Just wanted to add that I’m doing my part! D18 is taking AP CS Principles and thinks it’s “so easy”. This is a girl who was adamantly opposed to doing anything with CS a year ago. In addition, she insisted on signing up for AP CS A next year and volunteered to write an app for her iGEM team this summer. She also wants to get a CS minor in college (USC has a CS minor and a “computer programming” minor).
The way I got her over the instant rejection of CS last year was to print out some of the questions on the AP CS-P exam at collegeboard.org. Questions that didn’t require specific knowledge but rather more of the puzzle variety (she’s always doing Sudoku/puzzle books). This was my attempt at demystifying CS, which is often perceived as “hard” or too nerdy. After an eye roll or two (teenagers!), she went through the problems and got most of them right. I told her, “you just passed the AP exam for the class without even taking the class”. A real I can do this moment.