Kathryn's Portfolio

My Projects > Summer Enrichment Program 2009 Letter

To Whom it May Concern,

This past summer, I had the opportunity to TA for the Summer Enrichment Program for the first time. I went in not knowing quite what to expect. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my graduate studies so far! I took a lot away from the program, learning a great deal about myself and others. It also helped me reach one of my goals, and it gave me more confidence in myself as a presenter and programmer.

The first thing I immediately learned is that high school students are extremely smart and fun to work with. I admit, I had my doubts. High school students have a stigma, and I was concerned that there might be some problems. However, I was completely wrong! All the girls were so nice and very interested in learning the material. It was exciting to see them ask questions during the lectures. Some of them knew a lot about Computer Science (CS) already, and I know that if they choose CS as their career path, they will greatly succeed. All this made me realize the stigmas are not true, and I should change my perceptions. These girls were great, highly motivated, and ready to accomplish amazing things.

In addition to learning about students, I learned a lot about what it means to be a teacher. Each TA choose a topic to teach the students about. I choose SunSPOTs, small wireless sensors that have buttons and LED lights. I prepared a short lecture covering the basics of SunSPOTs and created 2 new exercises. The first exercise I created was an extension of a demo that allowed the sensors to send "tweets" to Twitter. The girls added a couple lines of code to the application to personalize their sensor's tweets. The other exercise was an application that allowed them to "find a friend". They answered 8 multiple choice questions about themselves, placing their answers in the code. When a sensor was brought near another, the lights lit up according to how many questions were answered similarly. Preparing these exercises and the lecture took a lot of time. Plus, it was very difficult to judge how my lecture and exercises would go over with an entire class; the material needed to be easy, fun, and engaging. Teaching a class is a lot harder and time-consuming than I realized, and I have much more respect for teachers and professors now.

The program also helped me reach one of my goals. Since women are very much underrepresented in the field of CS, I'd like to try to get more women involved in the field. I think the best way to do this is reach girls when they're young, showing them all the cool aspects of being a computer scientist. The Summer Enrichment Program is the perfect example of how to do so. During the program, we didn't just sit in front of computer programming; we showed the girls the inside of a computer, we programmed SunSPOTs that allowed them to interact with each other and the environment, and we took them to Google for a tour. I had a great time during the program, and I know the girls did, too: upon reading the participant surveys, almost all noted an increased interest in CS after participating in the SEP. No one noted a decreased interest. Some are even thinking about majoring in the subject now! This was so exciting to see. This is exactly the kind of thing I want to do to increase the number of women in the field and as a result I am inspired to do more.

Finally, it gave me more confidence in myself as a speaker and programmer. I get nervous speaking in front of large groups. Being up in front of the class for a whole day was tough, but it was rewarding. By the end I felt much more comfortable and confident in what I was saying. Plus, as far as programming is concerned, I had the opportunity to see one of my own applications in action. As I mentioned earlier, I created exercises for SunSPOTs. I had actually come up with the idea for the "find a friend" application a while back when I first saw the SunSPOT. I finally had the opportunity to test this app with a large group. The girls loved it! This is a quote from one of the girl's surveys: "The sunspots social project should be the ice breaker for the class! Or at least one of the first things we do." It was so nice to get this affirmation about my application. I can't wait to come up with more apps!

So, as you can see, this was a great experience for me. I learned a lot about myself and other people, I took a step towards reaching one of my goals, and I gained more confidence in my speaking and programming abilities. I would love to TA again and I would recommend it to anyone interested teaching or even just helping girls become interested in CS.

Sincerely,

Kathryn Brisbin