“Auburn University STARS Activities Cheryl Seals, Ph.D., Juan Gilbert, Ph.D., Richard Chapman, Ph.D.

{sealscd, gilbert, chapmro}@auburn.edu

IntroductionDuring the 2006-2007 year, AU STARS were very active in the community and members were active facilitating Programs at Auburn and doing student research.AU STARS Activities•Venture Expanded Horizons Class•After School Alice Computer Program•World Usability Day - Fall2006•AU STARS Student Research Presentations - Spring 2007•KEMET Academy•Camp ROC (Reaching Our Children)

After School Computer Program

•Computer Club with Alice •Piloted it at Cary Woods•Students were introduced to ALICE 3D with interactive tutorials•Students created animated worlds of their own design

World Usability Day 2006

•Event was proposed as a full day world usability event by Dr. Daniella Marghitu at Auburn University

• Emphasis of WUD was accessibility

•Activities of STARS Students• Program Planning• Website Creation• Three Presentations (STARS members)

World Usability was a Big Success225 events in 175 cities in 40 countries.More than 40,000

attendees.Over 10,000 volunteers.

Impact•Community helped and excited by STARS work in the local schools

•Students actually excited about learning

•Opportunity to improve creative ability of young students to get them excited about computing, One student was so motivated that worked with the software that we introduced all summer.

•All students were retained in computer science major, with many continuing on to graduate school

Future Work•Expand Computer Club to six schools beginning Fall 2007

•Expand to high schools Spring 2008

•Expand the Mentoring Program provide more support for students

•Continuing support of student research

•Provide support for students so that they will have a greater appreciation for computer science to help them to continue working and studying the field

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KEMET Academy Computer Lab

•Two Week summer intervention

•Utilized Culturally Situated Design Tools

•Learning Math & Computing through Culture

•PowerPoint

•Word

•Keyboarding Skills

•Presentation Skills•Increasing Computer Efficacy of students from at risk populations.

STARS Research•All students were encouraged to perform research

•Three students completed Thesis

•A dozen of the students all presented at end of year research presentation

•For some of the undergraduate students this was their first exposure to research

•Students were required to attend a series of departmental, guest research presentations and student defenses