The demand for computing talent is at an all-time high, but not everyone feels equally welcome or has equal access to pursue opportunities in technology fields. Women, non-binary, Black, Hispanic/Latino/a/x, and first-generation students are the least likely to have access to paid undergraduate internships that lead to job opportunities in technology companies. This experience report discusses two programs designed to address the lack of internships among historically excluded populations: a micro-internship program and a career program. We present data showing the role that each program played in creating professional pathways for racially diverse undergraduate women and non-binary students. Both programs prepare these undergraduates for professional environments by exposing them to tech careers and developing their social capital through professional networking. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected as well as summer employment plans to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. We present the short- and long-term impact of each program on students' career interests and sense of belonging in computing. A summary of lessons learned from implementing each program are also shared for stakeholders interested in designing similar programs.

As society increasingly relies on computers to drive social, economic, and political decisions, the computing workforce must reflect the racial and gender diversity of the larger population. This experience report presents CompSciConnect (CSC), a multi-year program designed to broaden participation in computing for middle school aged students from historically excluded populations (girls and/or Black, Latina/o/e/x, and Native American [BLNA] students). Each cohort of CSC participants span three years with participants meeting for 2 weeks in the summer and one weekend a month during the school year. Students progress through three levels of the program: Yellow (beginner), Red (intermediate), and Terp (advanced). Quantitative and qualitative data guided the growth and implementation of CSC. CSC began in 2012 with just 14 students and now has reached over 532 students. Additionally, CSC alumni cite their experiences in CSC as contributing to their decisions to major in a computing field. Various design factors-such as community-centered student recruitment strategies, the long-term structure of the program, and the scaffolded curriculum-contributed to CSC's growth and its positive impact on CSC participants. In this paper, we present CSC, elaborate on the design factors that led to CSC's success, and highlight the challenges and lessons learned throughout CSC's development.

Computational thinking (CT) is playing an increasingly relevant role within disciplinary teaching in elementary school, particularly in science. However, many teachers are unfamiliar with CT, either because their education occurred before the popularization of CT or because CT instruction was not included in their pre-service coursework. For these teachers, CT professional development (PD) becomes a primary mechanism to close their CT knowledge gap. While CT PD has demonstrated success at increasing teacher's CT understanding, researchers have reported varied outcomes in supporting teachers to write CT-integrated lesson plans. To explore how we might support teachers to integrate CT into elementary science, we employed design-based research (DBR) in a dual-track design of in-class CT instruction for pre-service undergraduates within an elementary science methods class paired with a collaborative, multi-month PD opportunity for pre- and in-service teachers. In this article, we reflect on our 5-year period of DBR and present our design insights and implications for CT instruction and curriculum design from each iteration. Our findings on best practices will inform both teacher educators and PD providers within CT education. Our work will also be of interest to researchers considering DBR for technology-based educational projects.

The benefits of near-peer mentoring models in computing education contexts are well known, but research on near-peer mentor training best practices is limited. This research evaluates the impact of a 3-week instructor training on undergraduate CS majors' confidence and preparedness to teach and lead K-12 informal computing programs across a 12-week summer period. This poster presents features of the training that were beneficial to near-peer undergraduate instructors as they performed their summer teaching duties and factors that could be improved or further developed in the future.

This poster reports on undergraduate computer science (CS) majors' experiences as near-peer instructional leaders in informal K-12 computing programs during a 12-week summer period. We analyze how the undergraduates' prior experiences in computing and their intersectional computing identities influence their self-perceptions as mentors and instructors. Case study analyses of the undergraduates revealed that their journeys in computing (e.g., their level of access to computing education courses or their exposure to influential role models) directly influenced their mentor and instructor identity development. This poster provides evidence for the need for more intersectional approaches to near-peer mentoring models.

