Last spring, I was part of a research group that went to a local high school and taught the students computer science principles through digital games. We had created a platform with which they could make their own maze-type levels, and the way the players would get through the levels was by implementing simple code. We also had different versions of the platform that allowed the students to create their own avatars, some of which looked like them and others which did not.

While we taught the students these CS principles and aspects of level design, we also picked their brains regarding how playing avatars based on themselves affected their performance in-game. A lot of them liked to be able to see themselves in their games, especially since they’d never really had the chance to play characters that represented them before.

After we finished interviewing the students, we started designing a curriculum for computer science teachers based on the project we had done. The curriculum is meant to get students interested and engaged in computer science, while also addressing themes of identity representation. We designed the curriculum so we could share the tools we had created with students and teachers all over. We also regarded the students’ responses with importance, so that when designing the curriculum we would be sure to include what they responded well to and downplay what they didn’t.

Even though our subjects were “just” high school students, we recognized that being high school students makes them experts on what students would respond well to and what they would like to learn. These kids had a lot of interesting things to say about playing games where they saw themselves represented, and how that made them eager to do well in-game and learn more about computer science. A lot of them said they’d like to continue finding out more about CS as well as identity representation, and that was pretty cool to hear. 🙂