@article{wang_rao_kwatra_milliken_dong_gomes_martin_catete_isvik_barnes_et al._2023, title={A Case Study on When and How Novices Use Code Examples in Open-Ended Programming}, DOI={10.1145/3587102.3588774}, abstractNote={Many students rely on examples when learning to program, but they often face barriers when incorporating these examples into their own code and learning the concepts they present. As a step towards designing effective example interfaces that can support student learning, we investigate novices' needs and strategies when using examples to write code. We conducted a study with 12 pairs of high school students working on open-ended game design projects, using a system that allows students to browse examples based on their functionality, and to view and copy the example code. We analyzed interviews, screen recordings, and log data, identifying 5 moments when novices request examples, and 4 strategies that arise when students use examples. We synthesize these findings into principles that can inform the design of future example systems to better support students.}, journal={PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 CONFERENCE ON INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY IN COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION, ITICSE 2023, VOL 1}, author={Wang, Wengran and Rao, Yudong and Kwatra, Archit and Milliken, Alexandra and Dong, Yihuan and Gomes, Neeloy and Martin, Sarah and Catete, Veronica and Isvik, Amy and Barnes, Tiffany and et al.}, year={2023}, pages={82–88} }
 @inproceedings{vandenberg_min_catete_boulden_mott_2023, title={Leveraging Game Design Activities for Middle Grades AI Education in Rural Communities}, url={https://doi.org/10.1145/3582437.3587193}, DOI={10.1145/3582437.3587193}, abstractNote={The ever pervasive nature of artificial intelligence (AI) in our world necessitates a focus on fostering an AI literate society. Young children, those aged 11 to 14, are at a critical point in developing their dispositions toward and perceptions of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), which influences their future education and career interests. Youth in rural areas are in particular need of access to AI learning opportunities to prepare them for the future workforce; digital games may be one way to attract young, rural students to STEM education and careers. In this paper, we explore how to introduce rural middle grades students to foundational AI concepts through digital game design activities. To inform our efforts and to establish an understanding of what these student populations as well as their teachers know about AI and games, we conducted a set of interviews and focus groups. In brief, students’ awareness and understanding of AI varied significantly, whereas teachers had limited knowledge of AI. Moreover, students shared great interest in playing and designing games. In support of our findings, we are developing a set of game design activities around five core AI concepts and ensuring the activities are of interest to our rural students.}, author={Vandenberg, Jessica and Min, Wookhee and Catete, Veronica and Boulden, Danielle and Mott, Bradford}, year={2023}, month={Apr} }
 @article{catete_isvik_hill_2022, title={A Framework for Socially-Relevant Service-Learning Internship Experiences for High School Students}, DOI={10.1145/3478431.3499355}, abstractNote={By age 15 girls start to lose interest in STEM, and less than 50% consider a STEM-related career. Providing hands-on internship opportunities has been one of the leading ways to help connect students with exploring computing careers; however, these opportunities are limited in high school. We propose a framework for a university-led high school internship initiative that focuses on service learning, co-design, and the propagation of engaging computing curricula for younger audiences. We piloted this model virtually in summer 2021, with high school students and teachers as interns mentored by university role models. Teams led the development and implementation of computing-infused curricula for a virtual summer coding camp. In this article, we share our framework and review the importance of service-learning for recruiting diverse participants and the use of co-design as a way to broker relationships between developers and community stakeholders. Additionally, we provide preliminary outcomes of our internship model on student and teacher participants gathered from qualitative data including end-of-summer presentations and post-program interviews.}, journal={PROCEEDINGS OF THE 53RD ACM TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM ON COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION (SIGCSE 2022), VOL 1}, author={Catete, Veronica and Isvik, Any and Hill, Marnie}, year={2022}, pages={815–821} }
 @article{brady_broll_stein_jean_grover_catete_barnes_ledeczi_2022, title={Block-based abstractions and expansive services to make advanced computing concepts accessible to novices}, volume={73}, ISSN={["2665-9182"]}, url={https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cola.2022.101156}, DOI={10.1016/j.cola.2022.101156}, abstractNote={Many block-based programming environments have proven to be effective at engaging novices in learning programming. However, most offer only restricted access to the outside world, limiting learners to commands and computing resources built in to the environment. Some allow learners to drag and drop files, connect to sensors and robots locally or issue HTTP requests. But in a world where most of the applications in our daily lives are distributed (i.e., their functionality depends on communicating with other computers or accessing resources and data on the internet), the limited support for beginners to envision and create such distributed programs is a lost opportunity. We argue that it is feasible to create environments with simple yet powerful abstractions that open up distributed computing and other widely-used but advanced computing concepts including networking, the Internet of Things, and cybersecurity to novices. The paper presents the architecture of and design decisions behind NetsBlox, a programming environment that supports these ideas. We show how NetsBlox expands opportunities for learning considerably: NetsBlox projects can access a wealth of online data and web services, and they can communicate with other projects. Moreover, the tool infrastructure enables young learners to collaborate with each other during program construction, whether they share their physical location or study remotely. Importantly, providing access to the wider world will also help counter widespread student perceptions that block-based environments are mere toys, and show that they are capable of creating compelling applications. In this way, NetsBlox offers an illuminating example of how tools can be designed to democratize access to powerful ideas in computing.}, journal={JOURNAL OF COMPUTER LANGUAGES}, author={Brady, Corey and Broll, Brian and Stein, Gordon and Jean, Devin and Grover, Shuchi and Catete, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany and Ledeczi, Akos}, year={2022}, month={Dec} }
 @article{jocius_o'byrne_albert_joshi_blanton_robinson_andrews_barnes_catete_2022, title={Building a Virtual Community of Practice: Teacher Learning for Computational Thinking Infusion}, volume={4}, ISSN={["1559-7075"]}, DOI={10.1007/s11528-022-00729-6}, abstractNote={The COVID-19 pandemic led to an urgent need for professional development (PD) experiences to support teacher learning across hybrid and digital contexts. This study investigates teachers' experiences in a Virtual Pivot, a PD workshop designed to support computational thinking integration into disciplinary teaching. Participants were 151 middle and high school content area teachers, including 49 teachers who participated in previous face-to-face workshops. Virtual Pivot employed research-based design principles for virtual teacher PD, including asynchronous and synchronous engagement, explicit instruction in technological tools and scaffolds for teacher collaboration. Data sources included pre-PD surveys (n = 151), post-PD surveys (n = 119), interviews (n = 57) and six-month follow-up surveys (n = 105). Findings describe elements of Virtual Pivot which supported teacher learning and engagement (virtual community of practice, PD structure, during-PD support, pre-PD support and badges). We conclude by discussing this study's theoretical, methodological and practical contributions for designing and investigating virtual computational thinking PD experiences.}, journal={TECHTRENDS}, author={Jocius, Robin and O'Byrne, W. Ian and Albert, Jennifer and Joshi, Deepti and Blanton, Melanie and Robinson, Richard and Andrews, Ashley and Barnes, Tiffany and Catete, Veronica}, year={2022}, month={Apr} }
 @article{limke_milliken_catete_gransbury_isvik_price_martens_barnes_2022, title={Case Studies on the use of Storyboarding by Novice Programmers}, DOI={10.1145/3502718.3524749}, abstractNote={Our researchers seek to support students in building block-based programming projects that are motivating and engaging as well as valuable practice in learning to code. A difficult part of the programming process is planning. In this research, we explore how novice programmers used a custom-built planning tool, PlanIT, contrasted against how they used storyboarding when planning games. In a three-part study, we engaged novices in planning and programming three games: a maze game, a break-out game, and a mashup of the two. In a set of five case studies, we show how five pairs of students approached the planning and programming of these three games, illustrating that students felt more creative when storyboarding rather than using PlanIT. We end with a discussion on the implications of this work for designing supports for novices to plan open-ended projects.}, journal={PROCEEDINGS OF THE 27TH ACM CONFERENCE ON INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY IN COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION, ITICSE 2022, VOL 1}, author={Limke, Ally and Milliken, Alexandra and Catete, Veronica and Gransbury, Isabella and Isvik, Amy and Price, Thomas and Martens, Chris and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2022}, pages={318–324} }
