Hacker School Inspires a Love of Programming - Steinmühle

Over the course of two mornings, the 7th-grade class had the opportunity to dive into the world of information technology. At the “Hacker School” and through the online program of the same name via Zoom, the students were introduced to the Scratch programming language and took their first steps with it.

Learning Outcomes and Motivation

A brief evaluation of the Hacker School program revealed that almost all students had little or no prior programming experience.

Teachers Nicole Scholtes and Eva Neumann report that there were a few technical issues that will need to be addressed next time, such as staff deployment, program crashes, communication, and the use of tablets in general. However, they also note:

Almost all of the students were satisfied with the course and learned something from it. The small-group format with a coach was well received. The content—programming a game—was also very motivating for many of them.

Girls are still hesitant

“The project aims to inspire more boys and girls to choose computer science as a subject,” explain Nicole Scholtes and Eva Neumann. It is aimed in particular at female students who are still somewhat hesitant when it comes to choosing computer science. In fact, the evaluation also revealed that many people believe boys are better at programming than girls—a misconception.

A woman programmed ChatGPT

“ChatGPT was also programmed by a woman,” Nicole Scholtes notes, to make it clear that girls should feel just as included as boys. In the 8th and 9th-grade elective courses, computer science is a regular part of the curriculum.

“All in all, our impression is that the course provides many students with their first introduction to computer science and programming, thereby strengthening the field of computer science in schools over the long term.” The WU selection process will reveal whether the course has motivated students to choose Computer Science as a WU, since that course builds upon, among other things, the content covered in the Hacker School—namely, programming games with Scratch.