The Clubs
Techie Club includes 40+ hours of hands-on, interactive activities created to tie directly to the Computer Science Teachers’ Association (CSTA) national Computer Science Standards for 3rd through 6th grade students. The lessons focus on a variety of computing topics, promote 21st century skills, and provide students with an awareness of technology and STEM-related careers. Techie Clubs are housed at elementary and middle schools across Ohio.
The Student Experience
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Many students in focus groups reported their enjoyment of Techie Club.
During focus groups, students often expressed positive thoughts about their general Techie Club experience. Some of these are highlighted in the following quotes:
At the beginning of the year, I didn't exactly know how to program as well as I do now because we worked on it and we did a lot of fun activities. Like you have to learn that you have to be really precise with the computer and the people did this thing like how to make a jelly sandwich. It was really funny because when we said put the jelly on the sandwich, he would take the jar and place it on the bread.
I really liked creating my own website and making it look awesome.
Techie Club is fun because you learn about technology that can help you with other electronics.
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Some groups of students showed slight increases in perceived knowledge and skills of computer science.
TECH CORPS was interested in understanding whether or not students felt they gained computer science skills as a result of their club experience. To examine this, we asked students questions about their computer science abilities before and after participating in Techie Club. Although not statistically significant, students increased slightly in their reported computer science skills and knowledge. A small increase was seen for nearly all students. There was a significant increase for White students (compared to Black, Latino/Hispanic, and Other race/ethnicity-identified students), while controlling for other variables. After Techie Club, White students reported higher rates of agreement to items such as “I know how to solve problems using computer science skills,” “I know how to find answers to problems using the computer,” and “I know a lot about how to program a robot.” Students who were new to Techie Club in the 2013–2014 school year (compared to prior participants of Techie Club) and elementary students also showed higher increases than returning students and middle school students. These differences were not statistically significant, which may be due in part to small sample sizes for returning and middle school students. This preliminary evidence is promising, and provides TECH CORPS with an understanding of the areas in which they need to improve. In student focus groups, students also discussed their learning experience with computer science and technology-related topics:
I learned about different types of circuits and how they work.
We're working on a project like Lego robotics and I'm learning Lego robotics and it's really cool because you can turn regular every day Legos and take Legos' cords and make a robot that can do so many amazing things.
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Student perceptions on interest in and importance of computer science and STEM varied.
Findings across student perceptions of computer science and STEM were mixed. In general, females and minority students showed greater decreases in interest in computer science, self-efficacy for computer science, and perceptions of the usefulness of technology from before Techie Club to after (based on questionnaire responses). It will be important for Techie Corps to consider how to best meet the needs of all students prior to scale-up.
Students in focus groups highlighted some of their favorite experiences:
I think I could get pretty creative because on Scratch I made a game where there's a reindeer that you move around the screen and there's an orange bouncing around the screen and he's in like a haunted forest screaming "Oh, no! It's an orange!"
I think that in my time at Techie Club it makes me more interested in computers and knowing how something works. I used to just go, Oh it works, I don't need to go any farther than that. But now I'm thinking "How does it work?" and now I'm wondering "Why does it work?"
Students showed an increase in self-efficacy (confidence) for math from before Techie Club to after Techie Club. This effect was generally consistent across race/ethnicity, gender, grade, and prior experience with Techie Club. An increase in math confidence may be related to multiple factors. One factor may be time-related: Students may feel more confident in math at the end of a school year than the beginning. It is also possible that working with technology, programming, and other experiences of Techie Club contributed to students’ greater confidence in math knowledge and skills.
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Students reported that volunteers supported their learning experience.
Students had positive comments about the volunteers that worked across Techie Club sites. These positive attitudes are highlighted in the following quotes from focus groups:
They're really nice. They kind of tell us what to do and when. They teach us in really fun ways like the activities instead of just they're up at the front of the classroom telling us. They let us experience it hands-on.
They're fun and they're funny. They make what we do in class fun because they make us actually do it.
Since they were a little bit younger they "got" us and how we would feel about things and it was...they understood everything so they knew how to get us interested in that stuff.
I like them because they explain things to you when you don't understand. Before we made our websites, we had to Google and look at what a website was made out of. So I turned to a volunteer and they helped me step to step to understand all details.
