Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields face persistent disparities in racial, ethnic and gender representation; these disparities are even more pronounced in computer science (CS) fields where women of color comprise 1 percent or less of all employees. These inequalities, and their causes, are complex, systemic, and result…

The Computer Science Unplugged activities and project has been an influential STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) initiative, providing enrichment and teaching activities supporting computational thinking. Many of its activities are suitable for children. One of the most popular Unplugged activities is "Kid Krypto",…

In this mixed-methods study, we examined if students benefitted from a game design course offered during an enrichment hour in terms of gains in their system analysis and design skills. Students at a rural middle school in Southeast US (n = 19) attended a 1-hour game design course offered weekly during an academic enrichment class period, for the…

It is well known that interesting questions can stimulate thinking and invite participation. Class exercises are designed to make use of questions to engage students in active learning. In a project toward building a community skilled in software verification and validation (SV&V), we critically review and further develop course materials in…

Background: Cocurricular and extracurricular activities benefit precollege students. Yet connections between these activities and academic outcomes in college are mixed or inconclusive. Little is known about how involvement in cocurricular activities is associated specifically with academic engagement in college. Purpose (Hypothesis): The purpose…

This study examines detailed usage of online training videos that were designed to address specific course problems that were encountered in an online computer programming course. The study presents the specifics of a programming course where training videos were used to provide students with a quick start path to learning a new programming…

The COMPUGIRLS: Culturally relevant technology program for adolescent girls was developed to promote underrepresented girls' future possible selves and career pathways in computer-related technology fields. We hypothesized that the COMPUGIRLS would promote academic possible selves and self-regulation to achieve these possible selves. We compared…

One of the indicators about countries' quality of education is receiving the international prizes e.g. The Nobel Prize, The Fields Medal, The Turing Award, The IJCAI -- Computers and Thought Award, and the Award for Research Excellence according to international criteria. In this study the comparison of prizes that Israelis and Jews living…

Israel suffers from a growing problem of socio-economic gaps between those who live in the center of the country and residents of outlying areas. As a result, there is a low level of accessibility to higher education among the peripheral population. The goal of the Sidney Warren Science Education Center for Youth at Tel-Hai College is to…

Advances in technology have caused high schools to update their computer science curricula; however there has been little analogous attention to technology-related education in middle schools. With respect to computer-related knowledge and skills, middle school students are at a critical phase in life, exploring individualized education options…

This study investigates differences between collaboration methods in two summer enrichment classes for students entering the sixth grade. In one treatment, students used pair programming. In the other treatment, students engaged in frequent collaboration, but worked on their own computer. Students in the two treatments did not differ significantly…

A major challenge to the efficacy of student team learning projects occurs when some members of a group are unable to contribute effectively to the collaborative endeavour due to their academic deficits. A graded benchmark for the requisite academic maturity is the setting of admission requirements. Various research studies have shown a positive…

This paper presents new web-based educational software (webNetPro) for "Linear Network Programming." It includes many algorithms for "Network Optimization" problems, such as shortest path problems, minimum spanning tree problems, maximum flow problems and other search algorithms. Therefore, webNetPro can assist the teaching process of courses such…