Publications & Grants with Abstracts

In this paper, the authors share findings from a qualitative analysis of computer science teachers' perspectives about equity within the context of an equity-focused professional development program. Drawing upon a framework emphasizing educator belief systems in perpetuating inequities in computer science education and the importance of equity-focused teacher professional development, we explored how computer science teachers understand the issue of equity in the classroom.

This paper studies how students in Chicago are successful in the AP Computer Science A course while the district sought to broaden participation for under-represented youth in Computer Science more broadly. Results indicate specific factors that were significant to predict success for over- and under-represented students who took this course in Chicago from 2016–2019.

Educational organizations and research institutions need to interrogate historically inequitable and unjust distributions of power and resources in research and the impact those disparities have on our youth and our society. As our district and partnering research institutions actively and intentionally consider the perspectives of the communities at the heart of the research, the resultant research will better serve the educational good. Research-practice partners hips offer an opportunity to examine the myriad ways to address and mitigate some of those inequities. Our session describes nine projects' equity-centered problem of practice, partnership framework, a summary of results, and will include a narrative of stakeholder power and participation and reflection on how lessons learned create opportunities for the future.

In this study, we explore the factors that aligned to enable CPS to enact a graduation requirement for computer science. A major theme from the analysis was the importance of framing. Our analysis revealed that license to act at the district level in Chicago was bolstered by the entrepreneurs' framing of computer science as an equity issue. Moreover, the local entrepreneurs' discovery of Stuck in the Shallow End was central to this framing: Margolis' text added to the moral suasion behind the movement and generated a greater sense of urgency. In addition to using an equity frame, local entrepreneurs emphasized computer science as being a workforce issue and a public good (beneficial for the city). The potential for entrepreneurial success is significantly enhanced when political entrepreneurs can consistently present their single innovations ``from multiple perspectives and points of view...[thus] building robust coalitions in support of institutional change'' (p. 193). The equity/economy framing used by the computer science champions borrowed themes with broad appeal, thereby increasing license. Our interviews with advocates from the national level also revealed how entrepreneurs have proactively sought to identify frames, or narratives, that build consensus around the importance of computer science education.

This study compares the characteristics and professional development (PD) experiences between teachers who began teaching Exploring Computer Science before and after the enactment of a CS graduation requirement in the Chicago Public Schools. The post-requirement teachers were less likely to have a CS background, but their experience in the ECS PD and their level of confidence at the end of the PD were equivalent to the early adopters.

Prior research has shown that students pursuing Exploring Computer Science (ECS) as their first elective course were more likely to pursue another computer science course in high school, as compared to students who took a traditional course as the first course. This study investigated whether the results are consistent when students are pursuing ECS to fulfill the Chicago Public Schools' graduation requirement. ECS is designed to foster deep engagement through equitable inquiry around computer science concepts. It is hypothesized that students who are fulfilling a graduation requirement will pursue additional computer science coursework at rates similar to students who were pursuing ECS as an elective course.

This paper points students towards ideas they can use towards developing a convenient library for robot navigation, with examples based on Botball primitives, and points educators towards mathematics and programming exercises they can suggest to students, especially advanced high school students.

The CS4All Teaching Assistant Program is a key strategy for supporting the enactment of Chicago Public Schools' (CPS) high school computer science graduation requirement. The Exploring Computer Science (ECS) curriculum and professional development serve as a foundation for the implementation of this recent change in policy. The ECS professional development is designed to prepare teachers to implement the inquiry-based activities and guide them to build a classroom culture that is inclusive of all students. Given the rapid expansion of ECS within the district, a challenge has been finding enough teachers with a background in computer science. The Chicago Alliance for Equity in Computer Science (CAFECS) is a researcher-practitioner partnership that formalized in 2017 to support CPS in providing a high-quality computer science course to all students. Through CAFECS, the CS4All Teaching Assistant Program supplements the ECS professional development by providing additional classroom support for computer science teachers. Students from DePaul University and Loyola University, mostly computer science majors, learn about ECS and computer science education in CPS before serving as teaching assistants. The teaching assistants support CPS teachers in becoming familiar with computer science concepts, while also enriching CPS students' experiences in the classroom.