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Some students want less guidance from club volunteers.
While students often appreciated volunteer help and support, some students reported wanting a more self-directed experience.
They help teach us but we don't have our own power to discover how everything works on our own. They tell us everything and then we know, but I think it would be a lot more fun if we could figure out the program and do it all ourselves.
I don't like it because they kind of baby you through it, give you all the instructions and stuff when I think they should let you just build whatever you want and then try to test and see if it works so you can learn from your wrongs. And they just baby you through it, give you all the instructions and stuff, and it doesn't make you learn at all.
Like at the beginning, even though we already knew how to do all this at the camp, we made a game and they told us every single step. Most kids here - I think all the kids here - wanted to get creative.
They tell us everything and then we know, but I think it would be a lot more fun if we could figure out the program and do it all ourselves and figure out.
The Volunteer Experience
Techie Clubs are led by volunteers. Most volunteers are computer science professionals from the community. A school staff member (coordinator) was also generally on-hand during club sessions.
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Volunteers found that the best part of their experience was getting a chance to see kids learn.
When asked during interviews what their favorite part of the Techie Club experience was, volunteers frequently reported how much they enjoyed seeing students learn and grow:
I think a cool part of it was - this week was the last one before the competition - seeing kids actually write code, I was kind of blown away by it. They were using Scratch and actually doing programming and other standard things that I learned in college, so I thought that was pretty cool.
A lot of kids were really excited about doing all kinds of stuff so that was really fun. We wanted to do stuff. I mean, we did have some discipline problems, and that's where the teachers helped but like a lot of them wanted to do stuff and wanted to be there and were really excited about stuff, so that was kind of cool but it didn't appear like somebody was making them show up, and when they were there they were given a task, a clear task, and they would do it well.
This was also noted by several school leaders at Techie Club site schools:
I think the best part of club was seeing some of the volunteers' faces when the kids would actually do something or say something that was really intelligent or just the interaction that the kids had with the volunteers.
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Clubs need better equipment and resources to support the curriculum.
One of the most commonly expressed issues with Techie Club implementation was a lack of sufficient equipment or resources at certain clubs. The quotes below describe how this experience played out for some volunteers:
Updating computers I think was an issue. It's slow - when everybody gets on, it crashes and slows down. Downloading software may take up to two, three hours because it's just older equipment.
What's difficult is we don't have the equipment, we don't have working equipment like we should. So if it involves using laptops, we spent the first several sessions having problems with the laptops not working. That kind of slowed down the progress or slowed down what the volunteers were able to do with the students. TECH CORPS has been letting us borrow their laptops all year. The worst part is having computer equipment or having equipment that's not functioning well enough for the kids.
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Volunteers felt that they needed more professional development.
When asked where Techie Club might improve, several volunteers and school leaders suggested expanded training for volunteers:
This time I would say we definitely had a good group of volunteers but like I said, I would just maybe look at more training for the volunteers.
The original training gave me a good view as to what to expect as far as what programming Techie Club provides to students, but I don't think it provided a view as to the different things that you can experience in the classroom.
I would say more training, more expanded training for the volunteers
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School-based support is essential for Techie Clubs.
Volunteers often reported that having support and advocacy at the school level helped smooth the implementation of Techie Club. School support from both the coordinator (usually a teacher at the school) and school leader is essential. Some clubs had active, hands-on coordinators who facilitated the volunteers’ ability to provide instruction. At other clubs, coordinators did not really participate in club sessions, and volunteers were essentially “on their own.”
Teacher support was really helpful. If you don't have that, it can be really tough. Most of the teachers that were involved, and the principal, were very excited that the program was happening. The teachers were good about keeping the kids well behaved and things like that.
I would say it's key to have the volunteers at the school to make sure that you have parents that you can really trust, or staff members that are willing to volunteer. They need to be present the whole time, to make sure kids were actually doing what they were supposed to.
Definitely you need the teacher's support, and you need the administrator's support. If the administrator is not saying that this is something viable, something important that we need to have in our building, then it's not going to fly well. If they don't see the necessity of having tech, then it's not going to fly well. You need teachers that are willing to help.
