Pedagogy and Processes for a Computer Programming Outreach Workshop—The Bridge to College Model

This paper describes a model for computer programming outreach workshops aimed at second-level students (ages 15-16). Participants engage in a series of programming activities based on the Scratch visual programming language, and a very strong group-based pedagogy is followed. Participants are not required to have any prior programming experience. An empirical evaluation was undertaken to evaluate to what extent the model was successful in: (1) giving the participants a deeper understanding of what studying a computing degree and working in the computing profession entails; and (2) increasing their interest in pursuing a third-level qualification in a computer-related area.