2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This research study explores children and their parents’ experiences engaging in engineering and computational thinking activities in an informal learning environment. The participants in this study comprised eleven families, including K-2nd grade-aged children and their parents, who were purposively selected for this qualitative study. The findings revealed that many children initially hesitated to describe engineering and CT, but when probed, they explained that engineering and CT activities required them to build and/or code. Children also pointed out that these activities were like ones they had done in school. In contrast, parents described engineering and CT activities as requiring thinking and decision-making. Furthermore, some parents equated CT with coding and engineering with building, while others compared computing and engineering to other school subjects, such as math, science, and literacy.