Attracting High School Students to Computing: A Case Study with Drag-Drop Interfaces

Marvin Andujar

Department of Computer Science Kean University Union, NJ 07083

andujarm@kean.edu

Lauren Aguilera Department of Computer Science

Kean University Union, NJ 07083

aguilerl@kean.edu

Luis Jimenez Department of Computer Science

Kean University Union, NJ 07083 jimluis@kean.edu

Farah Zabe

Department of Computer Science Kean University Union, NJ 07083 zabef@kean.edu

Jugal Shah

Department of Computer Science Kean University Union, NJ 07083 shahj@kean.edu

Yerika Jimenez

Department of Computer Science Kean University Union, NJ 07083

jimenyer@kean.edu

Patricia Morreale Department of Computer Science

Kean University Union, NJ 07083

pmorreal@kean.edu

Abstract: The research project described here presents a study of two programming environments, Alice and Android App Inventor, which were used to introduce high school students to computer science. The interfaces were used to teach the students computing fundamentals and provide them with exposure to computing. The objective of this research study was to determine if student interest in majoring in computer science at the college and university level increased. The research presented here provides results which demonstrate that, even with a limited amount of instructional time, student interest in computing can be positively influenced, particularly as measured by gender groups.

Introduction The number of high school students selecting computer science as their major field of college or university study is very low compared to the high demand for graduates in the major. The U.S. Labor Bureau Statistics indicate that by 2018, 1.4 million jobs requiring computer science skills will be available, and U.S. colleges and universities will only be able to provide one-half of the graduates needed. The reason behind low major enrollment is described as resulting from a lack of exposure to computing from the K-12 educational process (Lee, et. al. 2011; Margolis, et. al. 2002, 2008). Furthermore, as this paper describes many students, particularly females, think that computing fields are not for them and their confidence using computers is low. The research presented here was the result of a study of two programming environments, Alice and Android App Inventor, with high school students in an enrichment program. Lessons were developed in both environments and then taught to the students. Using the methodology found in earlier research work (Kelleher, et. al. 2007; Werner, et. al. 2009; Yadav, et. al. 2011), pre- and post-assessments were taken, which yield the results shared. Alice Interface Alice is a 3D Programming Environment created by Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA with the purpose of getting students interested in computing and encouraging students to major in computing, particularly females (Alice, www.alice.org). The Alice interface has been implemented successfully in many universities and high school for teaching computing fundamentals and has received positive feedback from students and teachers (Kelleher et. al., 2007).

Lesson Concepts Exercise’s Purpose First Alice, computer program, algorithm, object Build a world drag objects Second methods, variables, data type, procedure, event Build from lesson one and create methods

Table 1. Alice Lessons The lessons and exercises were formulated from a widely-used textbook (Herbert, 2010). The purpose of the lessons (Table 1) was to:

1. teach the students basic concepts and to get familiar with the Alice 2.2 interface, 2. get the students involved and playing with Alice’s Worlds, and 3. introduce the students to the first steps needed to build a world and populate it with objects.

Android App Inventor Interface Android App Inventor created by Google is a visual programming platform for creating mobile applications for Android smartphones. The main purpose is to give the opportunity to non-programmers to build their own mobile application without the knowledge of any high-level programming languages (Wolber et. al., 2011). App Inventor was released in 2010 and has received positive feedback from students and teachers from various universities as well (Morelli et. al., 2011).

Lesson Concepts Exercise’s Purpose

First Android, computer program, algorithm, object Create a simple Android app. to get familiar with the AppInventor development environment

Second methods, variables, data type, procedure Add functionality to the “Hello Purr” Android app. Table 2. Android App Inventor Lessons

The lessons for App Inventor were prepared from a text (Wolber, 2011). The purpose of the lessons (Table 2) is to:

1. teach the students how to create a simple android application using the App Inventor environment, so they can become familiar with the interface and

2. teach the students how to add functionality to applications.

