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Background. Software Engineering (SE) is a new and emerging topic in secondary computer science classrooms. However, a review of the recent literature has identified an overall lack of reporting on the development of SE secondary curriculum. Previous studies also report low student engagement when teaching these concepts. Objectives. In this experience report, we discuss the development of a 9-week, project-based learning (PBL) SE curriculum for secondary students. During this curriculum, students create a socially relevant project in groups of two to three. We discuss displays of participant engagement with CS concepts through the PBL pedagogy and the SE curriculum. Method. We examine participant engagement through group artifact interviews about student experiences during a week-long, virtual summer camp that piloted activities from our curriculum. During this camp, students followed a modified SE life cycle created by the authors of the paper. Findings. Participants showed engagement with the curriculum through various aspects of PBL, such as autonomy, creativity, and personal interest in their project topic. Implications. The lessons learned from this experience report suggest that PBL pedagogy can increase student engagement when teaching CS concepts, and this pedagogy provides detail and structure for future secondary SE curriculum implementations to support educators in the classroom 

Historically, female students have shown low interest in the field of computer science. Previous computer science curricula have failed to address the lack of female-centered computer science activities, such as socially relevant and real-life applications. Our new summer camp curriculum introduces the topics of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and other real-world subjects to engage high school girls in computing by connecting lessons to relevant and cutting edge technologies. Topics range from social media bots, sentiment of natural language in different media, and the role of AI in criminal justice, and focus on programming activities in the NetsBlox and Python programming languages. Summer camp teachers were prepared in a week-long pedagogy and peer-teaching centered professional development program where they concurrently learned and practiced teaching the curriculum to one another. Then, pairs of teachers led students in learning through hands-on AI and ML activities in a half-day, two-week summer camp. In this paper, we discuss the curriculum development and implementation, as well as survey feedback from both teachers and students. 

The Computer Science Frontiers (CSF) project introduces teachers to the topics of artificial intelligence and distributed computing to engage their female students in computing by connecting lessons to relevant cutting edge technologies. Application topics include social media and news articles, as well as climate change, the arts (movies, music, and museum collections), and public health/medicine. CSF educators are prepared in a pedagogy and peer-teaching centered professional development program where they simultaneously learn and teach distributed computing, artificial intelligence, and internet of things lessons to each other. These professional developments allow educators to hone in on their teaching skills of these new topics and gain confidence in their ability to teach new computer science materials before running several activities with their students in the academic year classroom. In this workshop, teachers participating in the CS Frontiers professional development will give testimonials discussing their experiences teaching these topics in a two week summer camp. Attendees will then try out three computing activities, one from each Computer Science Frontiers module. Finally, there will be a question and answer session.