Work in progress - attracting K-12 students to study computing

There is general agreement that the need for computing professionals in the near term will continue to increase, while enrollment in computer science degree programs is decreasing. We hope to meet this need by attracting pre-college students to study computer science and information technology at the collegiate level through participation in summer camps and weekend events focused on different aspects of computing technology. The authors offered three game development camps and several one-day events (computing workshops and competitions). Participants were self selected pre-college students who experienced many aspects of the software development life cycle and used software tools to create original multimedia products. Participants completed an established attitude scale before and after the events to assess the impact of the project activities on multiple components of their attitudes and their future plans to take information technology courses. Initial data analysis indicates significant positive attitude changes toward the study of computing and technology.