Eye tracking reveals attention patterns in block-based programming. This lets us examine gender-linked differences as students manage the multimodal literacy of coordinating text prompts, color-coded blocks, navigation, and live output. We examined how K–12 students allocate attention while independently completing a short Scratch-like task using a mixed-methods approach. Thirty-two fourth- to sixth-grade students (19 boys, 13 girls) participated. We recorded gaze with a Tobii Spark screen-based tracker and analyzed the data in Tobii Pro Lab. For each student, we computed 187 metrics across four Areas of Interest (AOIs)—Script, Coding Blocks, Output, and Navigation—and analyzed in R 4.3.1 with multiple-comparisons correction. Fifteen metrics differed by gender (seven in Script, four in Coding Blocks, two in Output, two in Navigation). In a qualitative review of eye-tracking videos, girls tended to reread and plan in Script and checked Output later and for longer, whereas boys moved to the workspace sooner, exited Blocks faster with larger, faster eye movements, and made brief early Output checks. Because the study is ongoing, analyses are still in progress and the findings are not yet final; so far, results indicate different strategies, not ability differences.

This report presents several main collaborative design scenarios involved in designing a week-long summer camp program to engage elementary students in physiological computing. The design team consists of the research team (the authors of this report) and four elementary school teachers from a school district with a majority of historically underrepresented students in a southeastern state in the U.S. We present the goals for the co-design, followed by an account of the nature of the conversations and discussions during the synchronous co-design sessions. With the research team leading with questions, teachers contributed with abundant knowledge and experience with pedagogies to engage upper elementary-grade students, including activities that relate to students' everyday learning, scaffolding strategies to bridge potential learning gaps, and suggestions for software development and updates. These insights are expected to help enable adoptions by researchers and practitioners in collaborative design for K-12 students.