This is a report on JamCoders, a four-week long computer-science camp for high school students in Jamaica. The camp teaches college-level coding and algorithms, and targets academically excellent students in grades 9--11 (ages 14--17). Qualitative assessment shows that the camp was, in general terms, a success. We reflect on the background and academic structure of the camp and share key takeaways on designing and operating a successful camp. We analyze data collected before, during and after the camp and map the effects of demographic differences on student performance in camp. We conclude with a discussion on possible improvements on our approach.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2401.00610,
title = {A High School Camp on Algorithms and Coding in Jamaica},
author = {Daniel T. Fokum and Zaria Chen Shui and Kerene Wright and Orr Paradise and Gunjan Mansingh and Daniel Coore},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.00610},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
To appear in Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2024