Exploring Computer Science (ECS) [1] spawned from the need to provide access to Computer Science to everyone in the US. The success and commitment to equity and diversity of the ECS curriculum in Latina/o communities inspired an interdisciplinary group of educators from the University of Puerto Rico to tackle the lack of K-12 CSE on the island. This group recognized the need to implode the self-perception of Latinas (os) as being foreign to computing [2] by educating them about Computer Science. Teachers were identified as the catalyst change agents to transform Puerto Ricans students into contributors and creators of technology through computing. The intended audience for this panel consists of practitioners and creators of curriculum looking for creative strategies to engage students from diverse cultural backgrounds in computing using their native language.

Research Practice Partnerships (RPPs) are a relatively recent development as a potential strategy to address the complex challenges in computer science education. Consequently, there is little guidance available for assessing the effectiveness of RPPs. This paper describes the formative evaluation approach used to assess the progress of the first year of the formalized RPP, Chicago Alliance for Equity in Computer Science (CAFECS). This paper contributes to the RPP literature by providing a case study of how an RPP effectiveness framework can be adapted and used to inform partnership improvement efforts in computer science education.

For the last three years the CS for All initiative at the National Science Foundation has had a call for research-practice partnership (RPP) projects. The goal of the program is to advance both knowledge and practice in creating inclusive, responsive computer science/computational thinking programs for all K-12 youth. RPPs represent an approach to research that, by design, is both more equitable and more ethical because it leverages community stakeholder experiences and perspectives to inform research questions, methods, and meaning-making. RPPs are thus potentially powerful tools for equity-oriented initiatives such as CS for All. Beginning in December 2016, the Research + Practice Collaboratory, an NSF-funded initiative based at the University of Washington, has led ten RPP development workshops for CS for All, collectively serving over 700 members of the community. At these workshops we have collected data about how the community sees itself benefiting from the adoption of RPP approaches to the work. In this experience paper we describe what we have learned about the field's interests with respect to adopting RPP approaches to the work.

A key strategy for broadening CS participation in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has been the enactment of a high school CS graduation requirement. The Exploring Computer Science (ECS) curriculum and professional development (PD) program serve as a core foundation for supporting enactment of this policy. The CAFECS researcher-practitioner partnership provides support for ECS implementation in CPS. An important part of the sustainability of the ECS PD model in CPS is the development of local workshop facilitators. Potential facilitators have generally been selected based on the CAFECS team's personal familiarity with active ECS teachers. Once selected, teachers engage in a two-year apprenticeship program to become facilitators. However, in the three years since the enactment of the policy, the number of ECS teachers and students has grown significantly. This rapid expansion of the CS teaching force has strained the ability to confidently identify new facilitators from a large pool of teachers and ensure consistency of workshop implementation. As a result, CAFECS is exploring how to supplement the ECS Facilitator Development Model through a proactive recruitment model and explicit support for the mentoring process.

Across the United States, enrollment in high school computer science (CS) courses is increasing. These increases, however, are not spread evenly across race and gender. CS remains largely an elective class, and fewer than three-fourths of the states allow it to count towards graduation. The Chicago Public Schools has sought to ensure access for all students by recently enacting computer science as a high school graduation requirement. The primary class that fulfills the graduation requirement is Exploring Computer Science (ECS), a high school introductory course and professional development program designed to foster deep engagement through equitable inquiry around CS concepts. The number of students taking CS in the district increased significantly and these increases are distributed equitably across demographic characteristics. With ECS serving as a core class, it becomes critical to ensure success for all students independent of demographic characteristics, as success in the course directly affects a student's ability to graduate from high school. In this paper, we examine the factors that correlate with student failure in the course. At the student level, attendance and prior general academic performance correlate with passing the class. After controlling for student characteristics, whether or not teachers participated in the professional development program associated with ECS correlates with student success in passing the course. These results provide evidence for the importance of engaging teachers in professional development, in conjunction with requiring a course specifically designed to provide an equitable computer science experience, in order to broaden participation in computing.

