Brazil has recently advanced efforts to integrate computing into K-12 education through new national standards. This movement creates opportunities but also raises challenges about how computing can connect meaningfully to other subjects. One promising approach is to design learning experiences where students build computational artifacts to reason about disciplinary concepts. This poster reports early results from a multi-year collaboration with Brazilian teachers to integrate computing into middle-school History and Geography. Through co-design sessions and classroom trials with more than 20 teachers, we explored ways to enrich disciplinary inquiry while keeping computing aligned with local curriculum goals. A key outcome is the identification of four ''objects-to-think-with'' — tangible artifacts that anchor social studies concepts and computing practices. These include computational graphs to compare historical revolts, interactive maps for testing alternative regionalizations of the Americas, a classroom meteorological station for monitoring local climate data, and interactive chatbots that present reimagined medieval timelines. Each object bridges disciplinary reasoning with computing ideas such as modeling, data representation, and visualization. We outline the co-design process that led to these objects and illustrate their classroom use, offering a practical strategy for teachers seeking to implement Brazil's new computing standards in authentic ways.

Programming computational models is a key practice that supports both scientific and computational learning. Block-based, domain-specific programming environments have made this practice more accessible but may constrain what students can design compared to general-purpose or text-based languages. This poster reports on the classroom use of block unpacking—a feature that allows high-level primitives to be opened, inspected, and modified—within a domain-specific modeling environment. We implemented unpacking in a four-day high school biology unit on eutrophication, where students programmed models to represent interactions among algae, bacteria, fish, nutrients, and oxygen. From the 16 students who participated, we analyzed 36 unpacking modifications made by five focal students, classifying each as a parameter change or a code structure change, and examining whether these modifications were informed by scientific reasoning. Our findings show that unpacking let students move beyond fixed domain-specific primitives, producing diverse and more expressive models. Some introduced new mechanisms, such as photosynthesis, while others focused on optimizing or debugging simulations. Importantly, more complex edits did not always correspond to deeper scientific reasoning. This study highlights unpacking as a mid-level design strategy that can expand student agency and flexibility in block-based modeling. We discuss implications for designing programming environments and instructional supports that balance ease of entry with opportunities to engage meaningfully in computing practices.

Community science provides one context for learners to encounter scientific phenomena in their everyday surroundings. Community data science, in particular, offers a way for learners to engage in locally-situated data science projects. Motivated by critiques that community science too often positions learners as mere data collection assistants, we share the ongoing development of the GoGo Board's no-code interface for programming and configuring sensors and visualizing sensor data (Figure 1). Our aim in this work is to assist learners in posing and exploring community data science questions of their choosing. Specifically, we discuss the hardware and software features that make the GoGo suitable for novice data science learners. We also outline our efforts to refine these features through user testing with 60 middle school students. Contributions include both proof-of-concept for community data science with middle school students and considerations for tailoring technical support for data science projects to local contexts.

In this pictorial, we critically analyze how students engaged in data representation activities using PlayData, a block-based programming environment tailored for data visualization purposes. Drawing upon data collected over two years with middle and high school students, we describe obstacles that impacted the interpretation of the data under analysis. These obstacles, here called "design failures", arose from either unexpected uses of the tool or shortcomings in the design of activities. We explore how each of these failures was used as an opportunity for refining both the tool's design and the associated activities. We conclude by offering recommendations for educators and researchers to support learners' engagement with visualization construction for effective reasoning with data.

This work-in-progress proposes an approach that uses a low-cost, smartphone-based system for at-home, inquiry-driven science learning called STEM-Messaging System (SMS). SMS supports real-time, interactive, message-based science activities and is part of a broader project aimed at integrating science into children's daily lives by uncovering the science behind everyday objects via computer vision overlays. We discuss how three pedagogical principles–inquiry-based learning, culturally relevant pedagogies, and modeling-based learning–inform key design features of the system and its curricular activities. We identify tensions that surfaced from pilot studies involving students, parents, and teachers, providing examples of how pedagogical principles and practical applications influence design decisions.

Cloud-based science labs allow science classrooms to engage in authentic science inquiry without the logistical and procedural complexities of real hands-on laboratories. A major challenge is to understand the variation of teaching contexts and needs and the implication for technology design. Utilizing an Biology Cloud Lab (BCL) for real-time experimentation that had been deployed as Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) previously, we now execute three in-depth case studies of how K-12 teachers (with ~200 students) adapt and deploy this BCL and MOOC material for their own class-room needs. We uncovered that teachers differed in their diverse range of learning objectives (e.g., large-scale data analysis vs. computational modeling based on real data), how the teachers were able to adapt the BCL and MOOC material differently to meet their respective curricular needs, and how logistically complex and time intensive processes can be automated to allow teachers and students to focus on key practices. This work reveals the need and design rules for well-standardized and modularized cloud-based science laboratories and accompanying learning materials to then enable rich inquiry based learning activities that work at scale while also being highly customizable to the local classroom contexts.

