Training materials for summer camps
1) Camp isn't school so keep the amount of instruction to a minimum. Also, keep the number of rules to a minimum. The camp room can get noisy, but that is okay. It is sometimes helpful to move the students to another room (away from the computers) for instruction time.
2) Encourage the students to learn from each other. Have the students show what they have been working on each day.
3) Do some sort of getting to know you game at the beginning of each day.
4) Assistants should not grab the mouse or keyboard from a student. Talk the student through any problems if possible.
5) Take lots of pictures and ask people to smile when you take a picture. If you are taking of picture of something on the computer have the person turn to face the camera so both the author and thing s/he created are in the picture. You can take a few pictures that show the whole room but close up pictures of individuals or groups of students that are smiling and that show what they have been working on are best.
6) If some students are losing interest find out what they want to work on. Be flexible. You can always do another CS Unplugged activity at http://www.csunplugged.org
7) Know how to do each of the items on the agenda. See the summer camp page for the agenda.
8) Encourage the students.
9) Always talk about computing careers and show at least some role models for the campers. You can use the dot diva website at http://www.dotdiva.org to show girls role models.
10) Don't mention the stereotypes about computing (even if you think you are dispelling them). Do say that computing is interesting and lets you be creative and help people.
Link to this Page