Abstract:
Proficiency in computer science skills is crucial for today’s students to succeed in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields and the modern workforce. Despite this
fact, few universities count computer science (CS) classes toward the core curriculum. Our
university, a Hispanic- and minority-serving research-intensive university located in the
American Southwest, recently began counting CS towards fulfilling the laboratory science
requirement in the undergraduate core curriculum. This allowed us to consider the characteristics
of the students who enrolled in a freshman-level CS course (N=31 students) to identify assets
they bring from their diverse life experiences that we might build upon in teaching them. We
sought student perceptions of existing curricular modules, in terms of ownership and creativity.
Students completed pre-course surveys about their CS interests, beliefs, prior knowledge and
experiences, along with demographics. They completed a brief survey to evaluate some of the
modules. We examined descriptive statistics, then conducted tests of difference to identify
students’ assets. We explored contrasts between 1) first-generation college students and their
traditional peers; and 2) students from historically underrepresented and well-represented groups
in computer science. Students who were first in their family to attend college were significantly
likelier to agree that CS is important for everyone to study, but also likelier to acknowledge
being nervous. This finding suggests that creating a supportive learning environment that enables
students to experience relevant CS is integral to retaining first-generation college students in CS.
Students from underrepresented groups were significantly likelier to agree that CS is important
for solving science problems and for helping people understand problem solving using
technology. This finding suggests that our approach, which combines programming and
modeling to solve science problems, may be a particularly productive fit for these students.