Project

Code Beats
Making music could be a way to learn programming. We teach computational thinking (CT) via a curriculum where (1) students learn how to code to manipulate and create hip hop beats and (2) students experience computation. As students make beats, they, almost without noticing, learn fundamental concepts and skills of computer science.

Partner4CS
We propose to establish sustainable, high-quality professional development and support for middle (G6-8) and high school (G9-12) computer science teachers by teaming university faculty and undergraduates in computer science, education, and math education and leveraging successful components of several existing models across the country.

Fox and Field
What types of scaffolds narrow the computational thinking (CT) performance gap between experts and novices within a coding obstacle course? We designed Fox and Field, a block-based programming game with different scaffolds and prompted to undergrad students in CS major and non-CS major. We assessed their CT knowledge and logged their programming process data to understand this question.

Publication

Scaffolding Expertise Evaluating Scaffolds for Block-Based Coding Among Experts and Novices [ACM DL] [PDF]
Yifan Zhang, Teomara Rutherford
2024 International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for Education (ISAIE 2024)

Examining Participation and Outcomes Among Middle School Students in a Virtual Camp on Coding with Music [ISLS Repo] [PDF] [Slides]
Yifan Zhang, Santiago Ospina Tabares, Ray Patt, Douglas Lusa Krug, Hilary Mead, Chrystalla Mouza, David Shepherd, and Lori Pollock
International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS)

Using Domain-Specific, Immediate Feedback to Support Students Learning Computer Programming to Make Music [ACM DL] [PDF]
Douglas Lusa Krug, Yifan Zhang, Chrystalla Mouza, Taylor Barnett, Lori Pollock, and David C. Shepherd
Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE). 2023.

A Case Study of Middle Schoolers’ Use of Computational Thinking Concepts and Practices during Coded Music Composition [ACM DL] [PDF] [Slides]
Yifan Zhang, Douglas Lusa Krug, Chrystalla Mouza, David C. Shepherd, and Lori Pollock
Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE). 2022.

Exploring Computational Thinking Across Disciplines Through Student-Generated Artifact Analysis [ACM DL] [Abstract] [Poster]
Yifan Zhang, Amanda Mohammad Mirzaei, Lori Pollock, Chrystalla Mouza, and Kevin Guidry
ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE). 2021.