Abstract—Many students do not have the opportunity to
experience computer science related courses in high school due
to the lack of resources at their schools. Meanwhile, there are a
large number of unfilled computing related jobs nationally.
Universities and colleges in the United States are not producing
enough Computer Science graduates to meet the demand for
jobs—and, conversely, a number of students lured by the
abundance of jobs in the field are entering undergraduate
Computer programs with insufficient knowledge of the nature
or rigor of the discipline, causing them to lose interest after the
first year. Summer programs at universities and colleges offer
students opportunities to learn about Computer Science, but
many of the programs are meant to broaden the knowledge of
students who are already studying Computer Science at their
high schools by focusing on a specialized area in the discipline
such as cybersecurity or game programming. These summer
programs are costly and often beyond the reach of economically
disadvantaged students. This article outlines a 5 day curriculum
for a Computer Science summer program for high school
students. Rather than focusing on deepening students’
understanding of specialized topics, the curriculum is instead
intended to expose students to foundational concepts in
computer science using a hands-on, engaging approach. This
foundational understanding of Computer Science will aide
participating students in making informed choices about
potential academic and career paths in Computer Science—and
equip them with some baseline knowledge of the field should
they choose to pursue a Computer Science degree
Index Terms—Computer science, curriculum, exploring,
summer program.
The authors are with Kean University, USA (e-mail: chuang@kean.edu,
mbachrac@kean.edu).
Cite: Ching-Yu Huang and Mayra Bachrach, "A JavaScript Curriculum for High School Students to Explore Computer Science," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 8, no. 12, pp. 848-854, 2018.