Experimental Design

Figure 1. Teaching the Interfaces

The sample size of this study consisted of 71 students from 9th – 12th grades of Hispanic heritage from the Project Adelante Program (Figure 1). All but six of the students were fluent in English. The six students who were not fluent in English had been in the U.S. for less than one year. The Project Adelante Program, started in 1988, is a Pre-College Bound Program at Kean University. The purpose of the program is to reduce the dropout rate of Latino students in high school, increase their academic skills, and encourage them to pursue higher education. Project Adelante has a 100% high school graduation rate and a 90% college application rate (www.kean.edu/~adelante). Before the program started, IRB approval was obtained from the university and consent forms were sent to the parents for approval. Once the program began, during the first workshop of the program, the experimenters got to know the students by asking questions about their interests, such as their motivation for participation in the Project Adelante Program and their interest in pursuing higher education after high school. During the second workshop a diagnostic and placement test was given to the students from the program. The test was not associated with this research experiment. At the third workshop each group was given an assent form in which is an agreement between the experimenters and the students that they understand the experiment procedures. Once the students signed the assent forms a pre-assessment was given. The purpose of the pre-assessment was to determine how many students were considering a major in computing such as Computer Science or Computer Engineering, how comfortable they feel using computers, and their previous computing knowledge. The biggest challenge of this experiment was the time restriction. Each group had 45 minutes to walk to the classroom, learn the material, and do the exercises of the lesson given. As a result of this scheduling constraint, the lessons had to be taught in a period of 15 minutes or less, leaving 25 minutes for the students to work in the exercises, while the remaining 5 minutes were used for the students to get to their classroom sites and get ready for the lectures. While a 45 minute instruction period is normal for a regularly scheduled class in high school, this research project did not have the reinforcement provided by a high school class meeting five days a week for a total weekly instructional period 3 hours and 45 minutes. The Project Adelante enrichment program meets once a week , resulting in a time difference between the weekend enrichment program and regularly scheduled weekly high school class sessions of 3 hours , which is a significant amount of learning time. After two lessons were taught a post-assessment was given to determine if the student interest in computing had increased, if the students would continue to study the interfaces in college, and if they would consider majoring in computer science or engineering once they learned the interfaces. Results To determine the increase between the pre-interest and post-interest in Computer Science the proposition test was performed using the statistical software R. The statistical results (p = 0.8102) show that teaching these interfaces for a two months period is not enough to increase the student’s interest in computing. This test was chosen because of another limitation in which was the attendance of the students. Not every student took the pre-assessment because some of them joined a week or two weeks later and they were already exposed to these interfaces through their friends whose were learning these interfaces. Furthermore, some students did not take the post-assessment because were absent the specific day was handed or because they dropped from the enrichment program.

The sample size of the pre-assessment was 71 students where 51% of the students reported interest in pursuing a degree in computing before learning the interfaces. After learning the interfaces, reported in the post-assessment (n = 67) only 42% of the students reported interest in pursuing a degree in computing after high school. Group Classification The interest of the students in majoring in a computing field prior learning the interfaces is presented in Table 3. It is surprisingly enough that many students were considering computing as a career, but in the freshman class it is seen that only 38% of the students are thinking in pursuing a degree in computing. The other classes show high percentage even though they were also considering other majors as well.

Groups N Computer Engineering Computer Science Non-Computing Seniors 15 5 (33%) 4 (27%) 6 (40%) Juniors 25 8 (32%) 7 (28%) 10 (60%) Sophomores 17 0 (0%) 7 (41%) 10 (59%) Freshmen 14 2 (15%) 3 (21%) 9 (64%)

Table 3. Interested in a Computing Field Before Learning the Interfaces Figure 1 shows the self-reported scale of the students reporting how comfortable they feel while using a computer; this also represents their confidence while using computers. The scale was from 1 meaning not comfortable at all (struggle while using the computer), the middle score 3 meaning kind of comfortable (good at it, but still do not feel comfortable with everything) and 5 meaning very comfortable (the student is a master). The students who showed more confidence were the sophomore class with a total mean of 3.59 and the class who showed less confidence was the junior class with a total mean of 3.20. Furthermore, as it can be seen from the figure the freshmen class had a total mean of 3.57 and the seniors had a total mean of 3.53.

Figure 1. Comfortable Using Computers by Classes

The number of students considering computer science after they have learned the basics of computing through the interfaces is shown in Table 4. All groups, except the freshmen, have an increased interest in the major. Furthermore, this shows how the older classes had a positive impact unlike the younger classes.

Groups N Yes No No Response Seniors 12 6 (50%) 6 (50%) 0 (0%) Juniors 20 11 (55%) 7 (35%) 2 (10%) Sophomores 23 9 (41%) 11 (50%) 3 (9%) Freshmen 12 2 (17%) 10 (83%) 0 (0%)

Table 4. Considering majoring in Computer Science after learning interface

Self-reported interest increment in Computer Science per class once they have learned the interfaces is shown in Table 5. It shows that all the classes had a significant amount of positive feedback.

