What Interests High-School Students?

Jim Willis asks: "Our IT Division happens to be populated with some civic-minded people who are interested in making time available for local high-school students interested in science and technology. Question is, we're not sure the best way to do it. We're mulling around the idea of sponsoring a robotics competition or some sort of programming fair/competition. Unfortunately, we've been out of high-school long enough to not know what excites students about technology. Slashdot readers (esp. those of you in high-school): Where should we focus our attention and donate/volunteer our time?"

Comments

Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll

[glrotate]

Involve one of the three and you're ok. Two and you're set.

video games

[Apreche]

They like video games, a lot. If you can include games in it in any way, they'll be all over it.

Re:video games

[frenetic3]

I've usually found technically minded kids from 7th grade through high school get a kick out of making computer games, even very crude, simple ones. I had a class in high school where we'd write simple programs and build things with Legos and motors, etc which turned out to be fun even for people that usually wouldn't be into it.

On the programming end, PyGame, an API for writing games in Python based on SDL should provide the gentlest introduction while still having kids do real "programming". And it's all free as long as kids have access to a computer lab. DirectX/C++ is usually too much for newbies to handle, but beginners can usually do some basic work in Python.

An element of competition may help increase interest -- I know this is way beyond anything you'd be planning and the scope of what high school kids could handle but here we have a game/AI programming contest (6.370) which provides a base platform/game engine so people without much game programming experience to still make something useful.

Lego Mindstorms probably also work in giving kids something "technical" to play with, but might be expensive for a volunteer project (unless you can get funding or have the kids buy the sets.)

I'd say start small -- many kids are elated to even get draw a ball bouncing across the screen, and it may spur their enthusiasm to learn on their own from there. Just tell them they can learn to make computer games.

-fren

Re:video games

[AndrossUT]

I am a real, live, high school student. I think a game development club would be very cool, very educational, and produce a pretty huge turnout. Not only would it attract the technically minded kids who are always tinkering with computer whatnots, learning all sorts of coding languages, and posting game dev club ideas on slashdot, but it could also draw out the artists, the writers, and some other kids who are just looking for something to do after school. I know I have been pushing some of these more technologically advanced activities at my school, but all the staff and such are only interested in sports and band.

Metric System

[sbszine]

American kids are already very interested in the metric system. Perhaps some sort of competition to see who can measure out a gram blindfolded?

Re:Metric System

[0WaitState]

The metric system is based on distance--a meter was defined as 1/10,000,000th the distance from the equator to a pole. A kilogram was the weight of a distilled cube of water at 4 degrees C, 10cm per side. Later these were replaced with reference constants based on physical properties: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_base_unit

Well, duh...

[Nailer]

What interests high school students?

Breasts.

I call bullcrap

[ScytheBlade1]

You're forgetting.

This is /.

And you're posting saying that people WON'T be interested in something like a robotics competition? I know at my high school at least (which I'm currently attending), given the funds the entire tech lab "poplulation" would LOVE a robotics contest. Note that tech lab is roughly 40 students per period, 8 periods a day, per 2 teachers. Do the math yourself, just note that a grand MANY students would love the idea. "High technology" in the average US public school would be welcomed open-armed, imho.

Yes...

[Ether3k]

I'm in High School, and am currently enrolled in: Multimedia III, which is a class where you do a bunch of crap with computers in. Such as: Reason, Cinema 4D, Flash MX, etc. :D I love it, as do many others. But that suggestion about Car Audio... Cha-ching. :)

A serious suggestion

[Art Tatum]

Since everybody else in this thread seems to be focusing on the silly (though, sadly, accurate) let me suggest that you perhaps get involved with a home-school group or a *worthwhile* private school. You're much more likely to get the sincerely interested kids. You could also have interested public school kids come out. Apparently, that's now allowed, though I don't have all the legal details.