 @inproceedings{isvik_lytle_catete_barnes_2022, title={Characterizing High School Participants’ Motivations and Outcomes in a Service-Oriented Summer Internship}, url={https://doi.org/10.1145/3564721.3564734}, DOI={10.1145/3564721.3564734}, abstractNote={In order to meet the increasing demand for a CS and STEM workforce, expanded CS educational opportunities are being introduced as early as K-12. While many programs exist inside a traditional school structure (e.g, standalone CS courses) out-of-school programs such as internships are also becoming a popular way for students to learn to program. Service-focused computing internships provide an opportunity for students to learn computer science while also giving back to their community in some way. While it is known that many marginalized groups in STEM (e.g., women, Black students, etc) are motivated by careers that are service oriented, little else is know about student motivations for participating in K-12 service-oriented internships. In this study, we interview 20 high school student interns to better understand why students elected to participate in an internship and the effect of participation in a service-oriented virtual summer internship on participants’ identities, attitudes, and confidence in computing. In summer 2020, these high school students participated in a 6-week, university-based, computer science internship program, which leveraged high school interns’ programming skills and classroom experience to assist teachers in developing computing-infused lessons for their classrooms. In this article, we identify reasons interns participated in the program, what they expected to get out of the internship, and what they perceived to be the impacts of participating in the internship.}, author={Isvik, Amy and Lytle, Nicholas and Catete, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2022}, month={Nov} }
 @inproceedings{vandenberg_min_cateté_boulden_mott_2022, title={Promoting AI Education for Rural Middle Grades Students with Digital Game Design}, url={https://doi.org/10.1145/3545947.3576333}, DOI={10.1145/3545947.3576333}, abstractNote={The demand is growing for a populace that is literate in Artificial Intelligence (AI); such literacy centers on enabling individuals to evaluate, collaborate with, and effectively use AI. Because the middle school years are a critical time for developing youths' perceptions and dispositions toward STEM, creating engaging AI learning experiences for middle grades students (ages 11 to 14) is paramount. The need for providing enhanced access to AI learning opportunities is especially pronounced in rural areas, which are typically underserved and underresourced. Inspired by prior research that game design holds significant potential for cultivating student interest and knowledge in computer science, we are designing, developing, and iteratively refining an AI-centered development environment that infuses AI learning into game design activities. In this work, we review design principles for game design interventions focused on middle grades computer science education and explore how to introduce AI learning experiences into interactive game design activities. We also discuss results from our initial co-design sessions with middle grades students and teachers in rural communities.}, author={Vandenberg, Jessica and Min, Wookhee and Cateté, Veronica and Boulden, Danielle and Mott, Bradford}, year={2022}, month={Mar} }
 @article{bottomley_catete_mbaneme_daniel_pender_reynolds_marshall_2021, title={Developing Sustainable, Mutually Collaborative, Global Partnerships}, DOI={10.1109/WEEF/GEDC53299.2021.9657357}, abstractNote={We examine partnerships between a United States university and K-12 schools in Rwanda. Our program uses an engineering-outreach model to qualitatively explore global student experiences and through collaborative efforts, how integration and dissemination of knowledge has occurred. The developed educational model emphasizes problem-solving and critical-thinking over sophisticated materials. The national curriculum aligned activities are designed to be accessible to classrooms with limited resources. Through this multi-year partnership, our team derived a series of lessons learned regarding contextualized diversity, culturally situated learning, and pathways for sustained mentorships.}, journal={2021 WORLD ENGINEERING EDUCATION FORUM/GLOBAL ENGINEERING DEANS COUNCIL (WEEF/GEDC)}, author={Bottomley, Laura and Catete, Veronica and Mbaneme, Veronica and Daniel, Angelitha and Pender, Kimberly and Reynolds, Kanton and Marshall, Lisa}, year={2021}, pages={82–87} }
 @article{isvik_catete_elmore_barnes_2021, title={Examining Equity in Computing-Infused Lessons Made by Novices}, DOI={10.1109/RESPECT51740.2021.9620700}, abstractNote={In this study, we examine 10 computing-infused lessons with high equity scores created by high school interns. These projects were part of a larger corpus of 90+ projects made in summer 2020 for middle school and high school classrooms and the projects were evaluated using the Teacher Accessibility, Equity, and Content (TEC) rubric. This article examines the observed extensive evidence for equity in these 10 projects to determine how meaningful these equity scores are, what themes are present across projects, and to provide curriculum developers with strategies for ensuring their activities utilize equitable practices to be intentionally inclusive of all students.}, journal={IEEE STCBP RESPECT CONFERENCE: 2021 RESEARCH ON EQUITY AND SUSTAINED PARTICIPATION IN ENGINEERING, COMPUTING, AND TECHNOLOGY (RESPECT)}, author={Isvik, Amy and Catete, Veronica and Elmore, Erynn and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2021}, pages={157–161} }
 @article{milliken_catete_limke_gransbury_chipman_dong_barnes_2021, title={Exploring and Influencing Teacher Grading for Block-based Programs through Rubrics and the GradeSnap Tool}, DOI={10.1145/3446871.3469762}, abstractNote={This article examines the grading process and profiles of secondary computer science teachers as they assess block-based student programming submissions. Through an iterative design process, we have created a new tool, Gradesnap, which streamlines how teachers can open, review, and evaluate student submissions within the same interface. Our study compares teachers’ grading processes using the different assessment formats, so that we can understand how their grading processes can be augmented or supported to reduce ’pain points’ and to enable teachers to provide more constructive and formative feedback for students. We use a case study approach to examine the experiences and outcomes of four secondary computer science teachers with varied teaching and assessment experience, when grading as usual, grading with a rubric, and grading with GradeSnap. Our study shows that when participants use GradeSnap, they are able to give supportive comments to lower performing and borderline students who need critical feedback to better understand misconceptions. We also discovered that the different grading processes provided a vehicle for reflection for some teachers in understanding their grading goals and how they enact them. This research is the first to examine teacher grading processes for computer science, and highlights the need for teacher preparation and support for providing programming feedback and assessment.}, journal={ICER 2021: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 17TH ACM CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL COMPUTING EDUCATION RESEARCH}, author={Milliken, Alexandra and Catete, Veronica and Limke, Ally and Gransbury, Isabella and Chipman, Hannah and Dong, Yihuan and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2021}, pages={101–114} }
 @article{isvik_catete_bell_gransbury_barnes_2021, title={Infusing Computing: Moving a Service Oriented Internship Program Online}, DOI={10.1109/RESPECT51740.2021.9620644}, journal={IEEE STCBP RESPECT CONFERENCE: 2021 RESEARCH ON EQUITY AND SUSTAINED PARTICIPATION IN ENGINEERING, COMPUTING, AND TECHNOLOGY (RESPECT)}, author={Isvik, Amy and Catete, Veronica and Bell, Dave and Gransbury, Isabella and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2021}, pages={199–203} }
 @inproceedings{milliken_wang_cateté_martin_gomes_dong_harred_isvik_barnes_price_et al._2021, title={PlanIT! A New Integrated Tool to Help Novices Design for Open-ended Projects}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85103326077&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/3408877.3432552}, abstractNote={Project-based learning can encourage and motivate students to learn through exploring their own interests, but introduces special challenges for novice programmers. Recent research has shown that novice students perceive themselves to be "bad at programming, especially when they do not know how to start writing a program, or need to create a plan before getting started. In this paper, we present PlanIT, a guided planning tool integrated with the Snap! programming environment designed to help novices plan and program their open-ended projects. Within PlanIT, students can add a description for their project, use a to do list to help break down the steps of implementation, plan important elements of their program including actors, variables, and events, and view related example projects. We report findings from a pilot study of high school students using PlanIT, showing that students who used the tool learned to make more specific and actionable plans. Results from student interviews show they appreciate the guidance that PlanIT provides, as well as the affordances it offers to more quickly create program elements.}, booktitle={SIGCSE 2021 - Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education}, publisher={ACM}, author={Milliken, A. and Wang, W. and Cateté, V. and Martin, S. and Gomes, N. and Dong, Y. and Harred, R. and Isvik, A. and Barnes, T. and Price, T. and et al.}, year={2021}, pages={232–238} }
