Girls, Boys, and Bots: Gender Differences in Young Children’s Performance on Robotics and Programming Tasks

Amanda Sullivan; Marina Bers

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 15 (Dec 27, 2015) pp. 145–165

Prior work demonstrates the importance of introducing young children to programming and engineering content before gender stereotypes are fully developed and ingrained in later years. However, very little research on gender and early childhood...

Computer Science Education in Early Childhood: The Case of ScratchJr

Amanda Sullivan; Marina Bers

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 18, No. 1 (Jan 28, 2019) pp. 113–138

Aim/Purpose: This paper aims to explore whether having state Computer Science standards in place will increase young children’s exposure to coding and powerful ideas from computer science in the early years. Background: Computer science education in ...

VEX Robotics Competitions: Gender Differences in Student Attitudes and Experiences

Amanda Sullivan; Marina Bers

Journal of Information Technology Education: Research Vol. 18, No. 1 (Jan 22, 2019) pp. 97–112

Aim/Purpose: Educational robotics competitions are a popular way to increase students’ interest in science and engineering during their K-12 years. However, female students are typically underrepresented in these competitions. The goal of this study ...

The Impact of Teacher Gender on Girls’ Performance on Programming Tasks in Early Elementary School

Amanda Sullivan; Marina Bers

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 17, No. 1 (Feb 05, 2018) pp. 153–162

Aim/Purpose: The goal of this paper is to examine whether having female robotics teachers positively impacts girls’ performance on programming and robotics tasks Background: Women continue to be underrepresented in the technical STEM fields such as...

Gender Differences in Kindergarteners' Robotics and Programming Achievement

Amanda Sullivan; Marina Umaschi Bers

International Journal of Technology and Design Education Vol. 23, No. 3 (August 2013) pp. 691–702

Early childhood is a critical period for introducing girls to traditionally masculine fields of science and technology before more extreme gender stereotypes surface in later years. This study looks at the TangibleK Robotics Program in order to...

Girls, Boys, and Bots: Gender Differences in Young Children?s Performance on Robotics and Programming Tasks

Amanda Sullivan; Marina Umashi Bers

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 15, No. 1 (Dec 27, 2015) pp. 145–165

Prior work demonstrates the importance of introducing young children to programming and engineering content before gender stereotypes are fully developed and ingrained in later years. However, very little research on gender and early childhood...

Enhancing Children's Interest and Knowledge in Bioengineering through an Interactive Videogame

Amanda Strawhacker; Marina Bers; Clarissa Verish; Amanda Sullivan; Orit Shaer

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 17, No. 1 (Feb 05, 2018) pp. 55–81

Aim/Purpose: Bioengineering is a burgeoning interdisciplinary learning domain that could inspire the imaginations of elementary aged children but is not traditionally taught to this age group for reasons unrelated to student ability. This pilot...

The Impact of User Interface on Young Children’s Computational Thinking

Amanda Sullivan; Marina Bers; Alex Pugnali

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 16 (Jan 09, 2017) pp. 171–193

Aim/Purpose: Over the past few years, new approaches to introducing young children to computational thinking have grown in popularity. This paper examines the role that user interfaces have on children\u2019s mastery of computational thinking...

Implementing a Robotics Curriculum in an Early Childhood Montessori Classroom

Mollie Elkin; Amanda Sullivan; Marina Umashi Bers

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 13, No. 1 (2014) pp. 153–169

Ready for Robotics:Bringing together the T and E of STEM in early childhood teacher education

Marina Bers; Safoura Seddighin; Amanda Sullivan

Journal of Technology and Teacher Education Vol. 21, No. 3 (July 2013) pp. 355–377

Prior work has shown that early childhood educators demonstrate a lack of knowledge and understanding about technology and engineering, and about developmentally appropriate pedagogical approaches to bring those disciplines into the classrooms. This ...

Collaboration by Design: Using Robotics to Foster Social Interaction in Kindergarten

Kenneth T. H. Lee; Amanda Sullivan; Marina U. Bers

Computers in the Schools Vol. 30, No. 3 (2013) pp. 271–281

Research shows the importance of social interaction between peers in child development. Although technology can foster peer interactions, teachers often struggle with teaching with technology. This study examined a sample of (n = 19) children...

The Wheels on the Bot go Round and Round: Robotics Curriculum in Pre-Kindergarten

Amanda Sullivan; Elizabeth R. Kazakoff; Marina Umashi Bers

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 12, No. 1 (Jan 01, 2013) pp. 203–219

Computational thinking and tinkering: Exploration of an early childhood robotics curriculum

Marina Umaschi Bers; Louise Flannery; Elizabeth R. Kazakoff; Amanda Sullivan

Computers & Education Vol. 72, No. 1 (March 2014) pp. 145–157

By engaging in construction-based robotics activities, children as young as four can play to learn a range of concepts. The TangibleK Robotics Program paired developmentally appropriate computer programming and robotics tools with a constructionist...

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