“Now that I know what computer science really is”: supporting interest in computer science during a social robotics summer camp for girls

Background and context A major reason for underrepresented students to show low interest in computer science (CS) includes having stereotypes of who belongs in CS, what CS is like and who does computing.Objective We examine the experiences of girls in the MyTurn Social Robotics program, designed to foster interest by supporting student knowledge, value and sense of belonging in CS and combat stereotypes through social interactions with peers and mentors.Method This mixed-method study of girls in a week-long robotics summer camp (N = 17) reports on pre- and post-camp surveys, code artifact analysis, post-camp interviews and qualitative video analysis of two case study groups.Findings Surveys showed significant increases in interest in CS, computing careers, future computing opportunities and sense of belonging. The code artifacts revealed differences in the complexity of the scripts between cohorts. Thematic analysis found: (1) girls’ views of CS expanded from narrow stereotypes to broader perspectives and (2) belonging was shaped by shifting views of who does CS, building skills, mentor support and connections to personal interests. Video analysis revealed that the two cohorts followed distinct pathways to building interest.Implications This work contributes to ongoing efforts to design computing experiences for historically marginalized groups in CS by exploring a multifaceted scaffolding approach to impact the participation and interest of girls in CS. Findings suggest that computing programs designed to include distributed scaffolds as complementary mechanisms, social scaffolds from mentors and peers, and material scaffolds from CT tools and pedagogical design, for project-based learning with social robotics, can support multiple pathways to the development of interest in CS.