Unplugged Computing for Children

Abstract

The number of women in technical and computing roles in the High Energy Physics (HEP) community hovers at around 15%. At the same time there is a growing body of research to suggest that diversity, in all its forms, brings positive impact on productivity and well-being. These aspects are directly in line with many organisations’ values and missions, including CERN. Although proactive efforts to recruit more women in our organisations and institutes may help, the percentage of female applicants in candidate pools is similarly low and limits the potential for change. Factors influencing the career choice of girls have been identified to start as early as primary school and are closely tied to encouragement and exposure. It is the hope of various groups in the HEP community that, by intervening early, there may be a change in demographics over the years to come. During 2019, the Women in Technology Community at CERN developed two workshops for 6-9 year olds, which make the fundamental concepts of ICT and Computer Science accessible to young people with no prior experience and minimal assumed background knowledge. The immediate objectives were to demystify computer science, and to allow the children to meet a diverse set of role models from technical fields through our volunteer tutors. The workshops were run multiple times over 2019. This paper contains an overview of our motivation, describes the content of the workshops, results, lessons learnt and the future evolution of such activities.