A decade ago, a handful of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) computer science (CS) teachers had a dream that all CPS students should have access to high-quality CS education. At the time, CS was limited to career and technical education or high-achieving students. This small group of teachers learned about Exploring Computer Science (ECS), developed by Joanna Goode and Gail Chapman. At the core of ECS is a set of equitable teaching strategies for engaging all students in inquiry about important CS concepts. The CPS teachers partnered with their administration, CS faculty at DePaul, Loyola, and UIC, and education researchers at The Learning Partnership to secure initial NSF funding for professional development. Close to 300 CPS teachers have participated; half are women and 40% are Hispanic or African American. Key to sustainability is that CPS teachers lead the professional development. This initial success enabled CPS to enact a CS graduation requirement for the high school class of 2020. Currently, three-fourths of CPS high schools offer ECS annually to 13,000 students, who reflect the diverse demographics of CPS. By 2019, every high school will offer ECS to 20,000 students annually. With funding from NSF, the Chicago Alliance for Equity in Computer Science (CAFECS) researcher-practitioner partnership was formalized to support the district in using evidence to shape teacher professional learning and enact accountability policies that emphasize equity for all students. CAFECS research has shown that ECS professional development adequately prepares teachers in fostering student success in the course, developing computational thinking, and increasing participation in and attitudes towards CS.

This study investigated the impact of the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program on the likelihood that students of all races and gender would pursue further computer science coursework in high school. ECS is designed to foster deep engagement through equitable inquiry around computer science concepts. The results indicate that students who pursued ECS as their first course were more likely to pursue another course relative to taking a traditional course as the first course.

Selected Additional Presentations

Since President Obama's announcement of the Computer Science for All Initiative in 2016, there has been a surge in the number of districts that are planning for or newly implementing computer science (CS) offerings at their schools. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is the first large school district to have adopted Computer Science as a high school graduation requirement, taking this significant step along the path towards systemic change. The foundation was laid eight years ago when an informal alliance was formed between a CPS high school CS teacher, a CPS administrator, and three university computer scientists.

The reported study investigated the impact of the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program on the likelihood that students of all races and genders would pursue further computer science coursework in high school. ECS is designed to foster deep engagement through equitable inquiry around computer science concepts. The course provides experiences that are personally relevant. Using survey research, the authors sought to measure whether the personal relevance of students' course experiences influenced their expectancies of success in and value for the field of computer science and whether those attitudes predicted the probability that students pursued further computer science coursework. The results indicate that students find ECS courses personally relevant, are increasing their expectancies of success and perceived value for the field of computer science, and are more likely to take another computing course.

This study investigated the impact of the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program on the likelihood that students of all races and gender would pursue further computer science coursework in high school. ECS is designed to foster deep engagement through equitable inquiry around computer science concepts. If the course provides a meaningful and relevant experience, it will increase students' expectancies of success as well as increase their perceived value for the field of computer science. Using survey research, we sought to measure whether the relevance of students' course experiences influenced their expectancies and value and whether those attitudes predicted whether students pursued further computer science coursework. The results indicate that students whose course experience increased expectancies for success were more likely to take another course.

This study investigated the impact of the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program on the extent to which students of all races and gender increased their interest in pursuing a computer science major. ECS is designed to foster deep engagement through equitable inquiry around computer science concepts. If the course is successful, it will increase students' expectancies of success as well as increase their perceived value for the field of computer science. Using survey research, we sought to measure whether students' course experiences influenced their expectancies and value. The results indicate that students who feel that the course met their goals tended to have higher expectancy and value, which led to increased interest in pursuing a computer science major.

As part of the Taste of Computing project, the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) instructional model has been expanded to many high schools in the Chicago Public Schools system. The authors report on initial outcomes showing that students value the ECS course experience, resulting in increased awareness of and interest in the field of computer science. The authors also compare these results by race and gender. The data provide a good basis for exploring the impact of meaningful computer science instruction on students from groups underrepresented in computing; of several hundred students surveyed, nearly half were female, and over half were Hispanic or African American.

Early in 2011, we sat glumly around a table in Chicago, pondering our second NSF grant proposal rejection. We were working to enhance computer science (CS) education in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Many of the CS courses in the approximately 120 high schools at the time consisted primarily of learning basic word-processing and spreadsheet commands. We had discovered the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) curriculum that we thought would engage students, but were stuck trying to sell the idea. It was at this turning point that we agreed that, funding or not, we were going to provide a compelling and relevant CS course for every CPS high school student. We saw it not only as economically expedient, but also as a justice issue for our students.