Re:A serious suggestion

[FisherRider]

As a student at a public high school, I think there would be a very high interest (and quality of submissions) if you sponsored a contest of some sort. A robotics competition would be fun, but poorer schools (and many private schools, which usually tend to have less money) would be at a severe disadvantage. Perhaps a programming contest (though this would also require computers) or a purer math/physics competition would be good.

I know here in Illinois, there is a math league math league organized by the ICTM (I think - Illinois Council of Mathematics). You might want to sponsor a regional competition for something like this (ask around at local high schools to see if they have programs in place). This would probably be easier than sponsoring a competition from scratch.

Additionally, at least where I come from, there is a significant push to "close the minority achievement gap." Considerable efforts are made to get kids involved in science at an early age (one such program is called Project Excite.) You might want to get involved with one of these programs, too.

On a smaller scale, it would be cool just to see how an IT department is run - to get a sort of tour of your facilities, with an explanation of how they work, and how everything is run. Or, even better, you could invite high school kids to come try and break your security, as a sort of free security test. (Obviously, make sure they're not in a posistion to do any damage if they do get somewhere. Good luck!

contact local schools

[elf]

Try contacting your local schools and ask them what they're looking for. You might find that they have programs set up already and that there are rules you'll need to follow to participate.

Ignore the cynics posting here, you'll find plenty of kids interested in science and projects. Play top your strengths though, don't get involved in stuff that doesn;t relate to what you do or know.

You might consider something simple like a lecture on networking, followed by having them help set up a lan.

I am a high school student

[koreaman]

I am a high school student, so I beliewe I am qualified to answer you.

First, be forwarned. I don't mean to sond cynical, but there is not a whole lot that has to do with science and technology that would excite most students. Even if it does, a lot of people are too scared of being called a "nerd" or a "geek" and thereby having their social status for the rest of the four years ruined to show that excitement.

There are, however, some. I don't think that a robotics competition is a good idea, however. I don't know about most schools, but at mine there are not a lot of people interested in robotics. Besides, it would take a lot of work, and a lot of the most brilliant people are inherently lazy.

I think the programming fair was a great idea, however. Every time I write a program to do the simplest thing on my TI-84+ graphing calculator (such as convert celsius to fahrenheit for instance) people gape at me with awe and amazement and ask, how did you DO that? This includes jocks, socialites, and various other groups of people who would normally not be caught dead showing an interest in the "nerdy" fields of computers or technology.

If you put on a programming fair, you are not going to be able to teach anyone computer programming in a day, but you will spark their interest. Give away a few CDs with C tutorials on them or something, and maybe, just maybe, a few kids will try them out.

Also, expect the bit-head population to turn out in force at your fair. You can even put some of them to good use, having them help the newbies who have no idea what's going on.

In conclusion, programming fair=good, robotics competition=bad.

Re:I am a high school student

[Jensaarai]

Ok, I'm a College Freshman. I call shenanigans on the post above. Was he seriously suggesting that teaching the 1 or 2 kids who know how to muck about with a calculator in a "fair" is better than some sort of robotics convention? Are you sure you're a high school kid?

How many different versions of "Robot Wars" and "battle Bots" are there on TV? How many pop culture references towards fighting robots have been made in just the past couple years alone?

If you want wide appeal, robots are the way to go. Anyone will watch a robot do stuff, and the geeks would love to learn to make one. My science teacher in Middle-of-nowhere, New Mexico was able to offer a high school robotics course, and the kids loved it.

Just have a couple fighting robots, then show they can be done for other stuff, etc, and you're guaranteed to garner interest IF it is promoted right. (Link up with the school's student council to get them to promote it.

Sorry, but playing with a calculator won't appeal to that many people.

Re:I am a high school student

[sonetsst]

As another high school student I also feel responsible for responding to such a narrow-minded post. I think it truly depends on how many people you are trying to reach out to. If you want a small group of mostly computer-savy people then certainly, both robotics and programming will grab their attention. But what I've found with my peers is that they still don't know how to use a computer. My school is almost entirely mac, but the rest of the school has no idea how to use anything other than windows, and even that they dont' know how to use well. If I were you I would teach them how to _properly_ use whatever OS they have, whatever word processor they have, and whatever presentation software they have. Half the computers in my school are always broken because people just pull out the plugs when something goes wrong. I would love to learn fortran, but frankly there is a dire need to teach high school students the computer basics.

