Investigating Students' Identity in Their Open-Ended "About Me" Programming Projects

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session One
  In Roundtable Session: Supporting Diverse Learners in Computing and Engineering Education (Table 9)

Abstract

Researchers and practitioners have worked to bring computer science to all students. However, CS is still an inequitable field. When developing curricula, we must account for the importance of connecting the lives and identities of historically marginalized students with the curricular content. We examine the knowledge and experiences intermediate elementary (8-10 years) students drew upon to implement an open-ended programming assignment about themselves. We coded a total of 49 projects randomly selected from a larger dataset with a modified Spheres of Influence framework to investigate what aspects of their lives students reference. Early results indicate that the majority of projects included the students’ Identity. Many projects include the student’s Hobbies/Leisure, Interests, Peers. About half included references to Home/ Family.

Authors

• Jennifer Tsan
  Presenting Author

• Donna Eatinger, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Santiago Ojeda-Ramirez, University of California - Irvine
  Presenting Author

• Dana Saito-Stehberger, University of California - Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sharin R. Jacob, University of California - Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mark Warschauer, University of California - Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Diana Franklin, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author