We report on initial outcomes of the Taste of Computing project, under which a meaningful computer science course has been initiated in many high schools of the Chicago Public Schools system. Surveys of students have shown that they attribute high value to the course and have experienced increases in their understanding and interest regarding the computing field. Data was also collected from teachers participating in professional development regarding their preparation and confidence in teaching the new course. We report on the strengths of various survey responses and their relationships, and we compare student responses by race and gender. The data provide a good basis for exploring the impact of meaningful computer science instruction on students from groups underrepresented in computing; of several hundred students surveyed, nearly half were female, and over half were Hispanic or African-American.

This paper describes a problem-solving cycle that CAFÉCS education researchers, university professors, and educators developed to systematically and collaboratively conduct and use research to inform practice.

In this study, we applied the Multiple Streams approach from theories of the policy process to explain how the COVID-19 pandemic helped open a policy window for the use of synchronous online instruction during the implementation of an equity-centered computer science credit recovery option in Chicago. Interview and artifact data were used to illustrate how members of an RPP worked to couple the problem of asynchronous online credit recovery with the shifting politics of the pandemic and the solution of sustaining synchronous online instruction beyond the Spring 2020 school closures.

In this paper, the authors present a content analysis of state guidance on remote learning from the 2019-20 school year. The analysis applied an equity framework that was developed based on concepts drawn from a literature review to examine the extent to which state education agencies addressed issues of equity in their guidance.

Most U.S. states support college-readiness and access through dual enrollment, in which high school students enroll in college courses. Concurrent enrollment (CE) allows students to take college courses in their own high school, taught by high school teachers approved by the partner college. CE has positive effects on students' education, but rarely is CS available through CE. Unlike AP, CE provides college credit to students who are assessed throughout the course rather than by a single high-stakes exam/project. This panel will showcase four different types of post-secondary institutions' experiences offering CS-through-CE and discuss its potential as an entry point into CS for students underrepresented in computing, including those in urban and rural settings. Panelists will share challenges (such as teacher credentialing) and benefits of CS-through-CE. The audience will understand supports and barriers to creating CS-through-CE courses, will be provided with resources, and will crowd-source possible next steps in implementing CE as a model for broadening participation.

With the CS for All movement increasingly gaining traction nationally, students entering colleges and universities are arriving with deeper and broader CS experiences. This in turn can change students' higher education starting point. This panel of CS faculty with expertise in this area will present perspectives and models to describe how higher education choices for placement, credit, and curriculum design affect the efforts to broaden participation in student pathways into computing and related studies.

The inaugural launch of the College Board's Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) course coincided within the same year of the announcement of CS For All, a bold national initiative that seeks to support the expansion of computer science education in America, and to empower students to learn computer science and obtain the computational thinking skills needed to thrive in today's transforming digital world. The intent of the AP CSP course supports this initiative as it aims to promote social justice and equity in computer science education. The course is designed to be appealing to a broader audience, including females and minority students, who are underrepresented in computer science, thus providing increased access and opportunity for students to study computer science at the secondary level.

We present resources we have constructed and culled from the internet that can be used in computing outreach visits in K–12 classrooms, especially high schools. We have used such tools at about 100 schools, reaching several thousand students, and achieving positive attitudinal responses in surveys of several hundred of these students.

The recent successes of Computer Science Education Week and code.org's Hour of Code have meant that more K-12 students than ever are being given an authentic, engaging and eye-opening exposure to the wonders of computer science. There are resources aplenty to help high school and college faculty with outreach. These range from easy-to-learn, open-ended programming environments (Scratch, Alice, Snap!), to online coding challenges (code.org, Lite-bot), to non-computer activities with live performances (CS Unplugged, cs4fn), to having the entire outreach experience delivered ``in a box'', thanks to NCWIT. We wanted to bring educators together to share experiences with what they've done specifically with a one-day event, given these vast resources. Now that there are so many online coding experiences, it is enough to shuttle young students into a computer room, point their browser at one of these experiences, and answer questions as they come up? Is it important to include hands-on and hands-off (e.g., nifty demos, inspiring talks) components, and if so, in what order? What do different demographics find the most engaging? Is there any chance that we can do ``damage'', since these highlight-reel experiences might over-simplify how hard some of the problems are, and that not every important result has a flashy payoff? Do some of the early experiences leave students with the impression that computer science is only (say) apps, interactive multimedia programs or solving mazes? Finally, when it's over, what follow-up is appropriate? Participants on the panel will share best practices, common pitfalls, and advice.