 @article{broll_ledeczi_stein_jean_brady_grover_catete_barnes_2021, title={Removing the Walls Around Visual Educational Programming Environments}, ISSN={["1943-6092"]}, DOI={10.1109/VL/HCC51201.2021.9576399}, abstractNote={Many block-based programming environments have proven to be effective at engaging novices in learning programming. However, most restrict access to the outside world, limiting learners to commands and computing resources built in to the environment. Some allow learners to drag and drop files, connect to sensors and robots locally or issue HTTP requests. But in a world where most of the applications in our daily lives are distributed (i.e., their functionality depends on communicating with other programs or accessing resources and data on the internet), the lack of support for beginners to envision and create such distributed programs is a lost opportunity. This paper argues that it is not only feasible, but crucial, to create environments with simple yet powerful abstractions that open up distributed computing and other widely used but advanced computing concepts including networking, the Internet of Things, and cybersecurity to novices. By thus removing the walls around our environments, we can expand opportunities for learning considerably: programs can access a wealth of online data and web services, and communicate with other projects. Moreover, these changes can enable young learners to collaborate with each other during program construction whether they share their physical location or study remotely. Importantly, providing access to the wider world will also help counter widespread student perceptions that block-based environments are mere toys, and show that they are capable of creating compelling applications. The paper presents NetsBlox, a programming environment that supports these ideas and shows that tools can be designed to democratize access to powerful ideas in computing.}, journal={2021 IEEE SYMPOSIUM ON VISUAL LANGUAGES AND HUMAN-CENTRIC COMPUTING (VL/HCC 2021)}, author={Broll, Brian and Ledeczi, Akos and Stein, Gordon and Jean, Devin and Brady, Corey and Grover, Shuchi and Catete, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2021} }
 @inproceedings{rorrer_pugalee_edwards_boulden_maher_cao_dorodchi_catete_frye_barnes_et al._2021, title={The Design and Implementation of a Method for Evaluating and Building Research Practice Partnerships}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85103327758&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/3408877.3432532}, abstractNote={We have established a research-practice partnership (RPP) to build a computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT)-focused STEM ecosystem at two middle schools. Creating such an ecosystem to broaden student participation in computing through an RPP approach involves all stakeholders in the research process. Borrowing upon visual participatory research methods, we developed a graphic research instrument to engage teachers in the research process and elicit their perspectives on strategies for building the ecosystem. This experience report describes our research methodology across two distinct cases to demonstrate the utility of this drawing activity as an investigative and partnership development tool. The contribution is in offering a flexible approach to other university-based RPP teams that enables a synergistic partnership development tool and data collection instrument that can be tailored to a variety of RPP contexts, facilitating more productive and equitable ways of engaging stakeholders in the research process. We describe our project contexts and share results from the pilot study with practitioner-members of our RPP teams. We discuss two cases to highlight the contribution this approach made to the development of our partnerships.}, booktitle={SIGCSE 2021 - Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education}, author={Rorrer, A. and Pugalee, D. and Edwards, C. and Boulden, D. and Maher, M.L. and Cao, L. and Dorodchi, M. and Catete, V. and Frye, D. and Barnes, T. and et al.}, year={2021}, pages={753–759} }
 @inproceedings{jocius_joshi_albert_barnes_robinson_cateté_dong_blanton_o’byrne_andrews_2021, title={The Virtual Pivot: Transitioning Computational Thinking PD for Middle and High School Content Area Teachers}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85103319028&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/3408877.3432558}, abstractNote={In 2018 and 2019, Infusing Computing offered face-to-face summer PD workshops to support middle and high school teachers in integrating computational thinking into their classrooms through week-long summer PD workshops and academic-year support. Due to COVID-19, 151 teachers attended the Summer 2020 PD workshops in a week-long virtual conference format. In this paper, we describe Virtual Pivot: Infusing Computing, which employed emerging technology tools, pre-PD training, synchronous and asynchronous sessions, Snap! pair programming, live support, and live networking. Drawing on findings from participant interviews and post-PD surveys, we argue that three categories of changes (digital tools, formats, and supports for teacher engagement and collaboration) were effective in increasing participants' self-efficacy in teaching CT, supporting collaboration, and enabling participants to design CT-infused content-area lessons. We conclude by discussing how elements of this virtual PD can be replicated to increase teacher and student access to CT practices in middle and high school classrooms}, booktitle={SIGCSE 2021 - Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education}, author={Jocius, R. and Joshi, D. and Albert, J. and Barnes, T. and Robinson, R. and Cateté, V. and Dong, Y. and Blanton, M. and O’Byrne, I. and Andrews, A.}, year={2021}, pages={1198–1204} }
 @inproceedings{cateté_lytle_boulden_hinckle_wiebe_barnes_2020, title={A block-based modeling curriculum for teaching middle grade science students about Covid-19}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85094951953&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/3421590.3421624}, abstractNote={While the scientific community is learning more about the novel Coronavirus and its associate disease, Covid-19, it is important to begin efforts to educate students on the disease, how it is transmitted, and the possible steps we as societies and individuals can take to combat the spread. To this end, we adapted an existing computational thinking curriculum originally designed to teach students about how infectious diseases are spread by having them build a model within the block-based programming environment, Cellular. This new curriculum introduces relevant scientific terms and tasks student to program an increasingly complex model ending the activity by choosing which risk-reduction strategy to employ.}, booktitle={ACM International Conference Proceeding Series}, author={Cateté, V. and Lytle, N. and Boulden, D. and Hinckle, M. and Wiebe, E. and Barnes, T.}, year={2020} }
 @inproceedings{cateté_alvarez_isvik_milliken_hill_barnes_2020, title={Aligning Theory and Practice in Teacher Professional Development for Computer Science}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85096914379&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/3428029.3428560}, abstractNote={Since the Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) course has been released, it has vastly increased the need for highly trained CSP teachers who are prepared to bring CS to a diverse group of students. We have designed professional development (PD) workshops for high school teachers learning to teach this new CSP course, basing our design and iterative refinements on effective practices from other STEM disciplines. In summers 2012-2019, we have prepared over 600 teachers to teach CSP. Our PD provides teachers with time to learn CS content and pedagogical content knowledge. A key component of our PD design focuses on professionally-relevant activities– specifically, teachers develop and lead CSP lessons and provide feedback to each other through practice-focused discussions with experienced teachers and their peers. Another key component of our PD is including opportunities for continued professional growth, where we provide opportunities for teachers to engage as leaders who mentor others, curate materials, or facilitate future PDs. Our data has shown an increase in teachers’ confidence to lead in the classroom and also shown equal accessibility and growth for participants regardless of prior programming experience. In this paper, we examine and articulate the foundational theories for our CSP PD and how we have adapted these methodologies to cultivate an inclusive and productive learning environment for teachers. We also perform a retrospective analysis to determine which PD and program activities our teachers found most meaningful and relevant to their daily teaching.}, booktitle={ACM International Conference Proceeding Series}, author={Cateté, V. and Alvarez, L. and Isvik, A. and Milliken, A. and Hill, M. and Barnes, T.}, year={2020} }
 @inproceedings{catete_bell_isvik_lytle_dong_barnes_2020, title={Bridge to Computing: An outreach program for at-risk young men}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85098792411&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1109/RESPECT49803.2020.9272475}, abstractNote={In 2017, our police department and the Give Back Organization (GBO), a local non-profit, contacted our university about hosting a game development summer camp. The camp was proposed to keep boys ages 12-15 living in a community with high levels of gang enrollment off the streets while providing an opportunity to learn about college and computing careers. The police also wanted to improve officer-youth r elations. Our lab provided camp counselors, space, and content for the camp. Each camp supported a total of twelve African-American boys. Over three years, we refactored the curricula and organization of the camp and present our lessons learned from the experience.}, booktitle={2020 Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology, RESPECT 2020 - Proceedings}, author={Catete, V. and Bell, D. and Isvik, A. and Lytle, N. and Dong, Y. and Barnes, T.}, year={2020} }
