Notes

Sticky pads

The following notes were captured from the sticky pads used in the meeting. If you have notes to share, please contact Jim Cohoon.

Ideas

• Make sure counselors are encouraging students into the right courses versus easy courses.
• Get counselors to encourage students into second courses
• Provide a take home card during registration period explaining benefits of computing
• Provide cards to counselors explaining benefits of computing
• Provide take-away handouts during parent-teacher meetings
• Form advisory committee (with parents) to encourage computing
• Encourage current students to recruit successive students
• Get involved with FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) Club and meet all of its students
• Meet with and inform other teachers, counselors, and principals about benefits of computing before registration periods
  • Twist counselors arms (in a friendly fashion) to get them on board
• Visit other classrooms during registration period -- give a presentation and bring brochures
• Computing faculty hosts meeting with middle school counselors
• Computing faculty visits all middle school students
• Do public service announcements during AM and PM.
• Consider use of Lego Mindstorm (and NSTar?)

Messages to be delivered

• Parents
  • Computing courses enhance college applications (i.e., resume building)
  • Career advantages and options
    • Salaries, security, ...
  • Develops problem solving skills that will help with other across the board activities
  • Enhanced computer literacy important in 21st century society
  • Good social skills can lead to great success
  • Aligns with parents desire to seek opportunities for their children -- an industry with great job growth and one that interacts with all other industries -- tremendous opportunities
• Students
  • Enormous opportunities for social good
    • Surgeon helps a small number of people, the developers of surgical robots help an enormous of people (e.g., Da Vinci surgical robot)
  • Creative opportunities
  • Computing is people-orented -- social interactions, team programming, customer interaction for solution design, sales careers
  • Have female and under-represented minority students be among recruiters who speak to other classes
• Teachers and counselors
  • Explain what is computing and computational thinking. Also, how it relates to them
  • Computing is interdisciplinary, rewarding financially and personally
  • Benefits of enhanced problem solving skills
  • Career growth and opportunities

Advertising ideas

• Parents nights include Bureau of Labor and Statistics forecasts and salary expectations
• Students material needs to be interesting and show a path to a rewarding career
• Student material should include/highlight relationship building
• Posters throughout school
• Video broadcasts
• At end of semester arrange an exhibition for other classes to see final projects