Attracting K-12 students to study computing

There is general agreement that the need for computing professionals in the near term is increasing, while enrollment in computer science degree programs is decreasing. We hope to address this situation by attracting pre-college students to study computer science and information technology at the collegiate level through participation in short term events focused on different aspects of computing technology. The authors hosted several one-day events on our campus (computing workshops and competitions) during the past three years. The event activities allow participants opportunities to experience the engineering design process, use their programming skills, and create multimedia content using software tools. Participants were self selected pre-college students. Participants completed an established attitude scale before and after each event to assess the impact of the project activities on their attitudes toward computing and their future plans to take information technology courses. This paper investigates which if any short term events create favorable participant attitudes toward the study of information technology. Initial data analysis indicates significant positive attitude changes toward the study of computing and technology on the part of many participants.