Engaging Young Women in Computer Science Through a Novel Programming Experience

• In Event: Technology Learning for All: Equity, Access, and Diversity Research

Abstract

This paper presents an overview and summary of findings from an investigation of female high school students as they are introduced to programming in a mobile, social programming environment. Using back end data collected from the programming environment, we looked at meaningful categories of code to understand the student’s early programming experiences. Results suggest that students learn to program quickly, moving from low to high code block usage, then iterating and improving their code with medium levels of code elements. There is a “balance” in their use of different code blocks with equal amounts of programming elements. By making programming fun and engaging, we hope to increase interest in computer science and change beliefs about individual ability to be programmers.

Authors

• Xavier Velasquez, Utah State University

• Taylor Martin, National Science Foundation

• Nicole Forsgren Velasquez, Utah State University

• Carmen Petrick Smith, University of Vermont

• Matthew W. Berland, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Tom Benton, The University of Texas - Austin

• Philip Janisiewicz, The University of Texas - Austin