Recent computer science enrollments have shown positive trends. However, these trends are not evenly distributed by gender and race. Efforts to recruit underrepresented students should focus on providing information that demystifies the field of computer science. This paper reports on such an effort to inform underrepresented high school students about the field and its diversity. The results suggest that increasing awareness in an enjoyable format can increase student interest in pursuing computer science. These results can provide guidance about ways to encourage students to take high school computer science classes as motivation and preparation for college-level computer science.

This special session explores the use of magic tricks based on computer science ideas; magic tricks help grab students' attention and can motivate them to invest more deeply in underlying CS concepts. Error detection ideas long used by computer scientists provide a particularly rich basis for working such ``magic'', with a CS Unplugged parity check activity being a notable example. Prior work has shown that one can perform much more sophisticated tricks than the relatively well-known CS Unplugged activity, and these tricks can motivate analyses across a wide variety of computer science concepts and are relevant to learning objectives across grade levels from 2nd grade through graduate school. These tricks have piqued the interest of past audiences and have been performed with the aid of online implementations; this conference session will demonstrate enhanced implementations used to illuminate the underlying concepts rather than just to perform the tricks. The audience will participate in puzzling out how to apply relevant concepts as we work through a scaffolded series of tricks centering on error detection and correction. The implementations also provide a useful model for incorporating greater interaction than is typically found in current innovative online interactive textbooks. In addition, they are samples for possible programming assignments that can motivate students using CS Unplugged activities to actively pursue deep programming experiences.

Magic tricks based on computer science concepts help grab student attention and can motivate them to delve more deeply. Error detection ideas long used by computer scientists provide a rich basis for working magic; probably the most well known trick of this type is one included in the CS Unplugged activities. This paper shows that much more powerful variations of the trick can be performed, some in an unplugged environment and some with computer assistance. Some of the tricks also show off additional concepts in computer science and discrete mathematics.

Magic tricks based on discrete mathematics and computing concepts help grab student attention and can motivate them to delve more deeply. Error detection ideas long used by computer scientists provide a rich basis for working magic; probably the most well known trick of this type is one included in the CS Unplugged activities. This paper shows that much more powerful variations of the trick can be performed, some in an unplugged environment and some with computer assistance. Some of the tricks also show off additional applied mathematics concepts in the areas of information theory and cryptography.

This Innovative Practice Work in Progress presents progress in developing exercises for high school students incorporating level-appropriate mathematics into robotics activities. We assume mathematical foundations ranging from algebra to precalculus, whereas most prior work on integrating mathematics into robotics uses only very elementary mathematical reasoning or, at the other extreme, is comprised of technical papers or books using calculus and other advanced mathematics. The exercises suggested are relevant to any differential-drive robot, which is an appropriate model for many different varieties of educational robots. They guide students towards comparing a variety of natural navigational strategies making use of typical movement primitives. The exercises align with Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.

This paper shows how students can be guided to integrate elementary mathematical analyses with motion planning for typical educational robots. Rather than using calculus as in comprehensive works on motion planning, we show students can achieve interesting results using just simple linear regression tools and trigonometric analyses. Experiments with one robotics platform show that use of these tools can lead to passable navigation through dead reckoning even if students have limited experience with use of sensors, programming, and mathematics.

This paper considers various simple ways of navigating in a 2-dimensional territory with a two-wheeled robot of a type typical in educational robotics. We determine shortest paths under various modes of operation and compare.

This paper can be used in two ways. It can provide reference information for incorporating diagonal elements (for bracing or gear meshing) in educational robots built from standard LEGO kits. Alternatively, it can be used as the basis for an assignment for high school or college students to recreate this information; in the process, students will exercise skills in both computer programming and data analysis. Using the paper in the second way can be an excellent integrative experience to add to an existing course; for example, the Exploring Computer Science high school curriculum concludes with the units ``Introduction to Programming'', ``Computing and Data Analysis'', and ``Robotics''.

This paper provides tips for LEGO robot construction involving bracing or gear meshing along a diagonal using standard Botball kits.

To understand student access and success in advanced coursework in computer science (CS), we investigated AP CSP participation and outcomes in CPS. We found that the district is making progress toward equitable access to AP CS courses and that inequalities persist in terms of effectively preparing underrepresented students for AP coursework.