 @inproceedings{jocius_joshi_dong_robinson_cateté_barnes_albert_andrews_lytle_2020, title={Code, Connect, Create: The 3C Professional Development Model to Support Computational Thinking Infusion}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85081610818&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/3328778.3366797}, abstractNote={Despite the increasing attention to infusing CT into middle and high school content area classrooms, there is a lack of information about the most effective practices and models to support teachers in their efforts to integrate disciplinary content and CT principles. To address this need, this paper proposes the Code, Connect and Create (3C) professional development (PD) model, which was designed to support middle and high school content area teachers in infusing computational thinking into their classrooms. To evaluate the model, we analyzed quantitative and qualitative data collected from Infusing Computing PD workshops designed for in-service science, math, English language arts, and social studies teachers located in two Southeastern states. Drawing on findings from our analysis of teacher-created learning segments, surveys, and interviews, we argue that the 3C professional development model supported shifts in teacher understandings of the role of computational thinking in content area classrooms, as well as their self-efficacy and beliefs regarding CT integration into disciplinary content. We conclude by offering implications for the use of this model to increase teacher and student access to computational thinking practices in middle and high school classrooms.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education}, publisher={ACM}, author={Jocius, Robin and Joshi, Deepti and Dong, Yihuan and Robinson, Richard and Cateté, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany and Albert, Jennifer and Andrews, Ashley and Lytle, Nicholas}, year={2020}, pages={971–977} }
 @inproceedings{boulden_edwards_catete_lytle_barnes_wiebe_frye_2020, title={Creating a School-wide CS/CT-focused STEM Ecosystem to Address Access Barriers}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85098802518&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1109/RESPECT49803.2020.9272485}, abstractNote={STEM ecosystem is an emerging model for identifying the barriers and support structures that students have in their learning trajectories in STEM. In this paper our university-based research team presents a CS/CT-focused STEM ecosystem strategy designed to address underrepresentation in computing fields. We describe our current and future work within our school-level research-practice partnership (RPP) with a local middle school, used to guide the creation of this ecosystem.}, booktitle={2020 Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology, RESPECT 2020 - Proceedings}, author={Boulden, D. and Edwards, C. and Catete, V. and Lytle, N. and Barnes, T. and Wiebe, E.N. and Frye, D.}, year={2020} }
 @inproceedings{lytle_catete_dong_2020, title={Data-driven approaches for exploring the effects of teacher instruction on student programming behaviors}, volume={2734}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85096177425&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, booktitle={CEUR Workshop Proceedings}, author={Lytle, N. and Catete, V. and Dong, Y.}, year={2020} }
 @inproceedings{akintunde_shabrina_catete_barnes_lynch_rutherford_2020, title={Data-informed curriculum sequences for a curriculum-integrated game}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85082400636&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/3375462.3375530}, abstractNote={In this paper, we perform a predictive analysis of a curriculum-integrated math game, ST Math, to suggest a partial ordering for the game's curriculum sequence. We analyzed the sequence of ST Math objectives played by elementary school students in 5 U.S. districts and grouped each objective into difficult and easy categories according to how many retries were needed for students to master an objective. We observed that retries on some objectives were high in one district and low in another district where the objectives are played in a different order. Motivated by this observation, we investigated what makes an effective curriculum sequence. To infer a new partially-ordered sequence, we performed an expanded replication study of a novel predictive analysis by a prior study to find predictive relationships between 15 objectives played in different sequences by 3,328 students from 5 districts. Based on the predictive abilities of objectives in these districts, we found 17 suggested objective orderings. After deriving these orderings, we confirmed the validity of the order by evaluating the impact of the suggested sequence on changes in rates of retries and corresponding performance. We observed that when the objectives were played in the suggested sequence, we record a drastic reduction in retries, implying that these objectives are easier for students. This indicates that objectives that come earlier can provide prerequisite knowledge for later objectives. We believe that data-informed sequences, such as the ones we suggest, may improve efficiency of instruction and increase content learning and performance.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge}, publisher={ACM}, author={Akintunde, Ruth Okoilu and Shabrina, Preya and Catete, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany and Lynch, Collin and Rutherford, Teomara}, year={2020}, pages={635–644} }
 @article{isvik_catete_alvarez_lytle_barnes_2020, title={Exploring Differences Between Student and Teacher Created Snap! Projects}, volume={2020-August}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85093919704&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1109/vl/hcc50065.2020.9127249}, abstractNote={This paper illustrates coding decisions by in-service teachers and high school interns working independently versus collaboratively to build computing activities for non-computing classrooms. We investigate code written in Snap! to gain insights on project type and subject matter. We also share case studies on how intern collaboration influences final product execution. Through our research, we found student-only teams often created tutorial projects whereas teachers-only teams create interactive narratives. We found students were able to reuse code across projects to replicate similar mechanics and that students specialize in different aspects of project creation. Overall, we find it beneficial to have collaborative teacher-student teams.}, journal={2020 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)}, publisher={IEEE}, author={Isvik, Amy and Catete, Veronica and Alvarez, Lauren and Lytle, Nicholas and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2020}, month={Aug} }
 @inproceedings{grover_cateté_barnes_hill_ledeczi_broll_2020, title={FIRST Principles to Design for Online, Synchronous High School CS Teacher Training and Curriculum Co-Design}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85096938644&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/3428029.3428059}, abstractNote={The Covid-19 pandemic has offered new challenges and opportunities for teaching and research. It has forced constraints on in-person gathering of researchers, teachers, and students, and conversely, has also opened doors to creative instructional design. This paper describes a novel approach to designing an online, synchronous teacher professional development (PD) and curriculum co-design experience. It shares our work in bringing together high school teachers and researchers in four US states. The teachers participated in a 3-week summer PD on ideas of Distributed Computing and how to teach this advanced topic to high school students using NetsBlox, an extension of the Snap! block-based programming environment. The goal of the PD was to prepare teachers to engage in collaborative co-design of a 9-week curricular module for use in classrooms and schools. Between their own training and the co-design process, teachers co-taught a group of high school students enrolled in a remote summer internship at a university in North Carolina to pilot the learned units and leverage ideas from their teaching experience for subsequent curricular co-design. Formative and summative feedback from teachers suggest that this PD model was successful in meeting desired outcomes. Our generalizable FIRST principles—Flexibility, Innovativeness, Responsiveness (and Respect), Supports, and Teamwork (collaboration)—that helped make this unique PD successful, can help guide future CS teacher PD designs.}, booktitle={ACM International Conference Proceeding Series}, author={Grover, S. and Cateté, V. and Barnes, T. and Hill, M. and Ledeczi, A. and Broll, B.}, year={2020} }
 @inproceedings{isvik_catete_barnes_2020, title={FLAMES: A Socially Relevant Computing Summer Internship for High School Students}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85093961043&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1109/RESPECT49803.2020.9272515}, abstractNote={In this article, we examine a female-oriented, high school computing outreach program, FLAMES, consisting of an 8-week high school summer intern program run within a university computer science (CS) department. We focus on examining the effects of the program on students skills and affect towards computing. Much of the literature in CS outreach research examines summer camps, after-school programs, and other school-year events that often have a focus on only teaching students computing content. Our program is unique and socially relevant as students are trained to assist teachers with the development of Computational Thinking-Infused curricula for their classrooms. This paper presents the design of our program, an overview of the curriculum, and results including both student and teacher feedback. Results show that the program has benefited each of the parties involved, including its student participants, facilitators, and the teachers assisted by the participants. We share our lessons learned in order to help other CS departments develop similar broadening participation in computing programs.}, booktitle={2020 Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology, RESPECT 2020 - Proceedings}, author={Isvik, A. and Catete, V. and Barnes, T.}, year={2020} }
