A Recruitment Strategy for a Magnet School Computer Science Program

How One Computer Science Teacher in Florida Recruits Computer Science Students

Hello, I’m Julia Moak, a Computer Science Teacher at MAST (Maritime and Science Technology) Academy in Florida.

After 17 years in corporate finance/information systems and a few more years being a dedicated stay-at-home-mom, I decided to go into teaching. I entered the field through the Miami Teaching Fellows, a program that created a path for educators like me to move from the industry to teaching. The program focused on putting quality teachers in some of the highest need classrooms throughout Miami-Dade County.

After an intensive summer institute, I was placed in a very large, low-income, high minority population elementary school, where I taught for 14 years. Desiring to work with older students and to use my business background, I transferred to a magnet middle/high school 3 years ago. I currently teach all computer science classes for all grades.

The Inspiration

As a magnet high school, we seek to attract 8th graders from all over the county to apply to the program. During the fall, we actively recruit students by bringing 8th graders to our school for a field trip. On this visit, they learn about the opportunities we offer and tour the campus.

As part of the CodeHS Inspire Fellowship Program, I proposed hosting a computer science workshop for these visiting prospective MAST Makos. This would allow them to see the computer lab, get hands-on with coding, and learn about the computer science classes at MAST Academy. Ultimately, the goal was to encourage them to apply to the magnet program and eventually enroll in my computer science classes.

The Goal

My goal for this project was to develop “something engaging” that would be valuable to students, appeal to multiple computer science experience levels, and could be done in a short amount of time. Yes, easier said than done.

I knew that I would need to get our visitors quick access to a coding platform. CodeHS enabled me to get students coding right away.

The Challenges

The biggest challenge was the program design. After a lot of experimentation, I developed a Coding FUNdamentals menu. Like a food menu, students could choose between generating art, sports, and Karel commands.

The activities in each category were color-coded for level of experience (Red = working code that can be changed; Blue = creating or completing code). It was not intended for students to do everything on the menu, but to select what interested them the most.

CodeHS made it easy to create a course that matched the menu exactly so that students could easily and quickly find the activities. I also placed a laminated Coding FUNdamentals menu at each computer along with individual login cards.

The Impact

After rolling out this project, almost 100 students participated, representing 2 middle schools! The majority of the students who participated were Black or LatinX with little or no coding experience.

It was so rewarding to hear positive feedback from students in the surrounding schools who participated. I was told that the students with no coding experience were exuberant about the opportunity, and they couldn’t stop talking about it! I believe this was an excellent measure of success.

Looking Forward

For the future, this program could also be used for our incoming 9th grader orientations which have a high Latinx population. In fact, this program could be implemented anywhere in our county by inviting students in to participate or taking it on the road to local middle schools.

If funding were available, we could even bring a set of charged laptops to any school that doesn’t have a computer lab. The options are limitless — I’m looking forward to engaging more students in my community with the world of computer science!