A primary goal of RPPs is to impact decision making in education through the use of research evidence. However, at present, few studies point to what effective research use looks like and what conditions need to be in place in order to maximize the potential of effective research use. Empirical evidence is needed to further understand how and in what ways using research evidence in RPPs is indeed impacting decision making in education and ultimately, improving outcomes for children. One way to do this is for RPPs to ``articulate theories of action for research use, empirically test them, and then iteratively improve their work and refine their theories'' (Tseng, 2017, pg. 10). This study describes the practice of research use in CAFÉCS.

Research Practice Partnerships (RPPs), particularly in the field of Computer Science Education, are a relatively recent development as a potential strategy to address complex education challenges. Currently, there is limited research focused on evaluating RPP effectiveness. Using the RPP effectiveness framework developed by Henrick, Cobb, Penuel, Jackson & Clark, this paper describes the formative evaluation methods used to assess the effectiveness of the first year of the National Science Foundation-funded RPP, Chicago Alliance for Equity in Computer Science (CAFECS). This paper reports initial findings from this evaluation, focusing on the second and third dimensions: (1) conducting rigorous research to inform action and (2) supporting the partner organization to achieve its goals.

Enrollment in high school computer science (CS) courses is increasing but generally not with even distribution across race and gender. The Chicago Public Schools has sought to ensure equitable access by enacting CS as high school graduation requirement. Exploring Computer Science (ECS) is the primary course that fulfills the requirement. It is an introductory course fostering deep engagement through equitable inquiry around CS concepts. Providing students with support for succeeding in ECS is critical so that students can graduate from high school. We examine the factors correlating with student failure in the course and find evidence for the importance of engaging teachers in professional development, in conjunction with requiring a course specifically designed to provide an equitable computer science experience.

The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has taken a unique approach to broadening participation of low-income students, students of color, and girls by establishing Computer Science (CS) as a high school graduation requirement. This policy ensures that all CPS high school students will take a CS course, starting with the class of 2020. However, equity is more than just access. We define equity as equivalence in both the quality and outcomes of CS experiences. Exploring Computer Science (ECS) is the foundational course that fulfills the CPS requirement. Through ECS professional development, the number of qualified ECS teachers has grown. Two years into policy implementation, three-fourths of the schools offered ECS. Our prior research has shown that ECS participation rates by race, gender, and income closely reflect representation of the corresponding populations in CPS. In addition, student performance on the ECS end-of-course assessment was equivalent by race, gender, and income level. This evidence suggests that the CPS graduation policy is contributing towards equitable access to introductory CS with equitable course outcomes. Another outcome of interest is the equitable pursuit of advanced CS. Our primary research question for this poster is the extent to which there is equitable representation and outcomes of students who pursue advanced CS coursework in CPS. In particular, we focused on enrollment in the AP Computer Science A (CSA) and AP Computer Science Principles (CSP) courses from the 2014–15 to the 2017–18 school year. The 2014–15 school year was the first year that the CSP course was pilot tested in CPS, and the 2016–17 school year was the first year that the CSP exam was available. For every student enrolled in either AP CS course, the dataset included race, gender, special education status, English language learner status, free and reduced lunch status, overall GPA, AP course grade, and AP exam score. During the target period, enrollment in CSA declined from a high of 220 to a low of 136 students, while CSP enrollment increased from a pilot of 29 students to 693 students. The combined representation of students by race and gender in both courses was not reflective of the district's student demographics. However, student representation by race and gender was closer to the district representation for CSP than for CSA. We conducted a multiple regression of the factors that correlated with the AP exam performance. The students' overall GPA and the grade in the course were significantly correlated with exam scores. Girls scored statistically lower than boys and Latinx students scored statistically lower than Caucasian, Asian, and African-American students. Students who took ECS prior to CSP scored statistically higher on the CSP exam. These results show promise that using ECS as a foundation course is helpful for students who go on to pursue AP CSP. However, more work needs to be done to capitalize on the success of ECS to encourage CPS schools to offer AP CS courses and to encourage girls and students from underrepresented minority groups to pursue advanced CS coursework.

