CSS Outreach Program

As a community, we think that computer science is fantastic, and our outreach work aims to convince everyone else that it is too! We work very closely with the University of Bristol and other organisations to encourage children to look at computer science and engineering based career paths. This includes going out into schools and delivering workshops, providing lesson plans and teaching materials, sending our members back to their old schools and a whole host of other activities.

This year the outreach program is being overhauled, coinciding with the new school curriculum which introduces computing as a new subject. We will be running lots of events this year and would love for you and your school or organisation to get in touch to see how we can work together. Some of our flagship events are listed below for a taste of what we do already:

Digimakers

NEXT EVENT: 4th of October

We’re working closely with the Computer Science Department’s Outreach & Student Liaison Manager, Caroline Higgins. Caroline has organised and developed an event chain called Digimakers, which is run multiple times a year at the local @Bristol Science Learning Centre in collaboration with the British Chartered Institute for Computing (BCS). They are aimed at anyone, and at any experience level, who wants to come along and take part in all sorts of computing and electronics based workshops.

Have a look on the Digimakers Facebook Page for more photos of past events and to keep up to date on future events. Digimakers is always looking for new people to get involved. If you want to deliver a workshop or simply help out then contact Caroline via email to find out more about getting involved: caroline.higgins@cs.bristol.ac.uk

Back to School Program

At the end of every term we encourage students to return to their old secondary schools and colleges to give talks to their old school mates on how awesome it is studying computer science here at Bristol. We provide help and resources to students for presentations and will even pay toward their travel costs!

If you would like to know more about the back to school program or are a student wishing to participate you can contact Ben Marshall, the current outreach officer via email: outreach@cssbristol.co.uk

Teaching Resources

The 2014 academic year will see the outreach program supporting teachers in Bristol through the provision of lesson plans, materials and resources. This is a new initiative prompted by the introduction of computing as a topic on the national curriculum. Obviously we think this is wonderful and want to help teachers to deliver the best possible experience to their students. Eventually we hope to provide teacher training and deliver workshops in schools that will complement the curriculum. If you would like to know more and wish to participate, please our outreach officer outreach@cssbristol.co.uk.

More Information

Our 2014/15 strategy for outreach can be viewed here. It contains an outline of our plans and projects for the forthcoming year. Again, if you have any questions or would like to work with us, please get in touch via the methods described above.