2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Experiences and opportunities in computer science allow students to build positive associations with STEM and STEM careers. There is a need to provide students with opportunities in computational and design thinking at a young age to increase interest and engagement in the computer science field. The Goldberg Gator Engineering Explorers (GGEE) is a donor-funded summer program designed to provide no-cost computer science-based experiences to underrepresented middle school students to support the K-12 pipeline. The 2022 GGEE program was held in six school districts across Florida and hosted over 110 students in 8 program sessions. The programs were four full-day or eight half-day sessions, depending on the district’s summer schedule. The program engaged students in computer science through computational thinking, programming, design thinking, and real-world engineering experiences using micro:bit microcontrollers. K-12 lead teachers and undergraduate student mentors were trained and upskilled in the program materials to facilitate sessions and broaden their programming experience.

During the program, students completed activities to understand computational thinking, how computers work, the micro:bit, and the MakeCode programming environment. [1], [2] These activities introduced basic programming skills through simple projects that grew to students designing a rock paper scissors game and a light intensity meter to explore the relationship between distance and light intensity. Students then participated in two design-based challenges. A creative challenge: designing a micro:bit pet for a partner, and a technical challenge: creating a solution to an industry problem to expand and apply programming skills and engineering design.

The program assessment was designed to study the motivation and identity of students toward science and engineering. Assessment for technology has challenges, as some attributes of science and engineering may demotivate students. The GGEE program collected qualitative and quantitative data from student interviews, observations, surveys, and school district student data, and IRBs were obtained at the university and district levels. Students completed surveys before the camp started, at the end of each day, and at the end of the program. Students rated feelings about activities they completed – confidence, enjoyment, interest, and difficulty, identity as an engineer or scientist, application of the activities in school and future careers, and rating their coding ability. Students were interviewed to describe their camp experience, what they found challenging, what they learned, and why they decided to attend the camp. A longitudinal assessment will study the influence of the student’s demographic data, summer program experience, motivation for computational thinking and design thinking on grades and course enrollment. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the significant predictors of grades and course enrollment and if the summer program experience moderates the effect as predictors of grades and course type enrollment.