 @inproceedings{cateté_isvik_barnes_2020, title={Infusing Computing: A Scaffolding and Teacher Accessibility Analysis of Computing Lessons Designed by Novices}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85096921632&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/3428029.3428056}, abstractNote={Creators of computing curricula do not always have formal pedagogical training. We investigated if exposing novice lesson designers to pedagogical best practices would result in the creation of lessons where evidence of successful use of these practices could be identified. We trained 29 high school students who were in a full-time computer science summer internship on how to create Snap! programming lessons for non-computing courses. Over the course of three weeks they developed computing-infused lessons on their choice of learning topic (science, business, language, etc.). We examined these lessons for their use of scaffolding, teacher accessibility, equity, and content. We found that students implemented many of the scaffolding techniques that they themselves experienced and created lessons that were detailed enough to be accessible for teacher use. We also identified significant relationships between both subject area and gender on equity scores, as well as an impact of collaboration on scaffolding type included. No difference in artifact quality was identified by prior student coding experience. This project represents an innovative way to engage students in learning more computer science while creating educational materials for computing in K-12 classrooms.}, booktitle={ACM International Conference Proceeding Series}, author={Cateté, V. and Isvik, A. and Barnes, T.}, year={2020} }
 @inproceedings{lytle_milliken_cateté_barnes_2020, title={Investigating Different Assignment Designs to Promote Collaboration in Block-Based Environments}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85081623137&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/3328778.3366943}, abstractNote={Pair Programming is often employed in educational settings as a means of promoting collaboration and scaffolding the assignment difficulty for teams. While much research supports its inclusion as a pedagogical practice at the university level, some research has demonstrated in K-12 contexts, it can potentially lead to inequitable learning enviroments and create dynamics between partners that might negatively effect novice learners. New block-based programming environments like Netsblox have attempted to address this by creating ways for both partners to program simultaneously, but this feature has yet to be examined in detail. In this paper, we introduce several modes of Collaboration afforded by Netsblox. This includes Pair-Separate, Pair-Together, and Partner Puzzles - a mode that Splits the necessary blocks to build the assignment between team members. From an initial pilot study involving 25 pairs of middle and high school students, we find that most pairs preferred working on assignments in the Partner Puzzle mode as it presented a fun challenge to teams. We end on recommendations for building assignments using this methodology and future research directions investigating the role of collaboration in programming}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education}, publisher={ACM}, author={Lytle, Nicholas and Milliken, Alexandra and Cateté, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2020}, pages={832–838} }
 @article{milliken_catete_isvik_barnes_2020, title={Poster: Designing GradeSnap for Block-Based Code}, volume={2020-August}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85093947070&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1109/vl/hcc50065.2020.9127284}, abstractNote={Many K-12 CS education instructors are new to teaching computing and use block-based programming (BBP), allowing them and their students to learn computing concepts with less frustration. Based on prior work with instructors, we found that they need assistance with grading student projects as they are new to coding and developing corresponding assessments. Existing methods are either not intuitive and too restrictive for custom assignments, or tediously unnecessary. Additionally, providing a grading support tool will help increase adoption of our Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles curriculum. Therefore, we began developing a tool to assist teachers with grading BBP projects. This paper reports on a modified User Experience Research method, which we used to determine the critical and necessary features needed for the tool to allow teachers to successfully and efficiently assess BBP student artifacts.}, journal={2020 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)}, publisher={IEEE}, author={Milliken, Alexandra and Catete, Veronica and Isvik, Amy and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2020}, month={Aug} }
 @article{price_dong_zhi_paaßen_lytle_cateté_barnes_2019, title={A Comparison of the Quality of Data-Driven Programming Hint Generation Algorithms}, volume={29}, ISSN={1560-4292 1560-4306}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40593-019-00177-z}, DOI={10.1007/s40593-019-00177-z}, number={3}, journal={International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education}, publisher={Springer Science and Business Media LLC}, author={Price, Thomas W. and Dong, Yihuan and Zhi, Rui and Paaßen, Benjamin and Lytle, Nicholas and Cateté, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2019}, month={May}, pages={368–395} }
 @article{peddycord-liu_catete_vandenberg_barnes_lynch_rutherford_2019, title={A Field Study of Teachers Using a Curriculum-integrated Digital Game}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85067602037&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/3290605.3300658}, abstractNote={We present a new framework describing how teachers use ST Math, a curriculum-integrated, year-long educational game, in 3rd-4th grade classrooms. We combined authentic classroom observations with teacher interviews to identify teacher needs and practices. Our findings extended and contrasted with prior work on teachers' behaviors around classroom games, identifying differences likely arising from a digital platform and year-long curricular integration. We suggest practical ways that curriculum-integrated games can be designed to help teachers support effective classroom culture and practice.}, journal={CHI 2019: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2019 CHI CONFERENCE ON HUMAN FACTORS IN COMPUTING SYSTEMS}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Peddycord-Liu, Zhongxiu and Catete, Veronica and Vandenberg, Jessica and Barnes, Tiffany and Lynch, Collin F. and Rutherford, Teomara}, year={2019} }
 @inproceedings{lytle_cateté_dong_boulden_akram_houchins_barnes_wiebe_2019, place={Chengdu, Sichuan, China}, title={CEO: A Triangulated Evaluation of a Modeling-Based CT-Infused CS Activity for Non-CS Middle Grade Students}, ISBN={9781450362597}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3300115.3309527}, DOI={10.1145/3300115.3309527}, abstractNote={With the increased demand for introducing computational thinking (CT) in K-12 classrooms, educational researchers are developing integrated lesson plans that can teach CT fundamentals in non-computing specific classrooms. Although these lessons reach more students through the core curriculum, proper evaluation methods are needed to ensure the quality of the design and integration. As part of a research practice partnership, we work to infuse research-backed curricula into science courses. We find a three-pronged approach of evaluation can help us make better decisions on how to improve experimental curricula for active classrooms. This CEO model uses three data sources (student code traces, exit ticket responses, and field observations) as a triangulated approach that can be used to identify programming behavior among novice developers, preferred task ordering for the assignment, and scaffolding recommendations to teachers. This approach allows us to evaluate the practical implementations of our initiative and create a focused approach for designing more effective lessons.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Global Computing Education  - CompEd '19}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Lytle, Nicholas and Cateté, Veronica and Dong, Yihuan and Boulden, Danielle and Akram, Bita and Houchins, Jennifer and Barnes, Tiffany and Wiebe, Eric}, year={2019}, pages={58–64} }
 @inproceedings{dong_marwan_catete_price_barnes_2019, place={New York, NY, USA}, title={Defining Tinkering Behavior in Open-ended Block-based Programming Assignments}, ISBN={9781450358903}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3287324.3287437}, DOI={10.1145/3287324.3287437}, abstractNote={Tinkering has been shown to have a positive influence on students in open-ended making activities. Open-ended programming assignments in block-based programming resemble making activities in that both of them encourage students to tinker with tools to create their own solutions to achieve a goal. However, previous studies of tinkering in programming discussed tinkering as a broad, ambiguous term, and investigated only self-reported data. To our knowledge, no research has studied student tinkering behaviors while solving problems in block-based programming environments. In this position paper, we propose a definition for tinkering in block-based programming environments as a kind of behavior that students exhibit when testing, exploring, and struggling during problem-solving. We introduce three general categories of tinkering behaviors (test-based, prototype-based, and construction-based tinkering) derived from student data, and use case studies to demonstrate how students exhibited these behaviors in problem-solving. We created the definitions using a mixed-methods research design combining a literature review with data-driven insights from submissions of two open-ended programming assignments in iSnap, a block-based programming environment. We discuss the implication of each type of tinkering behavior for learning. Our study and results are the first in this domain to define tinkering based on student behaviors in a block-based programming environment.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education  - SIGCSE '19}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Dong, Yihuan and Marwan, Samiha and Catete, Veronica and Price, Thomas and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2019}, pages={1204–1210} }
