Research Vision

KELP CS and the DEPICT project is driven by a desire for equity. Computer science instruction is the next frontier in tackling the digital divide. The strong job market and predictions future job growth make computing jobs a potential source of opportunity for students of all backgrounds. Unfortunately, the lack of computer science courses in K-12, and societal pressure against females and minorities in the schools where they are offered, have removed this opportunity from most students.

Widespread adoption in elementary school is attractive because it can be integrated into the normal school day, reach all children, and occurs before children have formed their ideas on what careers they will probably choose. Unfortunately, there is little know as to what curricula and learning environments should look like for children in authentic classroom settings, especially in classrooms with high numbers of students with learning differences, english language learners, and students from low socioeconomic households, all of whom struggle with the current school curriculum.

Our goal is to better understand what concepts are appropriate at what ages, and what learning environments should be used to encourage interest, develop practices, and teach content to elementary school students.

Research Methods

KELP-CS is being developed through design-based research methods. We observe how well children understand the activities, what they learn (and did not learn), and we talk to their teachers. We use this information to immediately make changes to the curriculum to ensure that our curriculum is effective for our target age group.

In addition to the research that directly informs our curriculum, we are trying to understand how children learn computer programming, and more generally, computational thinking. What we learn from this study will inform other curricula for elementary school children across the nation.

Publications

  1. Hansen, A., Franklin, D., Harlow, D. User-Centered Design in Block-Based Programming: Developmental & Pedagogical Considerations for Children To appear in ACM SIGCHI Interactive Design for Children, Manchester, UK, June 2016.

  2. Franklin, D., Hill, C., Dwyer, H., Iveland, A., Hansen, A., Harlow, D. Initialization in Scratch: Seeking Knowledge Transfer, Proceedings of the Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), SIGCSE 2016, Memphis, TN, March 2016.

  3. Hansen, A., Dwyer, H., Hansen, C., Franklin, D., Harlow, D. Differentiating for Diversity: Using Universal Design for Learning in K-6 Computer Science Education, Proceedings of the Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), SIGCSE 2016, Memphis, TN, March 2016.

  4. Dwyer, H., Hill, C., Hansen, A., Iveland, A., Franklin, D., Harlow, D. Fourth Grade Students Reading Block-Based Programs: Predictions, Visual Cues, and Affordances. In Proceedings of the International Computing Education Research Conference, ICER 2015, Omaha, NB, August 2015.

  5. Hansen, A., Dwyer, H., HIll, C., Iveland, A., Martinez, D., Harlow, D., Franklin, D. Interactive Design by Children: A Construct Map for Programming. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Interaction Design and Children, Short paper, Boston, MA, June 2015.

  6. Hansen, A., Iveland, A., Dwyer, H. Franklin, D. and Harlow, D. (in press). Programming science digital stories: Computer science and engineering design in the science classroom. In Science and Children.

  7. Harlow, D., Dwyer, H., Leak, A., Killian, A., Hill, C., Iveland, A., Franklin, D., (in press). Computer programming in Elementary and MIddle School: Connections across Content. In Improving K-12 STEM educational outcomes through technological integration, Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

  8. Dwyer, H., Hill, C., Iveland, A., Killian, A., Franklin, D., Harlow, D. Programming Languages and Discourse: Investigating the Linguistic Context in Learning Computer Sicence during Elementary School In 2015 AERA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, May 2015.

  9. Hill, C., Dwyer, H., Martinez, T. Iveland, A., Killian, A., Harlow, D., Franklin, D., Floors and Flexibility: Designing a programming environment for 4th-6th grade classrooms In Proceedings of the Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), Kansas City, MO, March 2015.

  10. Dwyer, H., Hill, C., Patterson, S., Harlow, D., Franklin, D., Identifying Elementary Students' Pre-Instructional Ability to Develop Algorithms and Step-by-Step Instructions, In Proceedings of the Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), Atlanta, GA, March 2014.