Teachers are well positioned to customize curricula to local contexts. In CS, one approach involves choosing themes relevant to students and incorporating them into the technical materials (e.g., Scratch projects, CS concept explanations). However, teachers' time constraints make curriculum customization challenging. This poster introduces Conjuror, an interactive GenAI tool to help teachers create contextually customized Scratch projects aligned with a structured curriculum while retaining teacher agency. We present Conjuror design and its pilot with two teacher cohorts, showing promising evidence for process efficiency and output quality.

While many recent studies have explored how large language models can transform computer science instruction from the instructor perspective, they are primarily at the college level. Thus, little is known about using large language models towards curriculum development and teacher supports outside of the college setting. Given the emphasis placed on culturally responsive teaching at the K-8 level and well-documented evidence of insensitive and inaccurate language model outputs from a cultural perspective, it is imperative to perform systematic and principled research before considering their use in this setting.

Computer science learning in primary school classrooms has expanded, necessitating effective instructional strategies for this age group. Gallery Walks are a common activity to allow peers to share their work and give feedback on peers’ work. Like other skills, providing effective feedback may require scaffolding and/or instruction for some students.

Quantum computing (QC) is an emerging field at the intersection of computer science and physics. Harnessing the power of quantum mechanics, QC is expected to solve otherwise intractable problems significantly faster, including in encryption, drug development, and optimization. High-quality and accessible QC resources are needed to help students develop the critical skills and confidence to contribute to the field. However, existing programs are often aimed at college students with an advanced mathematics or physics background, shutting out potential innovators.

Open-ended tasks can be both beneficial and challenging to students learning to program. Such tasks allow students to be more creative and feel ownership over their work, but some students struggle with unstructured tasks and, without proper scaffolds, this can lead to negative learning experiences. Scratch is a widely used coding platform to teach computer science in classrooms and is designed to support learner creativity and expression. With its open-ended nature, Scratch can be used in various ways in the classroom to meet the needs of schools and districts. One challenge of using Scratch in classrooms is supporting learners in exploring their interests and fostering creativity while still meeting the instructional goals of a lesson and ensuring all students are engaged with, and understand, focal concepts and practices.

In 2020, the world confronted an unprecedented event affecting education globally: COVID-19. Events that disrupt education are not new; Homelessness or trauma negatively impact education at an individual level, whereas war stops education completely. This event is unique in that it caused the cessation of in-person instruction for all but with a rapid transition to remote instruction.

Given the increasing interest and need to teach students computer science in formal education settings, it is imperative to understand how to do so effectively and equitably. An important step of learning to program is being able to define the objective of a program and then plan out how to implement a program to produce the desired outcome. This step is particularly important in younger learners who may have little experience with programming or trying to create their own technological artifacts. In this paper, we explore how to scaffold young programmers in planning their open-ended programs as part of an intermediate Scratch curriculum for middle grade students. We analyze 203 paper and virtual planning documents from 103 5th-8th grade students. Our results reveal that the students often completed a majority of the document, which was consistent across grade levels. However, we found differences in student completion based on teacher and between physical and virtual documents. This work advances our understanding of how to support novice, young programmers in planning programs.