 @inproceedings{wiebe_boulden_catete_barnes_freeman_frye_maher_cao_dorodchi_pugalee_et al._2019, title={Developing a Systemic, Scalable Model to Broaden Participation in Middle School Computer Science}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85080061277&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1109/respect46404.2019.8985931}, abstractNote={This poster describes the overarching goals of a newly awarded NSF-funded grant (DRL-1837439) designed to address the provision of equitable access to underrepresented students (e.g., females, African-Americans, Hispanic/Latinx) in computing. Collaborative Research: Broadening Participation with the STEM Ecosystem: Developing a Scalable Model using an RPP Approach evolved out of the research team’s past experiences with developing strategic partnerships with school administrators and classroom teachers to bring computationally-rich activities to students throughout the school day, but especially in core math and science courses.}, booktitle={2019 Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT)}, publisher={IEEE}, author={Wiebe, Eric and Boulden, Danielle and Catete, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany and Freeman, Sharon and Frye, David and Maher, Mary Lou and Cao, Lijuan and Dorodchi, Mohsen M and Pugalee, David and et al.}, year={2019}, pages={1–2} }
 @inproceedings{milliken_cody_catete_barnes_2019, title={Effective Computer Science Teacher Professional Development}, ISBN={9781450368957}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3304221.3319779}, DOI={10.1145/3304221.3319779}, abstractNote={The Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) course has been fully active for 2 years, garnering a large group of diverse students [2], and flaming the need for highly trained CSP teachers, especially in effective practices for diversity and equity. We have conducted summer professional development (PD) workshops from 2012-2018 which have prepared 748 teachers to teach AP CSP using the Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) curriculum. To improve equity and readiness for teaching, we have refined our PD by: shortening the PD from 6 weeks to 1 week; developing new, highly scaffolded pre-PD work; and modifying the in-person schedule to incorporate more pedagogy and teaching experiences, while continuing to provide in-depth, hands-on support for teachers to learn the basics of programming. The most recent revisions to our PD schedule resulted in improved post-PD survey results, with teachers from the 2018 cohort planning to adopt more of the BJC curriculum than in past years. From 2017 to 2018, planned adoption rates increased by 13%, resulting in 73% of the 2018 PD participants planning to adopt more than $60%$ of the BJC curriculum and 58% planning to adopt 80-$100% of the BJC curriculum in their classrooms in 2018-2019. In this paper, we discuss the most recent BJC PD implementation and provide evidence of increased teacher self-efficacy in areas including fostering interest in computing for underrepresented populations.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education  - ITiCSE '19}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Milliken, Alexandra and Cody, Christa and Catete, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2019}, pages={271–277} }
 @inproceedings{lytle_catete_isvik_boulden_dong_wiebe_barnes_2019, place={Glasgow, Scotland, UK}, title={From 'Use' to 'Choose': Scaffolding CT Curricula and Exploring Student Choices while Programming}, ISBN={9781450377041}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3361721.3362110}, DOI={10.1145/3361721.3362110}, abstractNote={As computing skills become necessary for 21st-century students, infused computational thinking (CT) lessons must be created for core courses to truly provide computing education for all. This will bring challenges as students will have widely varying experience and programming ability. Additionally, STEM teachers might have little experience teaching CT and instructing using unfamiliar technology might create discomfort. We present a design pattern for infused CT assignments that scaffold students and teachers into block-based programming environments. Beginning with existing code, students and teachers work together 'Using' and comprehending code before 'Modifying' it together to fix their programs. The activity ends with students 'Choosing' their own extensions from a pre-set list. We present a comparison of two implementations of a simulation activity, one ending with student choosing how to extend their models and one having all students create the same option. Through triangulating data from classroom observations, student feedback, teacher interviews, and programming interaction logs, we present support for student and teacher preference of the 'Student-Choice' model. We end with recommended strategies for developing curricula that follow our design model.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 14th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education on   - WiPSCE'19}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Lytle, Nicholas and Catete, Veronica and Isvik, Amy and Boulden, Danielle and Dong, Yihuan and Wiebe, Eric and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2019}, pages={18} }
 @inproceedings{dong_andrews_cateté_lytle_isvik_barnes_jocius_albert_joshi_robinson_2019, title={Infusing Computing}, ISBN={9781450368957}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3304221.3319772}, DOI={10.1145/3304221.3319772}, abstractNote={In summer 2018, we conducted two week-long professional development workshops for 116 middle and high school teachers interested in infusing computational thinking (CT) into their classrooms. Teachers learned to program in Snap!, connect CT to their disciplines, and create infused CT learning segments for their classes. This paper investigates the extent to which teachers were able to successfully infuse CT skills of pattern recognition, abstraction, decomposition, and algorithms into their learning products.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education  - ITiCSE '19}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Dong, Yihuan and Andrews, Ashley and Cateté, Veronica and Lytle, Nicholas and Isvik, Amy and Barnes, Tiffany and Jocius, Robin and Albert, Jennifer and Joshi, Deepti and Robinson, Richard}, year={2019}, pages={278–284} }
 @inproceedings{jocius_albert_andrews_catete_dong_joshi_robinson_barnes_lytle_2019, title={Infusing Computing Through Professional Development: Shifts in Content Area Teachers’ Understandings of Computational Thinking Integration}, booktitle={Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference}, author={Jocius, Robin and Albert, Jennifer and Andrews, Ashley and Catete, Veronica and Dong, Yihuan and Joshi, Deepti and Robinson, Richard and Barnes, Tiffany and Lytle, Nicholas}, year={2019}, pages={302–305} }
 @inproceedings{dong_catete_jocius_lytle_barnes_albert_joshi_robinson_andrews_2019, title={PRADA}, ISBN={9781450358903}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3287324.3287431}, DOI={10.1145/3287324.3287431}, abstractNote={One way to increase access to education on computing is to integrate computational thinking (CT) into K12 disciplinary courses. However, this challenges teachers to both learn CT and decide how to best integrate CT into their classes. In this position paper, we present PRADA, an acronym for Pattern Recognition, Abstraction, Decomposition, and Algorithms, as a practical and understandable way of introducing the core ideas of CT to non-computing teachers. We piloted the PRADA model in two, separate, week-long professional development workshops designed for in-service middle and high school teachers and found that the PRADA model supported teachers in making connections between CT and their current course material. Initial findings, which emerged from the analysis of teacher-created learning materials, survey responses, and focus group interviews, indicate that the PRADA model supported core content teachers in successfully infusing CT into their existing curricula and increased their self-efficacy in CT integration.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education - SIGCSE '19}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Dong, Yihuan and Catete, Veronica and Jocius, Robin and Lytle, Nicholas and Barnes, Tiffany and Albert, Jennifer and Joshi, Deepti and Robinson, Richard and Andrews, Ashley}, year={2019}, pages={906–912} }
 @inproceedings{lytle_dong_catete_milliken_isvik_barnes_2019, title={Position: Scaffolded Coding Activities Afforded by Block-Based Environments}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85078085335&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1109/bb48857.2019.8941203}, abstractNote={Block-based programming environments (BBEs) help students first learning to program through reduced syntax errors and easier code construction. In setting up project files and designing activities, it is also possible to integrate within BBEs scaffolding for novice programmers. We outline and present examples for a set of Scaffold Activities developed for use in novice programming settings that we have found in practice to be successful in easing students into programming.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE Blocks and Beyond Workshop (B&B)}, publisher={IEEE}, author={Lytle, Nicholas and Dong, Yihuan and Catete, Veronica and Milliken, Alex and Isvik, Amy and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2019}, pages={5–7} }
 @inproceedings{lytle_barnes_cateté_boulden_dong_houchins_milliken_isvik_bounajim_wiebe_2019, title={Use, Modify, Create}, ISBN={9781450368957}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3304221.3319786}, DOI={10.1145/3304221.3319786}, abstractNote={Computational Thinking (CT) is being infused into curricula in a variety of core K-12 STEM courses. As these topics are being introduced to students without prior programming experience and are potentially taught by instructors unfamiliar with programming and CT, appropriate lesson design might help support both students and teachers. "Use-Modify-Create" (UMC), a CT lesson progression, has students ease into CT topics by first "Using" a given artifact, "Modifying" an existing one, and then eventually "Creating" new ones. While studies have presented lessons adopting and adapting this progression and advocating for its use, few have focused on evaluating UMC's pedagogical effectiveness and claims. We present a comparison study between two CT lesson progressions for middle school science classes. Students participated in a 4-day activity focused on developing an agent-based simulation in a block-based programming environment. While some classrooms had students develop code on days 2-4, others used a scaffolded lesson plan modeled after the UMC framework. Through analyzing student's exit tickets, classroom observations, and teacher interviews, we illustrate differences in perception of assignment difficulty from both the students and teachers, as well as student perception of artifact "ownership" between conditions.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education  - ITiCSE '19}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Lytle, Nicholas and Barnes, Tiffany and Cateté, Veronica and Boulden, Danielle and Dong, Yihuan and Houchins, Jennifer and Milliken, Alexandra and Isvik, Amy and Bounajim, Dolly and Wiebe, Eric}, year={2019}, pages={395–401} }