Groups N Yes No No Response Seniors 12 11 (92%) 1 (8%) 0 (0%) Juniors 20 15 (75%) 3 (15%) 2 (10%) Sophomores 23 22 (97%) 1 (3%) 0 (0%) Freshmen 12 11 (92%) 1 (8%) 0 (0%)

Table 5. Increment of Interest in Computer Science after Learning the Interfaces Gender Classification Gender categorization by interest in majoring in Computer Science before learning the interfaces is also shown (Table 6). Furthermore, this shows a high number of male students were considering majoring in a computing field, but a small amount of female students were considering it.

Groups N Computer Science Computer Engineering Non Computing Male 36 15 (42%) 11 (31%) 10 (27%) Female 35 6 (17%) 4 (11%) 25 (72%)

Table 6. Interested in a Computing Field by Gender

Figure 2 shows the self-reported scale of the students by gender regarding how comfortable they feel while using a computer. This also represents their confidence while using computers. The scale was from 1 meaning not comfortable at all (struggle while using the computer), the middle score 3 meaning kind of comfortable (good at it, but still do not feel comfortable with everything) and 5 meaning very comfortable (the student is a master). The males feel more comfortable using computers with a total mean of 3.62 and the females with a total mean of 3.33.

Figure 2. Comfortable Using Computers by Gender

Table 7 represents the number of students by gender considering computing as a major after learning the interface. This shows positive results where 47% of the male are considering majoring in Computer Science after learning the interface, but only 38% of the female is considering in the major.

Groups N Yes No No Response Male 32 15 (47%) 14 (44%) 3 (9%) Female 32 12 (38%) 18 (56%) 2 (6%)

Table 7. Considering majoring in Computer Science after learning interface by Gender

The increment of interest in Computer Science after the students have learned the interfaces is presented in Table 8. This shows an interesting result of how 100% of the female’s interests in computing have increased and 66% of the male’s interests have increased as well.

Groups N Yes No No Response Male 32 21 (66%) 9 (28%) 2 (6%) Female 32 32 (100%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)

Table 8. Increment of Interest in computing after Learning the Interfaces by Gender Discussion This study shows how that the lack of exposure of computing knowledge in high school is a significant factor contributing to the students thinking of negatively of computing as a career, especially for female. Many female students think that computing is for ‘geeks’ or they lack confidence in their ability to use computers. This was reported by the students verbally to the researchers during the study. It is recommended that the students to spend more time learning interfaces, so their interest and knowledge will significantly increase and their interest in computer science as a major or profession might be higher. An important finding is how little time is required to positively impact student interest in computing as a major, particularly for females. Future Work The students of Project Adelante will continue learning these interfaces during the spring. The students that learned Alice will exchange places with the students who learned App Inventor and vice versa, so all the students get the same experience and determine if learning both interfaces gets them more interested in the computing field. Furthermore, their engagement will be measured physiologically using the non-invasive brain-computer interface Emotiv Epoc device. The purpose is to find a correlation between their level of engagement while using the interfaces and their interest in computing self-reported in the assessments. Acknowledgements This project is supported by the Computer Research Association's Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W). We also acknowledge Project Adelante at Kean for working with us during the academic year. References Herbert, C. An Introduction to Alice Programming 2.2 (2010), Course Technology. Kelleher, C., Pausch, R., and Kiesler, S. (2007). Storytelling Alice Motivates Middle School Girls to Learn Computer Programming, Proceedings of the 2007 CHI Conference, San Jose, CA, May 2007, pp. 1455-1464. Lee, I., Martin, F., Denner, J., Coulter, B., Allan, W., Erickson, J., Malyn-Smith, J., and Werner, L. (2011) Computational Thinking for Youth in Practice, ACM Inroads, Volume 2, Number 1, March 2011, pp. 32-37. Margolis, J., and Fisher, A. (2002) Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Margolis, J., Estrella, R., Goode, J., Holme, J.J., and Nao, K., (2008) Stuck in the Shallow End: Education, Race and Computing, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008. Morelli, R., Lanerolle, de T., Lake, P., Limardo, N., Tamotsu, E., & Uche, C. (2011). Can Android App Inventor Bring Computational Thinking to K-12?. Proceedings of the 2011 SIGCSE Conference. Werner, L.L., Denner, J., Bliesner, M., and Rex, P. (2009) Can middle-schoolers use Storytelling Alice to make games?: results of a pilot study. Proceedings of Foundations of Digital Games, 207-214. Wolber, D., Abelson, H., Spertus, E., and Looney, L. (2011). App Inventor Create Your Own Android Apps. Canada: O’Reilly Media. Yadav, A., Zhou, N., Mayfield, C., Hambrusch, S., & Korb, J. T. (2011). Introducing computational thinking in education courses. Proceedings of ACM SIGCSE Conference. Dallas, TX.