CAFÉCS builds upon a long-term partnership between Chicago Public Schools (CPS), The Learning Partnership, Depaul University, Loyola University, and the University of Illinois Chicago. It was formed to support CPS in the enactment of it's high school CS grad requirement. This poster will describe the formation of CAFÉCS, how the partnership has evolved after formalizing as an RPP, its research agenda, and the process of assessing the progress of CAFÉCS.

How does Artificial Intelligence (AI) work? In this hands-on session we will step through an example of capturing expertise, creating a game that is smart enough to then beat us.

You may have heard of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices becoming common in our homes, cars, at work, and in public spaces. Come experience a hands-on session playing with an IoT device called a Micro:bit. Half the size of a credit card and costing approx $15, it includes light, motion, and temperature sensors as well as buttons, and has LEDs and other options for output. It is trivially easy to get started with it, and it is extensible to do complex tasks. It includes a radio transmitter and receiver, so Micro:bits can interact with each other. Micro:bits were designed by the BBC and distributed broadly in schools in the UK. Bring a laptop. Wifi will be available and Micro:bits will be loaned to participants.

What does it take to launch and sustain a computer science education effort? Hear how the Chicago Public Schools established Computer Science as a high school graduation requirement and learn how you might replicate this model in your district.

In this workshop, participants will learn how to build custom, data-driven mobile apps using the hybrid model and how to scaffold app development projects to focus students' efforts on specific lesson, unit or assignment goals. It is intended for post-secondary or late secondary educators who want to increase student engagement by including app projects in their courses. With new tools and techniques, barriers to implementation have been reduced: in the hybrid model, developers use HTML5, CSS and Javascript — along with libraries enabling access to mobile device features such as accelerometer, camera, contacts, etc — to quickly develop apps and to distribute them on multiple platforms. Participants will learn how to create app interfaces using the Bootstrap Mobile framework, how to compile their apps using PhoneGap, and how to pull data from public APIs into their apps. Participants will also learn how to use Google tools to quickly create a web service, giving students greater capacity to design and develop relevant, engaging and useful apps. Participants will need a laptop or will need to work with a colleague and should have at least a rudimentary knowledge of HTML, CSS and Javascript.

Exploring Computer Science (ECS) is engaging, hands-on high school curriculum and associated professional development that is being implemented at a systemic level in the Los Angeles Unified School District and is now being replicated in Chicago Public Schools and elsewhere. Unlike many introductory CS courses that are mostly programming, the ECS curriculum paired with the required professional development (PD) equips teachers and school districts for successful guided inquiry experiences across the breadth of CS for every student. Over 85 teachers across the country experienced this PD during the summer of 2012. The key to success in Chicago has been establishing an active partnership. Connections to area public and private high school teachers were initiated through the 120-member Chicago CSTA. This active partnership connects Chicago and Los Angeles (UCLA), multiple Chicago universities (DePaul, UIC, Loyola) and Chicago Public Schools administrators. This model for replication is being explored in other states. This session is designed for high school teachers and university faculty currently partnering in implementing ECS, as well as those wanting to replicate ECS in their own cities. We'll begin with a brief activity coupled with small group discussion to give a very brief taste of ECS. This will be followed by discussion of what is special about this guided-inquiry curriculum as well as strategies for replication. The ECS course is a natural precursor to the proposed new AP CS Principles course.

This hands-on workshop will show you how you can easily program your own Android Apps. We will explore a much simpler mechanism for creating moderately complex mobile phone Apps than has previously been seen in the ACM/Loyola forum. Using MIT's App Inventor environment, creation of Android Apps has become straightforward even for people with no prior programming experience. Android phones have reached over 2/3 market share among smart phones in the second quarter of 2012 according to IDC. With Android and App Inventor both being open source projects (principally developed by Google), they provide tremendous opportunity for democratization of App development. If you bring your laptop, you can participate and follow along with the presentation. All you will need is a Google account and a Windows, Macintosh, or GNU/Linux computer with a moderately recent operating system and browser. Follow the directions at http://beta.appinventor.mit.edu/learn/setup to set up your computer, including an emulator. Do it ahead of time, or come early during the social hour to get help. You will also find optional steps for setting up an actual Android phone; you'll be able to download Apps as long as you have a USB cable or have downloaded a scanner for QR-codes (e.g., ZXing) from Google Play (incorporating the former Android Market).