As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into daily life, there is a critical need for developing AI literacy across all educational levels. However, current AI education remains largely confined to college-level computer science classrooms with limited access for K-12 learners. We present the AI Scholars Program, a novel approach that addresses the AI education gap by preparing college computing students to serve as AI education ambassadors in their communities and empowering K-12 teachers to adopt AI education practices in their classrooms. This experience report presents the curriculum and its outcomes after one round of refinement. The program offers structured AI learning through bi-weekly webinars, resources, and collaborative opportunities to form teams and conduct community outreach projects. Our program invited 63 scholars from 30 institutions across the U.S., including 51 college students and 12 K-12 teachers. Their outreach impacted over 230 K-12 learners. We examine program outcomes for participants and projects through pre/post surveys measuring computing attitudes and self-efficacy for teaching AI, scholar interviews, and outreach project reports. We share lessons learned and challenges for designing similar programs, highlighting the importance of involving educators for effective community-engaged AI education. The program creates a sustainable pipeline for college students to develop technical skills and leadership while addressing K-12 AI education shortages. We contribute insights for scaling AI literacy and broadening participation in computing.

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in scientific and technical domains, the ability to engage in AI-integrated STEM problem-solving is emerging as a critical skill for the future STEM workforce. Supporting students in this type of problem-solving requires building a strong foundation in computational thinking, particularly through pedagogically effective and technically robust tools. In this paper, we propose augmenting i-Sail, a block-based programming environment designed for AI-integrated STEM problem-solving, with large language model-driven feedback capabilities to facilitate students' problem-solving while reinforcing key computational thinking skills for middle-grade students. We prompt a large language model with structured knowledge about breadth-first search to provide contextualized, adaptive feedback. The LLM helps students connect their problem-solving steps to the high-level structure of the breadth-first search algorithm and apply this understanding to pathfinding. We present a proof-of-concept evaluation that demonstrates the potential of the system to support the development of computational thinking through AI-integrated problem solving in diverse STEM contexts.

As computer science is increasingly taught in secondary schools, tools need to integrate block-based environments into learning platforms. This way, teachers can more effectively lead lessons, help students, and assess students' programs in their classrooms. We conducted a participatory design process with three K-12 computing teachers to understand their struggle and needs for block coding within their classrooms. The teachers identified 14 needs that were not already addressed by our tool, SnapClass. SnapClass, a new web-based learning platform for Snap!, integrates assignments with starter code, executable student submissions, rubric-based assessment, and a gradebook into one platform. The teachers designed prototypes for three features important to their classrooms: assignment differentiation, help-requests, and peer and self-assessment. This paper begins by introducing SnapClass and the motivation for its development. Then through thematic analysis of the session transcripts, we identify the common struggles teachers face while instructing programming and summarize how they would address those struggles through the design of SnapClass.

The Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) is a CS Principles (CSP) course created at UC Berkeley to reach high school and university nonmajors in computer science. It was chosen for the CSP pilot and endorsed by the College Board as an AP CSP curriculum and PD provider since the first AP CSP exam sitting in 2017. This past year, BJC developed a new course for middle school and early high school that teaches a functional approach to programming, emphasizing iteration and commands, and including exciting projects in graphics, data, and media. In this workshop, we will provide an overview of the BJC middle school and high school curriculum including course materials, teacher resources, and an introduction to Snap!, the chosen visual programming language of BJC. We will not only cover curriculum updates, Snap! updates, BJC for middle school, BJC in other languages, but also dive into labs with hands-on programming. Laptop is required.

By age 15 girls start to lose interest in STEM, and less than 50% consider a STEM-related career. Providing hands-on internship opportunities has been one of the leading ways to help connect students with exploring computing careers; however, these opportunities are limited in high school. We propose a framework for a university-led high school internship initiative that focuses on service learning, co-design, and the propagation of engaging computing curricula for younger audiences. We piloted this model virtually in summer 2021, with high school students and teachers as interns mentored by university role models. Teams led the development and implementation of computing-infused curricula for a virtual summer coding camp. In this article, we share our framework and review the importance of service-learning for recruiting diverse participants and the use of co-design as a way to broker relationships between developers and community stakeholders. Additionally, we provide preliminary outcomes of our internship model on student and teacher participants gathered from qualitative data including end-of-summer presentations and post-program interviews.

The Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) is a CS Principles (CSP) course created at UC Berkeley to reach high school and university non-majors in computer science. It was chosen for the CSP pilot and endorsed by the College Board as an AP CSP curriculum and PD provider since the first AP CSP exam sitting in 2017. In this workshop, we will provide an overview of the BJC curriculum including course materials, teacher resources, and an introduction to Snap!, the chosen visual programming language of BJC. We will not only cover curriculum updates, Snap! updates, BJC for middle school, BJC in other languages, but also dive into labs with hands-on programming. Some of our experienced BJC Lead Teachers will provide support and answer questions based on personal classroom experience. This workshop is intended to be an introduction and update to the Beauty and Joy of Computing curriculum (bjc.edc.org) and community. This is not intended to be an in-depth experience, but an overview. Note: It is recommended to use least a Chromebook during the workshop in order to achieve the learning outcomes. Also, having Multiple/dual monitors will make for a better experience.

The Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) is a CS Principles course developed at UC Berkeley for high school juniors through university non-majors. Together, UC Berkeley, the Education Development Center, and NC State have brought BJC to 700+ teachers nationwide. Since 2011, NC State has developed regional partnerships and a train-the-trainer model to offer nationwide PD to 600+ high school teachers. Our guiding philosophy is to meet students where they are, but not leave them there. BJC covers the big ideas and computational thinking practices in the AP CSP curriculum framework using Snap!, an easy-to-learn blocks-based programming language, and powerful computing ideas like recursion, higher-order functions, and computability. Through BJC, students create beautiful images, and realize that code itself can be beautiful. Having fun is an explicit course goal. BJC takes a "lab-centric" approach, and most learning occurs through guided programming labs where students explore and play. In this workshop, we will provide an overview of BJC, share experiences as instructors at university and high school levels, and share details of summer PD opportunities. Laptop needed.

While AP Computer Science Principles (CSP) has made great strides in increasing the number of women and underrepresented minorities (URM) taking an AP Computer Science course, the percentage of women and URM passing the AP CSP Exam remains lower than that of non-minority males. The AP CSP Exam consists of two performance-based tasks, create and explore, in addition to a multiple-choice section. We conducted one-on-one interviews with Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) Master Teachers to find what they like about the exam, what they do not like, and potential barriers to passing. The teachers mentioned preparedness, including test taking skills, and motivation, specifically to complete the tasks, as reasons for their students' performance on the AP Exam. Community mindset was mentioned as a possible reason for lack of motivation and engagement. Some potential barriers to passing, expressed by teachers, are access to technology, job obligations, and languages in which the AP Exam is offered. Although the create task was well liked by the teachers, some thought the scoring could be improved. In addition, teachers detail how their own assessments compare to the AP CSP Exam, with the majority using programming projects as their main way to assess for student understanding. Half of the teachers cited the amount of time for performance tasks and multiple-choice questions as components of the exam they would change. These findings provide insight into AP CSP Exam performance, teacher suggestions for exam improvements, and details on CS classroom assessments.

The Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) is a CS Principles (CSP) course developed at UC Berkeley, intended for high school juniors through university non-majors. It was twice chosen as a CSP pilot, and both the College Board and code.org have endorsed it. Since 2011, we have offered professional development to over 240 high school teachers. Our guiding philosophy is to meet students where they are, but not to leave them there. It covers the big ideas and computational thinking practices required in the AP CSP curriculum framework using an easy-to-learn blocks-based programming language called Snap! (based on Scratch), and powerful computer science ideas like recursion, higher-order functions and computability. Through the course, students learn to create beautiful images, and realize that code itself can be beautiful. Having fun is an explicit course goal. We take a "lab-centric" approach, and much of the learning occurs through guided programming labs that ask students to explore and play. In this workshop, we will provide an overview of BJC, share our experiences as instructors of the course at the university and high school level, provide a glimpse into a typical week of the course, and share details of potential crowd-funded summer professional development opportunities. This is a hands-on workshop. Laptops are required, and all "handouts" will be digital.