In this paper, we describe a new automated tool to analyze how students create their projects on Scratch 3.0, with the goal of understanding learning trajectories in a way that considers students’ programming processes and practices, moving beyond the analysis of computational thinking concepts as evidence of learning. Drawing on a combination of qualitative video analysis and temporal learning analytics, we also present preliminary data from a pilot study that illustrates some possibilities afforded by this type of analytical tool. We expect that our tool can help researchers to better understand learning in the context of data visualization activities with block-based programming languages by shedding light on processes that are usually invisible and, thus, better support students in their diverse learning pathways.

Coordinating modeling and real-world data is central to building scientific theories. This paper examines how a complementary focus on modeling and data contributed to 8th grade students’ learning of mechanisms underlying wildfire smoke spread in MoDa, a web-based environment that integrates computational modeling side-by-side with real-world data for comparison and validation. Epistemic network analysis of student responses in pre-post tests revealed a shift from primarily macro-level explanations to explanations that integrated macro and micro-level explanations of the phenomenon. Video data analysis revealed three design elements that contributed to student learning: Naming of the blocks, match between data and model visualization, and collective reflections on models. We reflect on implications for the design of environments that integrate computational modeling with real-world data analysis.

Designing computer models can be a valuable way for students to refine their understandings of scientific phenomena while creating and testing their hypotheses. Drawing on these ideas, we designed nine domain-specific blocks related to diffusion as a Scratch extension, which we called Diffusion Modeling Scratch Extension. In this paper, we describe the pedagogical principles that guided the design of the blocks and draw on the data from a pilot study with seven students to investigate how our design decisions impacted students' learning experiences.

Computational thinking (CT) is necessary for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) literacy, but it can be difficult for many students to develop and it is challenging to integrate into science curricula. Here, we present a five-session curriculum where sixth-grade students programmed a Liquid Handling Robot (LHR) to conduct a science experiment while engaging in CT. We used a mixed-methods approach to assess how the curricular integration of robotics and science experimentation advances students’ CT skills and perceptions of computation in science. We identified growth in CT skills, specifically regarding Algorithmic Thinking. Students identified as key advantages of this approach the increased precision in experimental procedures, time-efficiency, and easier debugging. This course provides a proof of concept curriculum on how the implications for teaching and learning of CT can be assessed, and how CT and robotics can be brought to science classrooms, especially for chemistry and biology.

The 32 chapters of the 2019 Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research synthesize the existing research in computing education and propose new directions for future research. An author from each chapter will summarize their chapter with auto-advancing slides. Attendees will be introduced to the breadth of content in the new handbook and can identify chapters of interest. This fits uniquely as a special session, and will likely be informative, inspiring, and overwhelming.

Computer science is poised to become a core discipline in K12 education, however there are unresolved tensions between the definitions and purposes of computer science and public education. This study's goal is to explore how logistical and conceptual challenges emerge while designing a comprehensive K12 computer science program in a public school district. While the policy infrastructure for K12 computer science education is rapidly developing, few districts have yet implemented computer science as a core discipline in their K12 programs and very little research has explored the challenges involved in putting ideas into practice. This study reports on a committee designing a comprehensive K12 computer science education program at a small public school district in California. Through a grounded-theory qualitative interpretation of committee-member interviews and board meeting transcripts, we surfaced three themes which were the primary points of tension: how computer science is defined, how it ought to be taught, and what process ought to be used to answer these questions. Grounding these tensions in the academic discourse on K12 computer science education, this study offers recommendations to other districts designing comprehensive computer science education and suggests future directions of computer science education research that will be most useful to stakeholders of these processes.

As the importance of computational devices grows in today's technology-driven society, tools for teaching computational literacy are becoming more necessary. While microcontrollers have been shown to be an effective way to develop computational literacy in young learners, microcontrollers' accessibility is limited due to their cost. We present domino, a mobile platform that turns the phone into a microcontroller using its inbuilt sensors and actuators. Learners can create their own cause-and-effect apps with the phone's sensors as inputs and existing applications as outputs. In this paper, we reflect on the design aspects of domino that enable learners to use their phones to problem-solve in everyday life, as well as the app's implications for future work in the area of computational literacy.

