Ask Slashdot: How Can I Make a Computer Science Club Interesting?

plutoclacks writes "I will run a computer science club at my high school next semester with two other friends. The club was newly introduced this school year, and initially saw a massive success (40+ members showed up at the first meeting). Unfortunately, participation has decreased a lot since then, down to four active members. I feel that the main reason for this decline was the inability to maintain the students' interest at the beginning of the year, as well as general disorganization, which we hope to change next semester. The leaders of the club all have fairly strong Java backgrounds, in addition to enthusiasm about computer science and programming. We have a computer lab with ~30 computers, which, though old, are still functional and available for use. What are some ways we can make the club have an impacting interest to newcomers?"

Comments

Normal.

[nospam007]

First, reduce your expectations.

From your initial 40 'applicants' only 20% will stay, that's everywhere the case, from Pilates to Yoga, from Knitting to Pottery.

So in the best case, you'll get 4 additional members.

Keep it interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

As and educator for 20+ years (University level) I can attest that I too have had the same problems. The way to stop the declining numbers it to make it more fun. Have everyone War Drive on the way to the meeting and hand out a $5 gas card to the one who fins the most open AP's. Have a contest to find the most expensive computer on ebay. Have a hackathon over a 12 hour period where they get to try their hand at protecting and attacking computers in a safe environment.

Re:Keep it interesting

[robthebloke]

+1 (and an ex-educator)

If you want to bore the pants off people, teach them the syntax of a programming language. If you want to maintain an enthusiastic class, teach the bare minimum language skills (for-loop, not for/while/do-while. std::vector, not std::vector/std::deque/std::stack/std::list. member funcs, not member funcs/operators/static methods/etc), and encourage them to 'build' interesting things (simple games, basic apps, image editing tools, sound sequencers, etc). Enthusiasm for programming and computer science is something that you develop over time. Enthusiasm for being creative and making your own computer game, is something that can grab peoples attention. Just remember that whilst *you* might love the inner workings of a 6502 processor, there will be a large number of people that will find that dull and unexciting! Constantly ask yourself the question: "Why am I showing them this? Is this going to help them be creative?", and you can't go too wrong imho (and try to encourage the people to make links with other passions they may have, e.g. art, sound, etc)

Re:Lots of hot smart chicks

[gandhi_2]

Hookers and coke.

Re:Forget Java

[XxtraLarGe]

Heavy languages like Java/C++ are tedious for kids/adolescents. Program in something fun and lite like Python/Ruby/Perl.

Javascript is better still. No compiler, near instant results. You just need a text editor & browser.

some thoughts

[buddyglass]

You have to think about what peoples' motivation will be to be part of a "computer club". Despite being generally interested in coding, most folks don't want to sit around and talk about it all the time. Some ideas:

1. Serve others. For instance, offer to tutor kids in lower-level programming classes. This won't be well received if you just end up doing their work for them.
2. Prepare, as a group, to enter local programming contests. Where I grew up, there were one or two schools in the area that had "invitational" team programming contests. See if you can get a staff sponsor to drive you to these events so you can compete.
3. Try to build something functional, and invite club members to help in the effort. Maybe a website that allows students at your school to plan out their course schedules based on your areas degree requirements. Maybe something that lets them sign up for automatic SMS updates containing news about your school. Etc.
4. If you have any sort of budget then provide food at your meetings. Cheap pizza usually does the trick. People flock to free food.
5. Invite speakers people might want to hear speak. If you live near a research university, see if some of their CS faculty might consider speaking to your group. If you live near any companies that do software development (and most people do), see if you can get some "real developers" to come talk about how things are in the "real world" and impart wisdom. (Caveat: many professional developers are not, in fact, very wise.)

One thing you'll realize in high school, and college for that matter, is that about half the people in most "clubs" are there just so they can put it on their resume. I say that not to criticize, necessarily; it is what it is.

How to increase interest in a club ....

[morbingoodkid]

I currently run a club with about 230 members about 100 active on a weekly basis. Here is the principles I use to run the club.

Basic principles:
1. Challenging
We try and target classes and projects just slightly above the students current level.

2. Fun
Let's face it if it's not fun people don't come.

3. Sense of achievement
People do not want to feel like they wasted their time. We give certificates for specific achievements.

4. Do what you promise
This is a way to make sure your club does not die. If you say you have meeting you have to have a meeting regardless if 1 person pitches or 100.

This is the only way I know how to do it. And it seems to be working.

I was president of my high school club

[slashmydots]

I was the president of mine in high school and we turned it into the gaming club. We kept the title for funding reasons but really we just threw LAN parties. Membership was pretty high. We also held a dance dance revolution tournament with the finals in the lunchroom.

I've heard from other places though that the biggest success is always building some sort of overclocked, ultra-high storage, superocomputer but sort of an ironic one number-wise since nobody ever has the budget for a brand new one. Basically, throw together a ton of spare parts in a gigantic 1995 era-case with other computers' hard drive cages glued in for like 10 used drives with PCI IDE controllers (like $10 on ebay) and dual power supplies. You can get cages, fans, drives, and all that donated from people who just want to get rid of their junk computers laying around at home. Then run through how to run a proper chkdsk on them all and other technical stuff and definitely paint it and anyone into computers at all will love the project.

Re:Please don't delude the kids...

[bill_mcgonigle]

especially when a call to Tata can get guaranteed results

it's all a matter of what that guarantee stipulates.