The Effectiveness of Pairing Analog and Digital Games to Teach Computer Science Principles to Female Youth

Computer science and its related fields are rapidly growing. However, there is a significant and rising shortage of women in this career domain. To combat this shortage, we explored the potential of coupling analog and digital games teaching computer science concepts to educate, interest, and engage female youth. For our purposes we created and used an analog and digital game both teaching the same computer science principle, image representation, in an after school program setting with middle school-aged females. Assessments were completed by the girls before and after the analog game version to compare what participants already knew to what they had learned through the analog game play. Vital game play statistics were also recorded from the digital game to assess if further engagement or applied learning took place. The observations, assessments, and statistics gathered were evaluated to determine whether or not analog and digital games teaching computer science principles combined together can provide an engaging and enriching educational experience.