Re:I am a high school student

[DJDutcher]

You know the TI-85 has the conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit built into it. :)

FIRST Robotics

[IncomeThax]

Being a highschool student involved with science\tech I would suggest becoming a mentor for a FIRST Robotics team in your area. It's a great way to help the kids, and the community in general. the website:http://www.usfirst.org/

Serious suggestion

[MesiahTaz]

I'm 21, so I haven't been out of high school too terribly long. The world wide web seems to appeal to just about everyone so I would suggest a web development contest of some sort -- preferrably data-driven sites. None of this MS FrontPage crap.

I wish my school had held some sort of PHP competition. Will it attract everyone? Certainly not, but I doubt you would want to. A great many high school students ARE just focused on scoring, rims and car stereos.

Hacking 101

[gbickford]

At least when I went to high school hacking was perceived as cool somehow. Even kids that know nothing about computers may be attracted to learning how people hack into systems without authorization. Tell them about tiger teams. Talk about breaking crypto. Explain how hacking isn't just limited to breaking into other peoples computers. I was the kinda kid that was always in saturday school and detention. I would never have been attracted to computers unless I knew that I could do "fun" stuff with them.

For added effect wear a mohawk.

Re:Hacking 101

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

That's a really good idea.

Give some information on (innocuous) cracking tricks, and with a stern warning "don't take this knowledge back, the school knows we taught you this so you're the first suspects", set them loose on an isolated network of Windows computers with random patches and a firewalled HTTP-only connection (so they can look up techniques). At the end of the round, you get points for the number of computers (possibly including yours) that you have either hard-disk or shell access to.

That would actually be pretty cool. I'll try to convince our computer club to host one, if we can get an isolated network of trashable machines. (You'll need to wipe the disks after the round; otherwise, you'll be using a pre-cracked computer.)

You are a high school student?

[elhaf]

You're in high school, and you can actually write? I mean, without abbreviations or anything? How did you DO that? Really! That's quite an impressive writing piece for something you just whipped up for slashdot. You've restored my faith in the school system.

What I think interests HS students...

[bacomage1]

I'm a senior in High School in an affluent suburb of NYC. If I were to try to engage a large number of other high schoolers like mysel, I would gear it towards creativity/design. Most of my friends are fanatics for pirating software: all of them have Macromedia Dreamweaver and Flash, Adobe Photoshop, Premiere, Encore, and Audition, Fruity Loops, and Maya. However, few of us have a damn clue how to use any of em. If you could find a way give instruction in a few of these, a lot of students would be very interested.

Educators = bureaucrats who don't take advice well

[phunster]

My experience over the years trying to volunteer my IT and Network Security expertise to the local school system has been very disappointing. Most recently our Board of Ed decided every kid in the high school should have a laptop. Many of us felt strongly that the decision was made without the proper research and thought. They had visited one single school and decided to adopt that school's plan verbatim.

The results have been poor, the kids have had a field day loading porn and games onto the computers. The school has accused many of the kids of using the laptops to cheat. They have had to hire three full time employees to fix the laptop's OS (Yup you guessed it, Windoze). They never looked at any other operating system, and they blew off any suggestion of evaluating Open Office, though they could not tell us why they absolutely needed Microsoft Office. When I suggested desktops instead of laptops so that the image could be reloaded nightly as other schools do, I was rebuffed. They actually implied that I didn't want the kids to have computers. They assumed that every kid would have a printer that worked with the laptop (A Sony model that doesn't show up on the Sony site or Google.) Tests have had to be postponed because teacher's computer's have failed, imagine they don't have back up machines for the teachers. Once they realized that they would have to provide printers for at least some of the kids they scrambled to get a printer on the network, no luck so far. The laptops sound is software controlled so the first 15 minutes of each class is spent listening to 20 or so laptops booting up. I could go on but I think you get the point.