 @inproceedings{cateté_lytle_barnes_2018, title={Creation and validation of low-stakes rubrics for K-12 computer science}, ISBN={9781450357074}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3197091.3197134}, DOI={10.1145/3197091.3197134}, abstractNote={With increased numbers of K-12 computing courses, we also see an increase in teachers new to the subject, making it difficult for them to properly assess student programming assignments. Many of these teachers require project-specific rubrics to help assess student learning. Researchers have attempted to create systematic, validated, and reliable rubrics for these courses with only minor success. In this research, we make an argument for the validity of our low-stakes computing rubrics. In doing so, we establish a validated method for creating a full-suite of project-based rubrics for K-12 computing courses, helping teachers, researchers, and practitioners make much-needed course materials. Evaluating these rubrics, we see grader consistency as well as heatmaps of where teachers are looking for computational thinking concepts in code.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education  - ITiCSE 2018}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Cateté, Veronica and Lytle, Nicholas and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2018}, pages={63–68} }
 @article{catete_lytle_dong_boulden_akram_houchins_barnes_wiebe_lester_mott_et al._2018, title={Infusing Computational Thinking into Middle Grade Science Classrooms: Lessons Learned}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85056713650&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/3265757.3265778}, abstractNote={There is a growing need to present all students with an opportunity to learn computer science and computational thinking (CT) skills during their primary and secondary education. Traditionally, these opportunities are available outside of the core curriculum as stand-alone courses often taken by those with preparatory privilege. Researchers have identified the need to integrate CT into core classes to provide equitable access to these critical skills. We have worked in a research-practice partnership with two magnet middle schools focused on digital sciences to develop and implement computational thinking into life sciences classes. In this report, we present initial lessons learned while conducting our design-based implementation research on integrating computational thinking into middle school science classes. These case studies suggest that several factors including teacher engagement, teacher attitudes, student prior experience with CS/CT, and curriculum design can all impact student engagement in integrated science-CT lessons.}, journal={WIPSCE'18: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 13TH WORKSHOP IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY COMPUTING EDUCATION}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Catete, Veronica and Lytle, Nicholas and Dong, Yihuan and Boulden, Danielle and Akram, Bita and Houchins, Jennifer and Barnes, Tiffany and Wiebe, Eric and Lester, James and Mott, Bradford and et al.}, year={2018}, pages={109–114} }
 @phdthesis{catete_2017, title={A Framework for the Rapid Creation of Quality-Assured Programming Rubrics for New K-12 Computer Science Teachers.}, school={North Carolina State University}, author={Catete, Veronica Meredith}, year={2017} }
 @inproceedings{subramaniam_cateté_2017, title={A pathway to strengthening support for Beauty and Joy of Computing teachers}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85018296964&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/3017680.3022458}, abstractNote={Computer science education in high school is fundamental for increasing the diversity in computing majors at a university level. However, computer science is not often taught in America before university, and usually, the professionals who teach it are not trained experts in computer science concepts and terminology. In this paper, we introduce a new style of coding rubric, which allows teachers to better understand the fundamentals of the course being taught. In the scope of this research, we focus solely on the Beauty and Joy of Computing, an AP Computer Science Principles course. Coding assignments were collected from two groups of students, and assignments were graded and compiled by raters. After being rated, the rubrics were modified to be better adapted to teachers' expectations.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education}, publisher={ACM}, author={Subramaniam, Meghana and Cateté, Veronica}, year={2017}, pages={779–780} }
 @inproceedings{cateté_barnes_2017, title={Application of the Delphi Method in Computer Science Principles Rubric Creation}, volume={Part F128680}, ISBN={9781450347044}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3059009.3059042}, DOI={10.1145/3059009.3059042}, abstractNote={Growing public demand for computer science (CS) education in K-12 schools requires an increase in well-qualified and well-supported computing teachers. To alleviate the lack of K-12 computing teachers, CS education researchers have focused on hosting professional development workshops to prepare in-service teachers from other disciplines to teach introductory level computing courses. In addition to the curriculum knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge taught in the professional development workshops, these new teachers need support in computer science subject matter knowledge throughout the school year. In particular, these new teachers find it difficult to grade programs and labs. This research study uses two variations of the Delphi Method to create learning-oriented rubrics for Computer Science Principles teachers using the Beauty and Joy of Computing curriculum. To perform this study we implemented (1) a heavy-weight, heterogeneous wide-net Delphi, and (2) a lower-weight, homogeneous Delphi composed of master teachers. These methods resulted in the creation of two systematically- and rigorously-created rubrics that produce consistent grading and very similar inter-rater reliabilities.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education - ITiCSE '17}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Cateté, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2017}, pages={164–169} }
 @article{price_liu_catete_barnes_2017, place={New York, NY, USA}, title={Factors Influencing Students' Help-Seeking Behavior while Programming with Human and Computer Tutors}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85030158442&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/3105726.3106179}, abstractNote={When novice students encounter difficulty when learning to program, some can seek help from instructors or teaching assistants. This one-on-one tutoring is highly effective at fostering learning, but busy instructors and large class sizes can make expert help a scarce resource. Increasingly, programming environments attempt to imitate this human support by providing students with hints and feedback. In order to design effective, computer-based help, it is important to understand how and why students seek and avoid help when programming, and how this process differs when the help is provided by a human or a computer. We explore these questions through a qualitative analysis of 15 students' interviews, in which they reflect on solving two programming problems with human and computer help. We discuss implications for help design and present hypotheses on students' help-seeking behavior.}, journal={PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2017 ACM CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL COMPUTING EDUCATION RESEARCH (ICER 17)}, publisher={ACM}, author={Price, Thomas W. and Liu, Zhongxiu and Catete, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2017}, pages={127–135} }
 @inproceedings{cateté_snider_barnes_2016, title={Developing a Rubric for a Creative CS Principles Lab}, volume={11-13-July-2016}, ISBN={9781450342315}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2899415.2899449}, DOI={10.1145/2899415.2899449}, abstractNote={The "Beauty and Joy of Computing" Computer Science Principles class has inspired many new teachers to learn to teach creative computing classes in high schools. However, new computer science teachers feel under-prepared to grade open-ended programming assignments and support their students' successful learning. Rubrics have widely been used to help teaching assistants grade programs and are a promising way to support new teachers to learn how to grade BJC programs. In this paper, we adapt general coding criteria from auto-graders to a lab where students write code to draw a brick wall. We tested the rubric on student assignments and showed that we can achieve high inter-rater agreement with the refined rubric.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education - ITiCSE '16}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Cateté, Veronica and Snider, Erin and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2016}, pages={290–295} }
 @inproceedings{price_cateté_albert_barnes_garcia_2016, place={New York, NY, USA}, title={Lessons Learned from "BJC" CS Principles Professional Development}, ISBN={9781450336857}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2839509.2844625}, DOI={10.1145/2839509.2844625}, abstractNote={Computer Science Principles (CSP) will become an Advanced Placement course during the 2016-17 school year, and there is an immediate need to train new teachers to be leaders in computing classrooms. From 2012-2015, the Beauty and Joy of Computing team offered professional development (PD) to 133 teachers, resulting in 89 BJC CSP courses taught in high schools. Our data show that the PD improved teachers' confidence in our four core content categories and met its primary goal of training teachers in equitable, inquiry-based instruction. In this paper, we present the evolution of the BJC PD, its challenges and lessons that we learned while continually adapting to teachers' needs and contexts.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education - SIGCSE '16}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Price, Thomas W. and Cateté, Veronica and Albert, Jennifer and Barnes, Tiffany and Garcia, Daniel D.}, year={2016}, pages={467–472} }
