Computer Science (CS) Unplugged activities have been deployed in many informal settings to present computing concepts in an engaging manner. To justify use in the classroom, however, it is critical for activities to have a strong educational component. For the past three years, we have been developing and refining a CS Unplugged curriculum for use in middle school classrooms. In this paper, we describe an assessment that maps questions from a comprehensive project to computational thinking (CT) skills and Bloom's Taxonomy. We present results from two different deployments and discuss limitations and implications of our approach.

An undergraduate data structures course is challenging to teach due to the vast number of complex topics that need to be covered. The use of instructional tools, such as an online programming tutor, can reinforce topics students typically find difficult. Prior research has shown using programming tutors can have a positive impact on student learning in an introductory Computer Science course. We hypothesized that we would see similar results using an online tutor in a second year programming course. Our study used an existing programming tutor, Problets, to supplement course instruction on two identified topics (functions and pointers) over one semester in two sections of a data structures course. In the first part of the study, we compared the optional use of an online tutor to no supplemental instruction. In the second part of the study, we compared the use of the online tutor to paper study guides. We conducted a two-tailed unpaired t-test on the students' midterm examination scores. The results from the first module showed that simply providing an optional tool had limited value. Surprisingly, the results from the second module showed no significant difference based on the type of practice. We discuss possible explanations for these results.

Computer Science Unplugged activities have been shown to be successful in increasing student interest in computer science when used in outreach and after school events. There is less research available on adapting these extra-curricular activities for use in a classroom setting, where there are more students and the activities must support educational goals, not just changes in attitude. We describe our work in updating several existing CS Unplugged activities as well as introducing some new activities for use in an American middle school classroom. One challenge when using CS Unplugged activities is to determine what, if anything, students are learning. In this paper we detail one approach that links the updated activities to computational thinking skills, then incorporates worksheets where students illustrate their understanding.

In this paper we present an exploratory study on students' learning experiences with formal learning groups in an introductory Computer Science course. To provide insights into ways to make learning groups productive in this setting, we report on the properties of learning groups that students indicated as more or less effective for various reasons. Additionally, we explore the impact of specific learning group characteristics such as the ratio of male to female students, length of time in the group, and inclusion of students with varying levels of knowledge and experience.

Although professional networking is vital to career building, college-age students may not have acquired sufficient skills to network effectively. Several conferences, such as the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) of Women in Computing and the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing, now exist to counteract feelings of isolation and encourage participation of women and minorities in computer science. To enable conference attendees to take full advantage of the potential for mentoring at these events, we have developed CONNECT (Creating Open Networks aNd Expanding Connections with Technology), a technology-based system that helps conference attendees meet and exchange information. This paper reports the results of deploying the CONNECT system at the GHC conference on two different years. Although the results were generally positive, with about 75% of the survey respondents indicating they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the support provided by CONNECT, there were also a number of suggestions for improvement. We review these results and provide a list of guidelines for creating an effective tool to encourage conference attendees, especially college students, to network and form communities.

Prior research indicates that today's students, especially women, are attracted to careers in which they recognize the direct benefit of the field for serving societal needs. Traditional college level computer science courses rarely illustrate the potential benefits of computer science to the broader community. This paper describes a curricula development effort designed to embed humanitarian projects into undergraduate computer science courses. The impact of this program was measured through student self-report instruments. Through this investigation, it was found that students generally preferred projects that they perceived as "fun" over the projects that were social in nature. This may, in part, be due to the fact that it was difficult to reduce socially relevant problems to a level that beginning students could easily comprehend. This made it difficult to capitalize on the appeal of socially relevant problems in the early computer science courses.

ABSTRACT considered simply, but a more complex evaluation of the We have adapted the programming walkthrough technique to help design computer-supported educational activities in elementary school science. We present examples from a case study which illustrate ways in which design of an educational activity is similar to and different from design of a user interface. We have found that the walkthrough approach is useful in this new setting, and that it sheds new light on the general task-centered orientation to design.

A new generation of innovative, highly visual children's programming environments is under development.In this paper, we consider the instructional requirements for children learning to program in a visual environment.Based on our year-long experience using Apple Computer's Kid-Sim/Cocoa prototype [2] and the results of a year-end assessment, we conclude that the children failed to grasp many aspects of the program operation.The children readily mastered drawing and animating characters in imaginary worlds, but struggled to achieve more complex behaviors.Lack of explicit instruction on program functionality hindered these children in their attempts to create more sophisticated science programs.We explore the prospects for more effective instruction and suggest some guidelines for designing visual programming environments.