Harvey Mudd College proposes to address student misconceptions about computing by engaging middle school students in a semester-long software development project carried out by college students. The goal of the software project is one of those 21st century computer science artifacts that middle school students can relate to: an educational computer game. The proposed collaborations also works to serve existing needs of college and middle school faculty, facilitates teaching and enhances learning at both levels with very little overhead. For college faculty teaching game design and development, the project aims to fix the gender dynamics of gaming. Through the program, middle school teachers, regardless of technical competency, can engage their students in devising technological tools for their own learning. It also provides a context for authentic communication between middle school and college students, which may motivate and improve foundational literacy as well as content-related vocabulary. In short, the program delivers concrete benefits to middle school and college faculty and students, benefits that are unrelated to computer science recruitment, while at the same time fostering interest in the field.