 @inproceedings{catete_peddycord_barnes_2015, title={Augmenting introductory Computer Science Classes with GameMaker and Mobile Apps}, DOI={10.1145/2676723.2678307}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 46th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Catete, Veronica and Peddycord, Barry and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2015}, pages={709–709} }
 @inproceedings{price_albert_catete_barnes_2015, title={BJC in action: Comparison of student perceptions of a computer science principles course}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84959906858&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1109/respect.2015.7296506}, abstractNote={The Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) is a curriculum for the new AP Computer Science Principles course. Over the past 2 years, we have collected post-course surveys from 399 students participating in the BJC course. This paper investigates how the responses of females and students from underrepresented racial minority groups (URMs) differed from those of their counterparts. We found that female students had taken fewer CS courses prior to BJC but that students from URMs had taken more prior CS courses. Both groups were nearly equally likely to recommend the course to a friend, with about 80% recommending. We found no evidence to suggest that female students showed more or less interest in specific CS topics, such as learning how computing has changed the world or making mobile apps/games. Despite having taken more CS courses prior to BJC, we found that students from URMs were overall less likely to intend to take additional CS courses. Overall, our findings are fairly consistent with the literature, and suggest that BJC makes some progress towards broadening participation in computing.}, booktitle={2015 Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT)}, publisher={IEEE}, author={Price, Thomas W. and Albert, Jennifer and Catete, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2015}, pages={1–4} }
 @inproceedings{hicks_dong_zhi_cateté_barnes_2015, title={BOTS: Selecting Next-Steps from Player Traces in a Puzzle Game.}, volume={1446}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84944339515&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, booktitle={EDM (Workshops)}, author={Hicks, Andrew and Dong, Yihuan and Zhi, Rui and Cateté, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2015} }
 @inproceedings{cateté_2014, title={CS outreach to high school enrollment: bridging the gap}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84905837167&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/2632320.2632323}, abstractNote={Researchers in CS have heard of disparities between underrepresented groups and the lack of people to ll future jobs. Initiatives focus on strengthening the computing pipeline and getting more students interested. This research goes further by analyzing factors that affect behavioral change and get students to enroll in computing courses. We focus on a middle grades outreach program called SPARCS that has a 84% transfer rate into high school courses. We approach with a lens on identity, social cognitive career theory, and other attitudes and demographics perspectives.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the tenth annual conference on International computing education research}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Cateté, Veronica}, year={2014}, pages={143–144} }
 @inproceedings{barnes_catete_hicks_peddycord_2014, title={Making games and apps in introductory computer science (abstract only)}, ISBN={9781450326056}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2538862.2539000}, DOI={10.1145/2538862.2539000}, abstractNote={The new CS Principles curriculum, a pilot Advanced Placement course, offers novice students an exciting opportunity to learn computing in a hands-on, fun way. High school and college teachers of introductory computer science course are invited to this workshop to learn basic game and mobile phone development. Participants will learn GameMaker, AppInventor, and Touch Develop. These tools allow students to create and have fun with computing while teaching object-oriented and event-driven programming and game architectures. Participants should bring their own laptops (ideally with AppInventor installed). Windows 7 phones will be provided during the workshop. We will provide links to curricular modules for the CS Principles: Beauty and Joy of Computing course.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education - SIGCSE '14}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Barnes, Tiffany and Catete, Veronica and Hicks, Andrew and Peddycord, Barry}, year={2014}, pages={739–739} }
 @inproceedings{hicks_cateté_barnes_2014, title={Part of the game: Changing level creation to identify and filter low quality user-generated levels.}, booktitle={Foundations of Digital Games (FDG)}, author={Hicks, Andrew and Cateté, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2014} }
 @inproceedings{cateté_hicks_lynch_barnes_2014, title={Snag’em: Graph data mining for a social networking game}, volume={6}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84922311434&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, number={4}, booktitle={Workshop on Graph-Based Educational Data Mining}, author={Cateté, Veronica and Hicks, Drew and Lynch, Collin and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2014}, pages={10} }
 @inproceedings{cateté_wassell_barnes_2014, title={Use and development of entertainment technologies in after school STEM program}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84899768214&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1145/2538862.2538952}, abstractNote={This design research paper examines the implementation and curriculum changes of an after school computer science program that promotes computational thinking to middle school students. The program, Students in Programming, Robotics, and Computer Science (SPARCS), can adapt to different presentation environments, such as independent after school sessions or a semester-long apprenticeship program. We trace one implementation of the program through the initial deployment, the development of infrastructure, and a reorganization of content to address student interests. We found that student attrition dropped and the average session enjoyment increased when our sessions integrated consumer technologies such as mobile applications, video games, and the Minecraft computer game. In this paper, we provide readers a framework for running computing outreach activities around similar consumer technologies.}, booktitle={SIGCSE '14: Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Cateté, Veronica and Wassell, Katherine and Barnes, Tiffany}, year={2014}, pages={163–168} }
 @inproceedings{barnes_boyce_catete_doran_hicks_keller_2013, title={Augmenting introductory computer science classes with GameMaker and mobile apps}, DOI={10.1145/2445196.2445532}, abstractNote={Students often take computing classes because they are eager to create games, to learn to create meaningful and useful software, or both. Connecting computing to real, cutting-edge applications has been shown to increase engagement of women and minorities. The new CS Principles curriculum, a pilot Advanced Placement course, seeks to broaden the participation in computing to a larger and more diverse audience. This curriculum emphasizes that computing is a creative activity where people work together to solve relevant problems. In this workshop, we introduce free software and curricula to enable novice high school and college students in a first computing course to learn basic game and mobile phone development. We discuss how these activities facilitate teaching high school and non-major (CS0) course topics, but they can also be used to illustrate more advanced topics. Participants will learn GameMaker and mobile phone programming using AppInventor, and/or Touch Develop. These tools allow students to create and have fun with computing while teaching object-oriented and event-driven programming and game architectures. If possible, Windows 7 phones will be provided for use during the workshop. We will provide links to curricular modules for the CS Principles: Beauty and Joy of Computing course, as well as links to the GameMaker, AppInventor, and Touch Develop platforms and tutorials. Participants must bring a network-connected laptop with a modern browser, and the latest version of Java (ideally with AppInventor installed), and may optionally bring an Android or Windows 7 phone.}, booktitle={Proceeding of the 44th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education}, author={Barnes, Tiffany and Boyce, Acey and Catete, Veronica and Doran, Katelyn and Hicks, Andrew G and Keller, Leslie}, year={2013}, pages={767–767} }
 @inproceedings{powell_brinkman_barnes_catete_2012, title={Table tilt}, ISBN={9781450313339}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2282338.2282386}, DOI={10.1145/2282338.2282386}, abstractNote={Social capital implies that social networks have value. It is therefore important that when a person is at an academic conference, they must strive to build a strong professional social network for themselves. This can be difficult for many academic conference attendeees. We present Table Tilt, a two-minute ice-breaker game for 2--6 players with iPhones or iPods, that was built to facilitate team building and help individuals build social capital. Table Tilt leverages human sociality and game rules to promote communication and teamwork.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games - FDG '12}, publisher={ACM Press}, author={Powell, Evie and Brinkman, Rachel and Barnes, Tiffany and Catete, Veronica}, year={2012}, pages={242–245} }