Transitioning students from arithmetic to algebraic thinking is a primary challenge in mathematics education. Visual patterns and physical manipulatives can be helpful, but students often struggle to see the connections between different representations. Manipul8 combines visual patterns with physical manipulatives and provides digital scaffolding to help students develop representational fluency. Using a tabletop tangible user interface, students manipulate equation frames with cutouts for quadratic, linear, and constant terms. Tangible, interchangeable terms are represented either traditionally or as quantities of shapes. The projected digital image provides real-time feedback showing algebraic growth patterns generated from the user-chosen equation structure and terms. Color provides scaffolding for noticing the connections between the equation's terms and visual-pattern-based representations.

Research suggests that children with better social-emotional skills have greater academic success; but most schools still do not have a set social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum. 'Inside Out' is a three-part online tool for middle school classrooms that makes social-emotional learning accessible and supports teachers to track emotions and facilitate SEL activities. Students can evaluate how they experience and express emotion, understand others' emotional states and address these emotions through guided SEL activities in the classroom. Our initial demonstration received positive feedback, and we observed high engagement from children and teachers.

Learning to program is difficult for most children. Most of the interfaces designed to help children experience and understand programming are based on imperative programming. However, early exposure to functional programming have been found to have many benefits over imperative programming. We describe a tangible interface, Testudinata, that helps to make a fundamental concept of functional programming - function composition - more approachable to younger learners in elementary and middle school. Using Testudinata, learners can design, implement, and test various compositions of pre-made functions on a tangible user interface (TUI), while observing and comparing results on a graphical user interface (GUI). Through the combination of a TUI and GUI, the learners will be able to gain basic understanding of of function composition in a fun and engaging way.

High school students often struggle to find the motivation to learn to program. Music can be a powerful motivator for these students, but existing tools that combine music production with programming often fail to meaningfully engage students with core computer science concepts. Sonification Blocks was created to shift the focus back toward big ideas in programming. Sonification Blocks is a programming language for data sonification, the process of creating audio algorithms and controlling them with streams of data. Its implementation as a block-based language with clear, interactive data visualizers allows high-school-aged learners to develop computational literacy. Furthermore, the act of manipulating sound parameters with data streams that are controlled through body motion may help connect learners with powerful ideas in programming and data science.

Sociocultural theories of learning regard oral storytelling as a fundamental step towards literacy development. Collaborative play can lead to richer and sustained stories among children of young age. We describe an interactive learning environment called The Conference of the Birds (CoB). By allowing two users to interact with the interface at the same time, the CoB allows children separated by physical or cultural distances to collaborate by creating narratives together. Through the CoB, children connect, cooperate and create joint stories, fostering the development of literacy, as well as collaboration and authorship skills. In this paper we describe the principles, theories and design decisions that supported the creation of the CoB, and briefly discuss how kids can collaboratively create stories in a digital environment.

Amid today's explosion of cheap and abundant tools for Physical Computing, there is a serious neglect of design for learnability. This issue is especially important when Physical Computing is not used mainly to teach engineering skills but to foster creativity and innovation. This empirical study presents a design case study that took place while we were trying to figure out how to best integrate miniature computers like the Raspberry Pi into our "Programmable Brick" platform called the GoGo Board. Is it possible to make the new and complex functionalities, such as face detection and social media integration, learnable by beginners? The design choices show case the idea of selective exposure. This paper presents how our system works and we present a case study with secondary and high school students.

Haptic force feedback systems are unique in their ability to dynamically render physical representations. Although haptic devices have shown promise for supporting learning, prior work mainly describes results of haptic-supported learning without identifying underlying learning mechanisms. To this end, we designed a haptic-supported learning environment and analyzed four students who used it to make connections between two different mathematical representations of sine and cosine: the unit circle, and their graph on the Cartesian plane. We highlight moments where students made connections between the representations, and identify how the haptic feedback supported these moments of insight. We use this evidence in support of a proposed theoretical and design framework for educational haptics. This framework captures four types of haptic representations, and focuses on one -- the haptic bridge -- that effectively scaffolds sense-making with multiple representations.

Understanding the relationship between human behavior and environmental impact is an important challenge for young learners. Children can benefit from learning experiences that enable them to actively consider and negotiate the complex tradeoffs that inform global issues. To address this challenge, we propose Cool Cities: a tangible user interface (TUI) game in which children aged 7-9 design environmentally friendly cities around different social and financial objectives. Learners place game pieces on the TUI to see their environmental and financial impact, which is reflected through a responsive display for learners to evaluate their decisions in real-time. We hope that by designing a constructivist learning experience in which learners practice the complex modeling and critical thinking needed for large-scale urban planning projects, they can better relate concepts of global warming to their lived experiences and discover powerful ideas for improving the world we live in

We propose structural parallels between textual literacy and computational literacy, and explore interactive fiction as a medium at their intersection. We designed and built a web application allowing students to read and write interactive fiction and a curriculum weaving the two literacies together. A study evaluating the curriculum found modest adoption of literacy practices from each domain. Our qualitative observations suggest a mechanism for how each literacy can support the other: incorporating computation into English/Language Arts makes it possible for students to model linguistic processes which are otherwise ephemeral. In the other direction, situating Computer Science concepts in students' identities and experiences can make them personally meaningful and address inequities in STEM education. A third study, underway, will quantify the extent to which one literacy supports growth in the other.

