For Kids, by Kids: Youth-Led Coding Camps to Inspire More Girls to Pursue Computing

Out-of-school camps are a common means to encourage girls to study computing. However, these camps are often developed and operated by adults. Peer learning, where students teach each other relevant concepts, is a well-established pedagogical practice in computing education. This lightning talk presents two eight-week summer coding camps that the lead author, a 13-year-old high school student, designed and ran for 30 elementary- and middle-school students in her community. The first camp focused on programming in Scratch, and the second on Python. Each 90-minute weekly meeting followed a similar structure. The Scratch camp began with a short video and discussion about a real-world technology (e.g., GPS systems). Students then worked through a coding project, such as creating a basketball game with three players. The Python camp followed a similar format but began with a review of coding concepts followed by a Kahoot quiz and a coding project. The lead author also surveyed nearly 430 middle school students in her state. She found that students expressed little interest in technology careers, in part due to a perception that programming was dull. Peer learning experiences can be a powerful avenue for combatting this disinterest because children have direct knowledge and experience about what other children find engaging. In human-computer interaction, there is a strong foundation of inviting children to lead technology design projects. Through this lightning talk, we aim to inspire a similar movement to take root in computing education and find collaborators to help grow these coding camps.