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This paper draws on critical perspectives and a specific design case of learning in making with physical computing cards to argue that unblackboxing as a design goal must go beyond technical or computational aspects of computational making. Taking a justice-oriented stance on computing education, we review earlier perspectives on unblackboxing in computing education and their limitations to support equitable learning for young people. As a provocation and practical guide for designers and educators, we propose the idea of deblackboxing, and outline a set of prompts, organized into four areas, or layers – disciplinary knowledge and practice, externalities, histories, and possible futures. Tools and materials designed through the lens of deblackboxing could provide new possibilities for interaction, production, and pedagogy in makerspaces. We demonstrate how these might be applied in the design of a set of creative physical computing materials used with youth in a weeklong summer workshop. 

When engaging issues at the intersection of science and society, science centers, museums and other informal STEM learning organizations struggle to center perspectives of communities most often impacted by the unequal distribution of technologies' benefits and harms. Increasingly, participatory design is being utilized to do this, but the field must continue to refine methods for accessing the expertise of community partners and keeping it present across multiple design stages and products. We share a case study in which a multi‐institution project team, developing resources for educational programming around radio frequency technologies, worked with community design to establish avalues foundationthat could guide initial planning and ongoing development. We share design methods adapted fromvalues sensitive designand equity‐centered research‐practice partnership, as well as insights relevant to enacting design practice that can build relational equity, leverage data across institutional boundaries, and span locations, platforms and levels of expertise.

 

To make computer science (CS) more equitable, many educational efforts are shifting foci from access and content understanding to include identification, agency, and social change. As part of these efforts, we look at how learners perceive themselves in relation to what they believe CS is and what it means to participate in CS. Informed by three design lenses, unblackboxing, culturally responsive computing, and creative production, we designed a physical computing kit and activities. Drawing from qualitative analysis of interviews, artifacts, and observation of six young people in a weeklong summer workshop, we report on the experiences of two young Black women designers. We found that using these materials young people were able to: leverage personal goals and prior experiences in computing work; feel as if they were figuring out computing systems; and recognize computational technologies as created by people for particular purposes. We observed that while the mix of materials and activities created some frustration for participants, it also prompted processes of community building and inquiry. We discuss implications for design of computational tools in equity-centered CS education and pose seamfulness as an emergent heuristic when designing for learning that engages young people with the social, not just material, systems of computing. 

Overly simplistic school science laboratories constrain student agency. We share and discuss a case from 9th grade science classroom in which students all conducted highly varied independent investigations that were each highly coherent and scientifically well-motivated. We discuss the conditions that led to their experiments in terms of instability and uncertainty. Our findings suggest that it may be beneficial to support and recognize multiple forms of uncertainty simultaneously to encourage multiple forms of investigation to respond to those uncertainties. Finally, an “instability” caused by having multiple candidate models or explanations in play may be more generative than uncertainties based on gaps in knowledge. 

Computational tools are being integrated into science classrooms, but in ways that are often procedurally prescribed, constraining learner agency and ignoring student purposes and epistemic practices. We draw on theory and approaches from making-oriented education to introduce computational tinkering in science as a construct for thinking about and designing for learning with computational tools. Across two design research cycles in high school science classrooms, we analyze episodes of student activity to understand how practices of computational tinkering might translate from informal settings to formal science classrooms to enable learners to engage in practices that reflect authentic scientific work, draw upon learner experiences, and support more equitable participation in science. Looking across both student-centered and curricula-centered science classrooms for emergent goals, rapid iteration, and noticing and reflection, we saw computational tinkering take shape during moments of play, troubleshooting and tuning, and sharing. We discuss findings and implications for practice in relation to professional science practice and goals of science education in an era of computational ascendancy. 

When asked about how they deal with unforeseen problems, novice learners often describe a process of “trial and error.” This process might fairly be described as iteration, a critical step in the design process, but falls short of the practices that engineering education needs to develop. In the face of novel and multifaceted problems, future engineers must be comfortable and competent not just trying again, but identifying failure points, troubleshooting, and running systematic tests with relevant data. To examine the abilities of novice designers to test and effectively refine ideas and prototypes, we conducted qualitative analysis of structured interviews, audio, video, and designs of 11 girls, ages 9 -11, working on computational papercrafts as part of a museum-based STEAM summer camp. The projects involved design and construction of expressive paper and cardboard sculptures with gears and linkages powered by servomotors. Over the course of one day, the girls generated designs inspired by a camp theme, then had to work with mechanics, electronics and craft to create working versions that would be displayed as part of a public exhibit. Computational papercraft was selected because it lowers cost and intimidation. Our design conjecture was that by making materials familiar and abundant, learners would have more relevant knowledge, could easily modify and replicate components, and would therefore be better able to recognize potential faults and more likely to engage in testing and refinement. We also supported design and troubleshooting with a customized circuit board and an online gear simulator. In the first stage of this study, we looked at what engineering practices emerged, given these conditions. We asked: What opportunities for testing and refinement did computational papercrafts open up? What resources and tools do young learners employ when testing and refining designs? Analysis showed that technical supports for testing and refinement were successful in supporting valued testing and refinement practices as youth pursued personal goals. Use of the simulator and customized microcontroller allowed for consideration of multiple alternatives and for “trial before error.” Learners were able to conduct focused tests on subsystems of their paper machines, and to make “small bets,” keeping initial ideas and designs fluid. Inexpensive materials also allowed them to test and refine at late project stages, without feeling that they were wasting time or materials. The analysis sheds light on young students practices of testing and refinement, and how to best support young people as they begin learning trajectories in engineering. The approach is especially relevant within making-oriented engineering education and other settings working to broaden participation in engineering.