National guidelines advocate for a more sophisticated STEM education that integrates complex and authentic scientific practices, e.g., experimentation, data collection, data analysis, and modeling. How to achieve that is currently unclear for both presential and distance education. We recently developed a scalable cloud lab that enables many online users to perform phototaxis experiment with real, living Euglena cells (opposed to just simulations). Here we iteratively designed and deployed an open course on the edX platform including suitable user interfaces that facilitates inquiry-based learning on this cloud lab: Online students (>300) run real experiments (>2,300), performed data analysis, explored models, and even formulated and experimentally tested their own hypotheses. Platform and course content are now suited for global adaptation in formal K-16 education. We will demo our cloud lab at the conference.

More and more schools are implementing "maker" spaces and using digital technology to support students' interest and learning in STEM fields. Little is known about schools' interactions with those type spaces and their impact in formal assessment. We describe the implementation of a FabLab@School (FL@S) and the interaction of teachers' and school administration with it in Rubi, Spain. Additionally, we do a preliminary analysis on teachers' interviews and on the grade effect the FL@S might have had on students. FL@S was implemented at the beginning of the second trimester of the school year, we found a positive significant effect on grade change from the first trimester to the third trimester and a change on teachers' expectations on students' performance.

This paper introduces a new environment for programming robots and physical computing devices---the Spatial Computing Platform (SCP)---and compares it to a text-based programming environment (the Cricket Logo). The SCP simplifies the process of constructing conditional statements that link the robot's inputs and outputs together. It does this by providing the user with a virtual canvas that they can draw rectangles on using the mouse. Each rectangle represents a range of sensor values, and specific outputs can be assigned to each rectangle. When the sensor values enter into the specified range, the outputs will turn on. We designed a study with 60 youth to compare this environment to Cricket Logo, a well-known variant of Logo designed to control robotic devices. We found that participants using the spatial computing platform were able to build programs of higher complexity and make more changes to their programs over the course of an hour-long workshop.

Interacting with biological systems via experiments is important for academia, industry, and education, but access barriers exist due to training, costs, safety, logistics, and spatial separation. High-throughput equipment combined with web streaming could enable interactive biology experiments online, but no such platform currently exists. We present a cloud experimentation architecture (paralleling cloud computation), which is optimized for a class of domain-specific equipments (biotic processing units - BPU) to share and execute many experiments in parallel remotely and interactively at all time. We implemented an instance of this architecture that enables chemotactic experiments with a slime mold Physarum Polycephelum. A user study in the blended teaching and research setting of a graduate-level biophysics class demonstrated that this platform lowers the access barrier for non-biologists, enables discovery, and facilitates learning analytics. This architecture is flexible for integration with various biological specimens and equipments to facilitate scalable interactive online education, collaborations, research, and citizen science.

We developed Trap it!, a human-biology interaction (HBI) medium encompassing a touchscreen interface, microscopy, and light projection. Users can interact with living cells by drawing on a touchscreen displaying the microscope view of the cells. These drawings are projected onto the microscopy field as light patterns, prompting observable movement in phototactic responses. The system design enables stable and robust HBI and a wide variety of programmed activities (art, games, and experiments). We investigated its affordances as an exhibit in a science museum in both facilitated and unfacilitated contexts. Overall, it had a low barrier of entry and fostered rich communication among visitors. Visitors were particularly excited upon realizing that the interaction involved real organisms, an understanding that was facilitated by the eyepiece on the physical system. With the results from user study, we provide our observations, insights and guidelines for designing HBI as a permanent museum exhibit.

Multimodal analysis has long been an integral part of studying learning. Historically multimodal analyses of learning have been extremely laborious and time intensive. However, researchers have recently been exploring ways to use multimodal computational analysis in the service of studying how people learn in complex learning environments. In an effort to advance this research agenda, we present a comparative analysis of four different data segmentation techniques. In particular, we propose affect- and pose-based data segmentation, as alternatives to human-based segmentation, and fixed-window segmentation. In a study of ten dyads working on an open-ended engineering design task, we find that affect- and pose-based segmentation are more effective, than traditional approaches, for drawing correlations between learning-relevant constructs, and multimodal behaviors. We also find that pose-based segmentation outperforms the two more traditional segmentation strategies for predicting student success on the hands-on task. In this paper we discuss the algorithms used, our results, and the implications that this work may have in non-education-related contexts.

