Background and Context: Differences in children's and adolescents' initial attitudes about computing and other STEM fields may form during middle school and shape decisions leading to career entry. Early emerging differences in career interest may propagate a lack of diversity in computer science and programming fields. Objective: Though middle…

Background and context: Historically underrepresented youth in computer science persistently experience barriers making it difficult to see themselves in the computer science field including computer science programs and curricula with consistent stereotypical references focused on competition, individualism, and male-associated topics…

Background: Key to optimizing Computational Thinking (CT) instruction is a precise understanding of the underlying cognitive skills. Román-González et al. (2017) reported unique contributions of spatial abilities and reasoning, whereas arithmetic was not significantly related to CT. Disentangling the influence of spatial and numerical skills on CT…

Experience is necessary but not sufficient to cause girls to envision a future career in computing. This study investigated the experiences and attitudes of girls who had taken three years of mandatory computer science classes in an all-girls setting in middle school, measured at the end of eighth grade. The one third of participants who were open…