Hokies encode success into rural student experiences
Department of Computer Science undergraduates working with Collegiate Associate Professor Sally Hamouda on the CodeKids project teach coding to Southwest Virginia fifth graders once a month during Hokie for a Day visits. Hokie for a Day, offered through the Center for Educational Networks and Impacts, helps expand learners’ visions of their future possibilities through campus tours, opportunities to talk to Virginia Tech students, and visits to labs and classrooms. The program shows rural and other students pathways between where they are and where they could be going.
T they loved it because my students went with code kids activities. Some of them on the computer, some of them actually unplugged activities. And then they actually stayed with the kids done like some coding activities with them, and the kids were very excited about it. And it's like we're doing it every month now. So in October, we have one in November and then we have one in December. And the kids said to one of my students, actually to the two students who volunteer for this in October, you're my best teacher, and I really love this because now they understand what's computers not like a black box for them. They understand what's inside, computers are what it looks like to write a program, even in this young age. Yeah, it is important specifically for rural kids and other kids because they don't have this exposure in schools. Generally schools have very very limited resources to teaching kids how to code. And unfortunately, the teachers, some of them are not well prepared for that. They are maybe they don't know well about programming. They don't have enough experience to teach the kids about the computer science career itself. So when they see computer science students, actual students, you know, they understand like, you know, this is an actual human being that has been through this before, and I can be one as well in the future. That is happy with my career, and this is an exploration opportunity for them.