Multimodal analysis has had demonstrated effectiveness in studying and modeling several human-human and human-computer interactions. In this paper, we explore the role of multimodal analysis in the service of studying complex learning environments. We compare uni-modal and multimodal; manual and semi-automated methods for examining how students learn in a hands-on, engineering design context. Specifically, we compare human annotations, speech, gesture and electro-dermal activation data from a study (N=20) where student participating in two different experimental conditions. The experimental conditions have already been shown to be associated with differences in learning gains and design quality. Hence, one objective of this paper is to identify the behavioral practices that differed between the two experimental conditions, as this may help us better understand how the learning interventions work. An additional objective is to provide examples of how to conduct learning analytics research in complex environments and compare how the same algorithm, when used with different forms of data can provide complementary results.

Cognitive disequilibrium has received significant attention for its role in fostering student learning in intelligent tutoring systems and in complex learning environments. In this paper, we both add to and extend this discussion by analyzing the emergence of four affective states associated with disequilibrium: joy, surprise, neutrality and confusion; in a collaborative hands-on, engineering design task. Specifically, we conduct a comparison between two learning strategies to make salient how the strategies are associated with different affective states. This comparison is grounded in the construction of a probabilistic model of student affective state as defined by the frequency of each state, and the rate of transition between affective states. Through this comparison we confirm prior research that highlights the importance of confusion as a marker of knowledge construction, but put to question the notion that surprise is a significant mediator of cognitive disequilibrium. Overall, we show how modeling learner affect is useful for understanding and improving learning in complex, hands-on learning environments.

Tangible prototyping enables designers to rapidly iterate design concepts, gather feedback, and learn quickly from mistakes. However, when a higher level of functionality is needed with sensors, novices struggle with technical implementation. Existing novice electronics toolkits, such as Arduino, have lowered the threshold to electronic experimentation, but still require manual creation of circuits and software programming ability. We present Bloctopus, a modular electronic prototyping toolkit that allows direct electrical interfacing over USB, and physical interfacing with LEGO blocks. We present the stand-alone sensor model, where each module can directly interface with either a computer or microcontroller, using musical message passing over MIDI. We show that the modules can be programmed with a simplified data flow model in a web-based visual programming interface. Finally, we present a prototyping case study that demonstrates the expressivity of devices that can be created using LEGO pieces, combined with functional electronic modules.

The project of universal, highquality education is a new human endeavor. Not many decades ago, the mainstream view was that only a small elite required advanced education, and vocational training would suffice for everyone else. The need to educate all students in very different disciplinesmany of them quite complex and advancedis generating demands that the extant educational system cannot meet. Technology has been touted as one answer to these new demands, but has failed so far to escape a centuryold cycle of inflated expectations. Our mission as designers of interactive technologies and environments is crucial to move out of this cycle, but it will require our community to make a convincing argument that technologies in education are not simply delivery media, but artifacts that extend human cognition in multiple ways. The adaptivity of computational media enables an acknowledgement of epistemological diversity which enables students to concretize their ideas and projects with motivation and engagement. Thus, the goal of providing rich educational experiences for all students will depend upon our ability to design devices, environments, and activities that are accepting of children's multiple epistemological resources and heuristics.

The last session at this year's conference is an interactive panel discussion facilitated by Prof. Mitch Resnick from MIT Media Lab. The closing panel consists of leading university and industry researchers with strong opinions about digital technology and its relation to children and childhood. The topic for this session is the general question for this year's conference: "How can interaction with digital creative tools support child development?" The panel reflects on theoretical frameworks and challenges for the design of new digital technologies for a new generation of children, discussing new trajectories to support children's learning, wellbeing, and sensemaking. Panelists draw upon ideas from the papers, demos, tutorials, and keynotes presented at the IDC 2014 conference. IDC delegates have the opportunity to join the conversation, posing their own questions and comments. The closing panel concludes IDC 2014 by sharing ideas on how we can build tomorrow's technology together.

Microcontroller-based toolkits and physical computing devices have been used in educational settings for many years for robotics, environmental sensing, scientific experimentation, and interactive art. Based on a historical analysis of the development of these devices, this study examines the design principles underlying the several available platforms for physical computing and presents a framework to analyze various platforms and their use in education. Given the now widespread use of these devices among children and their long history in the field, a historical review and analysis of this technology would be useful for interaction designers.

