Exposing Middle and High School Students to the Breadth of Computer Science

In this paper, we describe our experience running Generation Innovation, a camp for middle and high school students. For five summers we have hosted Generation Innovation with the primary goal of exposing students to the breadth of topics in computer science. Most computer camps focus on one topic for the duration of the program. During our camp, we engage students in activities related to multiple computer science topics, such as robotics, mobile applications, and HTML. Nearly 200 middle and high school students, 97% of whom are African American, have participated in our program. In this paper we describe Generation Innovation activities and the evaluation of the program. Post-camp surveys revealed that participation in Generation Innovation leads campers to better understand the breadth of opportunities available in the computer science discipline.