Students' Perceived Expectancy, Value, and Cost of Computer Science After Participation in a GIS-Infused Unit

• In Event: Middle and High School Learners in Computing and Engineering Education

Abstract

Students’ engagement with geographic information systems (GIS) can improve spatial skills, which are predictors of STEM success (Jant et al., 2019). We used a survey motivated by Eccles’s (2009) expectancy-value-cost framework to assess students’ perceptions of their computer science (CS) courses before and after participation in a GIS unit. The unit provided opportunities to apply GIS to inquiry-based projects focused on solving problems in their own communities. Across four teachers, 158 students participated in the GIS unit and completed the survey. We found that students’ reports of classroom equity predicted their expectancy for success in CS and their desire to take additional CS courses or major in CS. Future analyses will examine students’ spatial problem-solving and understanding of GIS principles.

Authors

• Lauren Christine Pagano Hush, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author

• Jose J. Sotelo, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author

• Raisa Blazquez, IWERC
  Non-Presenting Author

• Randi L McGee-Tekula, The Learning Partnership
  Non-Presenting Author

• Steven McGee, The Learning Partnership
  Non-Presenting Author

• Bob Kolvoord, James Madison University
  Non-Presenting Author

• David H. Uttal, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author