In this paper, we introduce the origins and applications of digital fabrication and "making" in education, and discuss how they can be implemented, researched, and developed in schools. Our discussion is based on several papers and posters that we summarize into three categories: research, technology development, and experiences in formal and informal education.

Frameworks that create synergies across disciplines provide a powerful means for learning by relating concepts from the different fields that are usually difficult to grasp individually. We discuss the design of the BeatTable, a microworld that uses the relation between mathematics and music to engage learners in using ratios and proportions to create rhythms and learn about musical composition. The BeatTable is a physical table with a digital environment that can be controlled by tangible instruments, and through immediate auditory and visual feedback makes salient the relationships between math and music. With a low-floor, high-ceiling design philosophy, BeatTable provides learners the opportunity to build on their conceptions about music and to practice and hone their use of ratios and proportions. We present what our design choices, the technology used, and a description of initial user feedback.

We present and evaluate the design of LightUp, an augmented, learning platform for electronics. LightUp helps children explore engineering and electronics by foregrounding fundamental concepts and backgrounding the extraneous intricacies of circuit construction. LightUp consists of electronic components (e.g. wire, bulb, motor, microcontroller) mounted on blocks that connect to each other magnetically to form circuits. In addition, LightUp provides an "informational lens" through a mobile app that recognizes the components in a photographed circuit and augments the image with visualizations of otherwise invisible circuit behavior. Our study findings demonstrate the experiential learning made possible by augmenting an intuitive circuit-building platform with information that allows children to learn skills that will help them develop engineering skills and agency.

Programming can be a challenging activity for young children. While there are numerous programming environments for children, relatively few of these environments take advantage of tangible interfaces. Research suggests that using tangible tools, such as physical blocks, can engage students to explore introductory programming concepts more easily than equivalent virtual programming environments. Dr. Wagon is a tangible programming toy that includes a series of programming blocks and a wagon-shaped robot. The programming blocks include basic functions ("move"), conditions ("if" statements), and loops ("repeat"). These blocks can be connected in various ways to control the behavior of the wagon. In this paper, we discuss our various design choices while creating Dr. Wagon, and shed light on the technical, cognitive, and usability details of the project.

In this paper we will examine students' meta-modeling knowledge in the context of their participation in a Bifocal Modeling activity. Bifocal Modeling is an inquiry-based approach for science learning, which incorporates both physical experimentation and virtual modeling. The current study combines three separate case studies of students participating in different implementation modes of the Bifocal Modeling process. Different implementation methods require different modeling practices, and we will examine the consequences of these practices for students' meta-modeling knowledge. The concern of our investigation will be the ways that students critically evaluate scientific models and their understanding of the limitations of those models. Data suggest that model construction (as opposed to simple interaction) lead to deeper meta-modeling knowledge.

ACM 978-1-4503-1918-8/13/06. This paper describes a new paradigm as well as a new platform which have been developed to demonstrate new robotics and physical computing programming models that are now possible as a result of miniature single-board computers. Here we investigate new design opportunities that bring with them the ability to embed an entire computer, such as the Raspberry Pi, within an interactive project. We call our new platform the "embedded computer" model, and we utilize the proposed Pi-Topping framework to demonstrate several cases in which the platform has already been employed. The new platform consists of a hardware add-on for the Raspberry Pi and, to drive and program the platform, a modified version of the Scratch programming environment. Smartphones are used as a portable screen that offers a touch sensitive input capacity. Case studies that demonstrate the new design possibilities are then described.

New high-frequency data collection technologies and machine learning analysis techniques could offer new insights into learning, especially in tasks in which students have ample space to generate unique, personalized artifacts, such as a computer program, a robot, or a solution to an engineering challenge. To date most of the work on learning analytics and educational data mining has focused on online courses or cognitive tutors, in which the tasks are more structured and the entirety of interaction happens in front of a computer. In this paper, I argue that multimodal learning analytics could offer new insights into students' learning trajectories, and present several examples of this work and its educational application.

In this paper, we describe multimodal learning analytics techniques for understanding and identifying expertise as students engage in a hands-on building activity. Our techniques leverage process-oriented data, and demonstrate how this temporal data can be used to study student learning. The proposed techniques introduce useful insights in how to segment and analyze gesture- and action-based generally, and may also be useful for other sources of process rich data. Using this approach we uncover new ideas about how experts engage in building activities. Finally, a primary objective of this work is to motivate additional research and development in the area of authentic, automated, process-oriented assessments.

