Florida's high school graduation rate is based on the percentage of students who graduated with a standard diploma within four years of their first full year of enrollment in ninth grade in the state. However, adjustments are made to this cohort over time to: (1) add incoming transfer students based on their grade level and year of entry; (2)…

Data and computational literacies empower youth to be active participants and future leaders in our increasingly data-driven society. We conducted a design-based research project in which a small group (n = 5) of high school youth from diverse backgrounds learned how to code and create data visualizations and stories with public data about climate…

Florida's high school graduation rate is based on the percentage of students who graduated with a standard diploma within four years of their first full year of enrollment in ninth grade in the state. However, adjustments are made to this cohort over time to: (1) add incoming transfer students based on their grade level and year of entry; (2)…

Florida's high school graduation rate is based on the percentage of students who graduated with a standard diploma within four years of their first full year of enrollment in ninth grade in the state. However, adjustments are made to this cohort over time to: (1) add incoming transfer students based on their grade level and year of entry; (2)…

As computing becomes an essential component of professional practice across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, integration of computing across content areas in K-12 classrooms is also becoming important. Particularly within science classrooms, computer science and computational thinking (CS/CT) are novel and necessary…

Virtual reality (VR) technology is playing a crucial role in the changing paradigm of education. In many cases, however, VR technology is not being taught because of the lack of relevant educational content at middle and high school levels. This study investigates the effect of design education using VR-based coding on students' competence and…

High school science classrooms across the United States are answering calls to make computation a part of science learning. The problem is that there is little known about the barriers to learning that computation might bring to a science classroom or about how to help students overcome these challenges. This case study explores these challenges…

Scholars believe that computational thinking is one of the essential competencies of the 21st century and computer programming courses have been recognized as a potential means of fostering students' computational thinking. In tradition instruction, PFCT (problem identification, flow definition, coding, and testing) is a commonly adopted procedure…

This paper describes an investigation looking at the underlying mathematics of poker machines. The aim of the investigation is for students to get an appreciation of how poker machines are designed to ensure that in the long-term players will inevitably lose when playing. The first part of this paper describes how students can model a simple poker…

Tasks for teaching predictive modelling and APIs often require learners to use code-driven tools. Minimal research, however, exists about the design of tasks that support the introduction of high school students and teachers to these new statistical and computational methods. Using a design-based research approach, a web-based task was developed.…

Multiple initiatives contend that all students should master computational thinking, including the "Next Generation Science Standards, the K-12 Framework for Computational Thinking," and Code.org. In turn, many physics teachers have begun to explore a variety of approaches to integrating computational modeling through programming. These…

Computational thinking--a set of mental and cognitive tools applied to problem solving--is a fundamental skill that all of us (and not just computer scientists) draw on. Educators have found that computational thinking enhances learning across a range of subjects and reinforces students' abilities in reading, writing, and arithmetic. This book…

Rural students often face challenges in receiving high-quality education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Yet without meaningful STEM educational opportunities, rural students might not develop the knowledge and skills needed to compete in a technology-driven workforce. The Learning by Making program (LbyM), an innovative…

As digital and physical fabrication kits become increasingly accessible to novice and youth design and maker activities, efforts are continuing to investigate ways that computing can be inclusive, accessible and culturally responsive. An effort that demonstrates promise for equity is combining multiple toolkits that tap into different affordances…

An emerging literature demonstrates that relevance interventions, which ask students to produce written reflections on how what they are learning relates to their lives, improve student learning outcomes. As part of a randomized evaluation of a relevance intervention (N = 1,978 students from 82 ninth-grade classes), we used Complier Average Causal…