School systems globally have begun to integrate computational thinking (CT) practices into elementary teaching and learning standards to provide young students with a comfort for and foundational understanding of computer science. This integration requires educating teachers to develop and implement CT learning opportunities. Our work contributes to best practice by exploring the role language plays in elementary teachers' discussions and development of CT-infused science lessons. To do this, we captured and analyzed the language used by elementary teachers as they spoke and wrote about CT in a multi-week professional development experience during which the teachers created and delivered CT-infused lessons to their students. We determined that teachers exhibited differing CT conceptualizations, which we categorized from broad to narrow. These differences were not, however, observed in either their spoken or written language. While there were instances of teachers using language that mirrored how the facilitators discussed CT, this use did not align with how they conceptualized CT. Our work analyzing connections between CT language use and CT conceptualization suggests that in order to understand how teachers are conceptualizing CT, professional development designers and teacher educators should focus on creating opportunities for teachers to employ CT practices in context rather than relying only on language. We feel this will support a more precise and nuanced engagement with CT.

This lightning talk describes the Maryland Center for Women in Computing (MCWIC) ambassador program that was designed to empower current undergraduate women to lead K-12 outreach efforts for MCWIC and build a community of within the undergraduate students interested in diversity, inclusion and education. For the last 7 years, the MCWIC ambassadors led summer camps, after school programs in schools, weekend workshops, and programs that support current undergraduate population. The program has grown to the point that we now employ over 15 undergraduate students each semester to support these activities. Come to this talk to learn more about how this program was created, how it is sustained, and how the ambassadors benefit from being a part of the program while also serving the greater community.

Computational thinking (CT) is increasingly becoming a part of the K-12 educational landscape. While high schools with computer science teachers or technology coaches on staff are well positioned to help teachers integrate computational thinking into instruction, early childhood through middle schools (grades p-8) are often less well equipped. Further, the concept of CT is often poorly defined, especially as it relates to younger learners. Despite these challenges, teachers are being asked to integrate CT into other content lessons. To understand if and how this is happening, we conducted a statewide survey of primary (early childhood through middle school) Maryland teachers. The survey asked the teachers about their conceptualization of CT, CT resources they rely on, and their comfort levels to provide effective CT instruction for their students. The results of our survey demonstrate that teachers hold diverse views of the concept of CT and use a varied set of instructional resources in their classrooms. The contribution of this work is in helping advance our understanding of the current state of CT in primary classrooms.

No abstract available.

Mentors-protégé relationships have been shown to improve retention of women and under-represented students in computing (Cohoon, 2011). Mentorship relationships are also the driving factor in female students' selection and completion of a computing career (Ashcraft, Eger, & Friend, 2012). More generally, mentor-protégé relationships are a significant factor in retaining and encouraging under-represented students in many academic fields. Beginning with a brief discussion of our experience facilitating mentorship between female undergraduate and middle school computing students, this Birds of a Feather Session will provide a platform for the exploration of mentor training techniques and mentor-protégé relationships. We will discuss and share different strategies (e.g. readings, hands-on workshops) for training mentors and facilitating strong mentor-protégé relationships. We will also explore how mentorship relationships affect student performance in all school subjects and how to best create a broad mentorship experience that extends beyond computing. Using a summary of recent literature as a springboard, we will consider optimal mentor-protégé age gaps, experience levels and interaction frequencies. Finally, we will explore session participant's personal experiences as mentors/protégés and compile a list of "do's and don'ts" for those facilitating or participating in mentorship programs.

In this paper, programs for capacity building in computer science education of developing countries are being compared in terms of: the type of framework implemented; its advantages and disadvantages; the influence of societal issues and language on the perceived success of the framework and finally how the technology used for communication, influence the success of the program. Since both researchers are actively engaged in four of the projects, participative observation is the preferred qualitative research methodology used. We have found that: each framework has different benefits; many of the challenges are consistent across many less technologically developed countries; and that improved communication technologies make it easier to have alliances and support between computer science departments at universities on different continents. This paper is a report on research currently in progress.