This workshop, intended for CS educators from middle school through undergrad, will introduce participants to NetLogo. NetLogo is an easy-to-learn multi-agent language and integrated modeling environment in widespread use in classrooms (and research labs) globally. This hands-on tutorial will highlight computational modeling in the natural and social sciences, tie in core computer science concepts, and discuss how to promote student thinking about decentralized systems. The workshop will draw on the presenters' own experiences teaching courses on computational science, computational art, theory of computation, and educational outreach events. Participants will learn first-hand how NetLogo can enrich a variety of computing courses. NetLogo runs on Mac/Linux/Windows. Laptop required.

In this paper, we describe a set of user studies within the Bifocal Modeling (BM) framework. BM juxtaposes physical and computer models using sensor-based and computer modeling technologies, highlighting the discrepancies between ideal and real systems. When creating bifocal models, students build both a physical model with sensors of a given scientific phenomenon, and a computer model of the same phenomenon, connecting the two in real time with a special hardware interface. In this paper, we describe four formats for using BM in the classroom, as well as its affordances and characteristics.

Computer modeling, and in particular agent-based modeling, has been successfully used in many scientific fields, transforming scientists' practice. Educational researchers have come to realize its potential for learning, and studies have suggested that students are able to understand concepts above their expected grade level after interacting with curricula that employ modeling and simulation. However, most simulations are 'on-screen', without connection to the physical world. Therefore, real-time model validation is challenging with extant modeling platforms. I have designed a technological and pedagogical framework to enable students to connect computer models and sensors in real time, as to validate, compare, and refine their models using real-world data. In this paper, I will focus on both technical and pedagogical aspects, describing pilot studies that suggest a real-to-virtual reciprocity which catalyzes further inquiry toward deeper understanding of scientific phenomena.

Despite the potential wealth of educational indicators expressed in a student's approach to homework assignments, how students arrive at their final solution is largely overlooked in university courses. In this paper we present a methodology which uses machine learning techniques to autonomously create a graphical model of how students in an introductory programming course progress through a homework assignment. We subsequently show that this model is predictive of which students will struggle with material presented later in the class.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) have received a huge push in education during the past few years. However, current methods to teach STEM concepts often lack the ability to allow students creative and open-ended expression. While some toys on the market try to address these issues, they often fail to fulfill learning affordances to their full potential. Our system, MagneTracks, is a multi-component educational toolkit that permits users to engage in creative, exploratory, and open-ended learning of Newtonian physics. MagneTracks consists of dynamic, tangible, magnetic tracks that attach to a vertical whiteboard, a computer-based tracking program integrated into the Netlogo platform, and curriculum challenge activity cards. MagneTracks is specifically focused on teaching physics concepts but can be used to educate in other STEM fields. Initial user observation has shown positive learning outcomes and high engagement.

This paper introduces Process Pad, an interactive, low-cost multi-touch tabletop platform designed to capture students' thought process and facilitate their explanations. Process Pad is designed to help students improve their thinking skills and meta-cognition in various subjects. The system is intended to dynamically externalize how a student arrives at the final answer. Process Pad enables the documentation of students' think-aloud narratives that would otherwise be tacit. Our focus is on identifying and understanding key themes in creating opportunities for students to externalize and represent their thought process using multimodal data. From our user observations, we gleaned four design perspectives as essential criteria based upon which we form our design decisions: flexibility, tangibility, collaboration and affordability. Our initial results show that for many users explaining their reasoning or problem-solving procedure is a challenging activity in itself, and for learners to be able to deepen their understanding by narrating or re-enacting a process there would be many intervening steps. To address these challenges we designed scaffolding activities, which made use of the system's affordances to improve students' explanation skills.

LightUp is a constructionist platform to teach novices about electronics, and also a low-cost rapid-prototyping platform for more advanced users. The LightUp kit contains many basic electronic components attached to magnetic building blocks and a connection base. Various project-based educational materials are also included. Initially designed as an interactive and transparent learning tool, the concept behind LightUp is to provide a "low threshold, high ceiling" learning experience for self-motivated individuals who want to better understand the complex electronics inside the devices they rely on every day. In addition, LightUp also serves as a user friendly, low-cost prototyping tool for people who do not have a strong engineering background but still want to build electronic circuits. This paper gives an overview of the LightUp platform, the construction process and future developments and implementations.

Microcontroller-based or physical computing devices have been used in educational settings for many years for robotics, environmental sensing, scientific experimentation, and interactive art. In this paper, we discuss design principles underlying the several available platforms for physical computing, based on a historical analysis of the development of these devices, and data from workshops conducted with students. We evaluate two of the main frameworks for physical computing ("Cricket" model and "Breakout" model), discuss affordances of each platform, and propose a new software and hardware design for microcontroller - based platforms.

