Introducing Computing to a Cohort of Incarcerated Youth

Computer Science and programming are changing the world, but not everyone has equal access to education about this field. In California, Juvenile hall students typically lack opportunities to learn computer programming. In this paper, we present an experience report about the course we created to address the needs of this population. Specifically, we created and taught an introductory computing course focused on engagement. This project-based game design curriculum was launched to a small cohort of the juvenile hall in spring 2019. This course focused on engaging students while introducing computing programming concepts such as variables, logic and function. Student surveys and reports from their teacher showed this class had a positive impact and was well received by students and staff. We hypothesize and show initial positive indication that creative, game-oriented curriculum had a positive impact on the demographic. We also present some of the challenges encountered when working within the juvenile hall system and our solutions and general recommendations for these types of classes.