A Low-Cost High-Impact Computer Science Show for Family Audiences

Science shows are commonly presented for the general public, and especially children, at science centers and festivals. Usually they use attention-grabbing experiments from the physical sciences, and the science of computing is absent from such presentations. This paper describes a series of demonstrations that present fundamental ideas from Computer Science in a manner that will be engaging to a general audience. The show has been presented to school classes, at science festivals, and as a children’s event. The results from questionnaires distributed at the shows indicate a favourable reaction from the public.