This one-day workshop will bring together instructors who teach Interaction Design & Children at a university level from a wide spectrum of disciplines and research communities (HCI, Engineering, Design, education, Psychology and Communications). Our goal is to explore the various current ways IDC is taught, and to discuss and develop a core syllabus of literature and teaching activities for the benefit of the IDC community. Topics discussed will include: various disciplines that house IDC and their effect and needs, best practices for IDC teaching methods, and core literature (both disciplinary and multidisciplinary).

In this paper, we present and evaluate the design and learning affordances of Mechanix, an interactive display for children to create, record, view, and test systems of tangible simple machine components. By documenting children's interactions, Mechanix provides opportunities for children to learn from user-generated examples and to reflect on their own designs. Through a series of user studies with children, we examine the system's capabilities for documenting tangible design work, facilitating social learning and collaboration, and providing distinct entry points that appeal to a broad range of learners. Our results illustrate the potential of incorporating automated documentation with tangible toolkits to support learning about physics and engineering systems design.

In this paper, we present an application framework for enabling education practitioners and researchers to develop interactive, multi-modal applications. These applications can be designed using typical HTML programming, and will enable a larger audience to make applications that incorporate speech recognition, gesture recognition and engagement detection. The application framework uses open-source software and inexpensive hardware that supports both multi-touch and multi-user capabilities.

There is great interest in assessing student learning in unscripted, open-ended environments, but students' work can evolve in ways that are too subtle or too complex to be detected by the human eye. In this paper, I describe an automated technique to assess, analyze and visualize students learning computer programming. I logged hundreds of snapshots of students' code during a programming assignment, and I employ different quantitative techniques to extract students' behaviors and categorize them in terms of programming experience. First I review the literature on educational data mining, learning analytics, computer vision applied to assessment, and emotion detection, discuss the relevance of the work, and describe one case study with a group undergraduate engineering students

No abstract available.

Mechanix is a low-cost, interactive system for children to design and explore mechanical systems using computer-vision tracked, magnetic components. It employs a semi-transparent magnetic surface that supports the placement and tracking of magnetic simple machine pieces and acts as a projection screen. A back-mounted webcam captures the position of the pieces using visual tags, while a projector depicts virtual components in user-generated challenges and solutions. Designed as a museum exhibit and grounded in constructionist learning theory, Mechanix combines a virtual library of user-generated content with a tangible interface to enable asynchronous and synchronous interactions.

"Programmable bricks" are microcontroller-based devices that can be used in various educational projects, such as robotic prototypes, environmental sensing, and interactive art. They have been used in educational settings for many years, but particularly in developing countries their penetration has been limited due either to unavailability or prohibitive cost. In this paper, we discuss recent work on the GoGo Board, an open-source, extensible, low-cost programmable brick mainly designed for developing countries. We discuss the board's main design principles, which were based on our extensive fieldwork, as well as implication for learning activities, the use of low-cost materials, and local construction of boards. We use data and observations from studies in several countries such as Brazil, Mexico, and Thailand.

A considerable body of research has demonstrated the benefits of modeling a variety of scientific phenomena via the multi-agent approach and its vast potential in education. However, most multi-agent simulations are purely virtual, with no connection to the physical world. To address this issue, we designed a platform to enable students to seamlessly link computer models and sensors, in real time. The platform is designed for learners to validate, refine, and debug their computer models using real-world data, in a Constructionist fashion. Also, the platform broadens the types of possible scientific explorations and makes available a low-cost version of apparatus only available in advanced research laboratories. We will focus on technical and educational aspects of this development, describing preliminary pilot studies in which we analyze projects built by students.

Multi-agent modeling has been successfully used in several scientific fields, oftentimes transforming scientists' practice and mindsets. Educational researchers have also realized the potential of this modeling approach for learning. Studies have suggested that students are able to understand concepts above their expected grade level after interacting with curricula developed using multi-agent simulation. However, most multi-agent models are exclusively 'on-screen', without connection to the physical world. Real-time model validation and real-world sensing are very challenging to accomplish with extant modeling platforms. As an attempt to address this issue, we designed a technological platform to enable students to seamlessly connect multi-agent models and electronic sensors, in real time. The platform is designed for learners to validate, refine, and debug their computer models using real-world data. This paper focuses on the technical and pedagogical aspects of this project, describing pilot studies which suggest a real-to-virtual reciprocity that catalyzes further inquiry toward deeper understanding

We describe a project, The City that We Want, which enabled the constructionist use of technology within a generative theme to enable students to design and construct their ideas about how to improve life in their communities. We used a variety of computational technologies combined with crafts and scrap materials. The goal was for children to learn in a more contextualized manner important ideas in the disciplines through their projects. We designed the overall project itself as an object to think with in order to facilitate a broader reform in the schools. The willing participation, inspired projects, and commitment and development of the teachers demonstrated significant value.