2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Despite widespread calls to broaden participation in computing, few replicable models engage high school students in authentic disciplinary practice. This study examines a two-year implementation of a summer research program in which faculty mentors guided high school students through authentic computer-science research projects. Building on the 2024 cohort—which emphasized changes in students’ attitudes toward computing—and extending with 2025 data focused on learning gains and engagement with research, we investigate how participation in authentic inquiry supports conceptual, epistemic, and identity development in computing.
Grounded in the frameworks of Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) and Constructionism, we conceptualize research not as an enrichment activity but as a pedagogical method. Inquiry-based learning positions knowledge as constructed through questioning, exploration, and reflection rather than transmitted instruction, while constructionism emphasizes learning by designing and producing public artifacts. Within this lens, faculty-mentored research functions as a dual vehicle for learning: students learn computing concepts through open-ended inquiry and simultaneously construct personal and collective understanding by creating programs, analyses, and presentations that embody their ideas.
The mixed-methods design integrated pre- and post-attitude surveys, focus groups, and artifact analysis of students’ final presentations across both cohorts (N = 30). Results from 2024 confirmed significant increases in perceived usefulness of and encouragement toward computer science, indicating that flexible mentorship structures positively shape affective dispositions. The 2025 qualitative data extend these outcomes by revealing how learning occurred through the process of research. Students described mastering data analysis, coding, and modeling techniques; learning to read scholarly papers; and developing persistence when facing open-ended problems. Their reflections and final project presentations collectively illustrate the full inquiry cycle—formulating questions, investigating data, interpreting evidence, and communicating findings. Faculty mentors provided modeling and scaffolding consistent with IBL facilitation, while peers and graduate students contributed to distributed mentorship and collaborative sense-making.
Analysis of project presentations demonstrated constructionist learning in action: students externalized their developing understanding through computational artifacts such as machine-learning models, visualizations, and prototypes. These artifacts not only represented technical achievement but also served as epistemic tools through which students negotiated meaning and reflected on their learning. The combination of inquiry and artifact construction fostered cognitive and metacognitive growth, as well as emerging research identity: students began to view themselves as capable contributors to computing knowledge.
Across two iterations, the findings showed the program’s ability to foster positive attitudes toward computing and cultivating learning through research. Findings suggest that faculty-mentored, inquiry-driven research provides a low-cost, high-impact model for learning in computer science education and engaging pre-college students in the field. By situating learners as investigators and creators, research experiences enact the principles of IBL and constructionism, transforming abstract computing concepts into personally meaningful knowledge. We argue that positioning authentic research as a learning methodology offers a scalable, equity-minded approach to developing both computing competence and computing/research identity among pre-college students with the goal of broadening participation in computing.