Saving Bees with Computer Science: A Way to Spark Enthusiasm and Interest through Interdisciplinary Online Courses

Abstract

In computer science education (CSEd) it is a well-known challenge to create learning environments in which everyone can experience equal opportunities to identify themselves with the subject, get involved, and feel engaged. Especially for underrepresented groups such as girls or not computer enthusiasts, CSEd seems to lack sufficient opportunities at its current state. In this paper, we present a novel approach of using interdisciplinary online courses in the context of bee mortality and discuss the possibilities of such courses to enhance diverse learning in CSEd. We report summarized findings from a one-year period, including 16 workshops where over 160 secondary school students (aged 10-16) have participated in our online courses. Pre-test-post-test surveys have been conducted to gain insights into students' perceptions and attitude changes. The results show the potential of such interdisciplinary approaches to spark interest in computer science (CS) and to raise positive feelings toward programming. Particularly striking are the results from differentiated analyses of students grouped by characteristics such as low initial self-efficacy, coding aversion, or less computer affinity. We found multiple significant effects of our courses to impact students of those groups positively. Our results clearly indicate the potential of interdisciplinary CSEd to address a more diverse audience, especially traditionally underrepresented groups.