There are over 1,000 community colleges (CC) in the U.S.; they enroll more than 13 million students--nearly half of all undergraduates-- and over half of CC students are non-white (American Association of Community Colleges). However, efforts to broaden participation in computing have been directed disproportionately to 4-year institutions. The focus of this panel is on research and strategies for increasing the retention of students from groups that are underrepresented in computing--female, Latinx, and African American students. It includes experts from across the US--from CC's and a research organization. The panelists will describe curriculum and programs that are designed to support students, and include the perspectives of students on what helps and hinders them from persisting. The intended audience for this panel is researchers, educators, and administrators from both community colleges and 4-year institutions.

This article builds on prior work that aims to measure computational learning (CL) during middle school. Since game computational sophistication (GCS) has been used as a proxy for a student’s engagement in CL we build on their model to more completely describe the relationship between different types of building blocks of computer games and GCS. In doing so, we present a single quantitative measurement for GCS. Our model, called GCS 2.0 , has face validity for 39 games, each programmed by a pair of middle school children. We choose four of these games, two with high GCS and two with low GCS, and discuss the computational building blocks found in each game. We do this to help the reader better understand our measurement of GCS and its relationship to CL.

It is widely believed that there are educational benefits to making computer games, but there is no systematic review of research on this topic. This article describes a meta-synthesis of research on children designing and programming computer games that investigates the extent to which there is evidence of benefits for computer science learning and motivation. Over 400 articles were identified, and 68 articles met the inclusion criteria. A systematic analysis and synthesis across studies showed some evidence that computer game design and programming can lead to changes in programming knowledge, problem solving, and computer science attitudes and confidence. However, most of the evidence described engagement in computing-related practices and did not measure learning. The findings were mostly positive, although several studies noted more negative attitudes toward programming after making games. The results were similar across different pedagogical approaches, although social interaction may provide unique opportunities for computer science learning. The synthesis resulted in a list of design elements for studying computer game design and programming activities; these can be used to increase the availability of evidence about learning. The article concludes with the identification of gaps in the research and suggestions for additional research.

Pair programming is considered a best practice since it has been shown to reduce the gender gap and increases confidence for university students in introductory computer programming courses. However, little is known about what it looks like in middle school. This study was designed to provide detailed descriptions of what pair programming looks like, how it varies across demographic groups, and how it changes over time. The data presented in this poster is from a subset of a larger study (81 middle school students) which consists of 66 (28 girls; 38 boys) students (55% Latino/a; 23% White) who worked in 33 same-gender pairs (42% female) to design and program their own video game. Data include video and audio recordings, screen capture files and logging files. The findings suggest that students are spending log periods of time not interacting, and those with more experience have a third person present more often while programming. When pairs are interacting specifically about their game the girls spend more time engaging constructively around ideas and solutions in comparison to boys. The results will be used to inform strategies to support effective pair programming in middle school, and to inform future studies.

Latino/a youth are interested in computer science, but studies show they have less access to computers and role models, and lower confidence to pursue computer science activities than their peers in the US. Little is known about how to create learning environments outside of school that attract and retain Latino/a youth who come with a range of computer science interest, preparation, and resources. This poster will describe how one community technology center in a low income rural community provides opportunities and supports for students to pursue technical education and work experiences, and the role it plays in creating computer science (CS) pathways. Survey data from 97 high school students were used to describe variations in students' motivation to participate at the center, how those motivations change over time, and the factors that contribute to students entering a CS pathway. Interviews with 20 students were used to identify the different ways that students entered a CS pathway, including the influence of natural mentors, relationships with peers, and digital badges, as well as the factors that prevent them from participating in computational activities. The data were used to generate case studies that provide an in-depth look at the factors that promote or undermine CS pathways over time. The findings have implications for designing learning ecologies that support high school students from under resourced communities to enter and stay on computer science pathways.

This article reports the results of a study of the relationship of computer game programming to computational learning (CL). The results contribute to the growing body of knowledge about how to define and measure CL among children by proposing a new concept, Game Computational Sophistication (GCS). We analyzed 231 games programmed by 325 11 and 12 year olds with a range of prior computer experience who attended a voluntary technology class during or after school. Findings suggest that students’ games exhibited a range of GCS: programs composed of sequences of simple programming constructs; programs composed of programming constructs, some of which are used to implement higher-order patterns; and programs composed of game mechanics built from combinations of patterns “glued” together with simple programming constructs. We use case studies of students’ games to illustrate how variation in the use and integration of programming constructs, patterns, and game mechanics can be used to demonstrate evidence of CL. The study contributes to an understanding of what CL looks like in middle school, how to assess it, and how game-programming activities might promote CL.

Research shows the benefits of pair programming for retention and performance in computing, but little is known about how relationship dynamics influence outcomes. We describe results from our study of middle school students programming games using Alice and pair programming. From our analysis using statistical procedures that take into account the interdependence of pair data, we found evidence for partner influence moderated by the role of confidence over improvements in Alice programming knowledge in friend partnerships but not non-friend partnerships. We discuss implications for researchers and educators.

Programming environments that incorporate drag-and-drop methods and many pre-defined objects and operations are being widely used in K-12 settings. But can middle school students learn complex computer science concepts by using these programming environments when computer science is not the focus of the course? In this paper, we describe a semester-long game-programming course where 325 middle school students used Alice. We report on our analysis of 231 final games where we measured the frequency of successful execution of programming constructs. Our results show that many games exhibit successful uses of high level computer science concepts such as student-created abstractions, concurrent execution, and event handlers.We discuss the implications of these results for designing effective game programming courses for young students.

Computational thinking (CT) has been described as an essential capacity to prepare students for computer science, as well as to be productive members of society. But efforts to engage K-12 students in CT are hampered by a lack of definition and assessment tools. In this paper, we describe the first results of a newly created performance assessment tool for measuring CT in middle school. We briefly describe the context for the performance assessment (game-programming courses), the aspects of CT that are measured, the results, and the factors that are associated with performance. We see the development of assessment tools as a critical step in efforts to bring CT to K-12, and to strengthen the use of game programming in middle school. We discuss problems and implications of our results.