-on, allowing the students to learn by doing. By the end of the CS Day, each student had gained valuable insights into the world of computer science and its applications, which can help them make more informed decisions about future career plans. We provided pre-and post-tests for two of our workshops to assess if our workshops helped students increase their understanding of computer science concepts. The pre-and post-surveys asked questions about translating binary and performing basic math with it. Additionally, the survey asked basic questions about computers and their binary relation. During the lecture, the students were given papers to help them follow and learn from the lecture, and a binary game to test their knowledge after the lecture. Our studies show that the student scores improved by 100
^%
or more in both workshops between the pre-and postworkshop assessments. The assessment questions were the same in the pre-and post-tests to ensure consistency. Our assessment results show that our CS Day was very successful, and it is hoped that enriched computing programs like this will encourage more young students to pursue careers in computer science and help address the growing demand for skilled professionals in the computing industry. We present this paper to share the interactive learning activities we designed, the results of pre-and post-tests we conducted with the students, and future work in the area of outreach to secondary school-aged students in the field of computer science.