In short it has been one disaster after another. Tonight my wife and I will be attending yet another Board of Ed meeting. I will be announcing the formation of a committee to elect a competent Board of Ed. Maybe then you kind folks can come here and help us clean up the mess.

Focus your audience

[Zycom]

The first thing you need to do is focus your target audience a bit more.

Want the real hardcore, shy away from the sun geeks?
Go for the programming contest, and they will come. The audience is going to be fairly small however.

Want a bit larger geek crowd?
Go with robotics, there are more science and tech topics involved so you will get a bigger crowd. If you feel like giving up several months of your life, mentor a local FIRST team. The kids will appreciate it. You can even get a taste for it first by helping out at a local competition.

Want to do something that will interest every teenager with a passing knowledge of computers?
Do something with HTML and some basic web design. Emphasize ways to pretty up their Xangas and LiveJournals.

Looking for more science than tech?
Sponsor a science fair. Offer prizes, maybe pose a problem and have the entries focus on a solution.

A better approach

[beaststwo]

Since the idea seems to be to stimulate interest and thought, I think a better approach if to present truly "off the wall" problems for the kids to deal with. I think back to the old British Junkyard wars where they had people do things like grind coffee using only wind power.

Maybe "off the wall" projects might be like the following:

• Create a machine to make waffles automatically, without human intervention
• Create a system to predict a person's shoe size using seemingly unrelated measurements, such as head circumfrence, hand size, etc.
• Create a machine to automatically spread a pile of dirt evenly about a room (the opposite of what a Roomba does).

The ultimate point is to get them thinking outside the box. Employers can find lots of people who can tinker some and play with existing toys. Developing people who can take a rough concept and run with it to create a new way of looking at things is gold. That's the kind of talent that created this Internet thingy...

Student interest

[dark_requiem]

Having left high school in the past few years, I'd say you have no chance whatsoever of gaining the interest of those who would not already be interrested in the idea of any geekfest. A programming competition, robitics fest, whatever. The geeks will show up, the others will not. Simple as that. If a kid has reached high school with no ambition towards technology (or intellectual advancment of any kind), they will not be swayed by any advertising you might try. If they have developed for 15 years or more with no interest in the way the world around them works, they are lost to intelligencia everywhere. Only those with a previous interest in learning and self-betterment will attend. For those, set up any geeky event, and they will be there in force, whether it's robitics, programming, or physical sciences, they'll be there.

One thing I do & two I'm thinking about.

[sscanf]

1. I am a FIRST Lego League coach for middle school. Its great stuff and kids love it. Tons of work. I have also assisted with the HS FIRST robotics competition. Also great stuff. In both cases it can be difficult to rope in the less geeky but its possible. Some find the geek inside and thrive. Its cool to watch.

Stuff I think about doing later:

2. Teach them how to program a microcontroller and use it to control motors, leds, etc. (STAMP or OOPIC are pretty easy). Build something fun.

3. Get a group of kids and head to the dump. At our dump there is always a pile of old PC's and monitors, every one I have ever left with has worked fine. Have each kid find an old junker or two to work on. Bring it back to class and help each work through getting it to come back to life, then hand out the fedora CD's (or whatever). Teach them how to set it up as a web server/web development platform/firewall/whatever.

4. Profit!

Best of Both Worlds!

[cjsnell]

You are absolutely right. Back when I was in high school (89-93), the geeks in the Computer Club made a fortune with a matchmaking program they wrote. For a small amount of money ($3-5 IIRC), students would fill out a survey regarding what characteristics they were looking for in a date (bookish vs non-intellectual, blonde hair vs brunette, conservative vs. liberal, etc.). They also filled out a section that described themselves. The club members then entered the forms into a database and wrote an application to find three matches for each person. A few days later, every participating student received a printout with three potential matches.

It was hugely popular and made hundreds of dollars for the club's coffers.