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Despite the elevated importance of Data Science in Statistics, there exists limited research investigating how students learn the computing concepts and skills necessary for carrying out data science tasks. Computer Science educators have investigated how students debug their own code and how students reason through foreign code. While these studies illuminate different aspects of students’ programming behavior or conceptual understanding, a method has yet to be employed that can shed light on students’ learning processes. This type of inquiry necessitates qualitative methods, which allow for a holistic description of the skills a student uses throughout the computing code they produce, the organization of these descriptions into themes, and a comparison of the emergent themes across students or across time. In this article we share how to conceptualize and carry out the qualitative coding process with students’ computing code. Drawing on the Block Model to frame our analysis, we explore two types of research questions which could be posed about students’ learning. Supplementary materials for this article are available online. 

Learning computer science (CS) is important for careers of tomorrow. Informal CS opportunities, however, are often limited by a student's socioeconomic disposition, location, ethnicity, gender, and ability. In Montana, these limitations are exemplified in rural communities where a dedicated CS teacher is not available. In order to make informal CS opportunities more equitable, we developed culturally responsive outreach modules for students across Montana by using storytelling as a basis of inquiry. In this paper, we present an outreach module based on the Skokomish story of `How Daylight Came to Be.' In this story, the two main characters---Ant and Bear---each dance for Dokweebah (the Changer). Students animate these dances using event-driven programming in the drag-and-drop programming environment Alice. While creating their dances, students construct knowledge of targeted CS concepts and make design decisions based on the context of the story. This outreach module reframes the context and activity of computing in an effort to transform the way in which students see themselves as potential future computer scientists, and democratize computing as a means of telling stories. By using Brayboy's Tribal Critical Race Theory as a theoretical framework for the development of the outreach program, we introduce computing from a lens of American Indian ways of knowing, culture, and power. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this unit in this exploratory study, we describe students' responses to the outreach programs in terms of perceptions of CS and perceptions of Alice as a culturally relevant programming tool. 

We aim to bring computer science (CS) to rural and American Indian students by blending American Indian storytelling practices with the educational computer programming environment called Alice. The lessons we develop cover CS concepts within the framework of the Content Standards of our state, and the Essential Understandings of American Indians. In this paper, we describe the Plateau Indian Beaded Bags lesson plan, its implementation, and the results of a lesson pilot. In the Plateau Indian Beaded Bags lesson, students learn about the beadwork of Columbia River Plateau-centered tribes. After viewing a picture of a beaded bag with a scene depicting a man on a horse in front of a woman with a tipi in the background, students are asked to construct a story based on this image. They then translate their story into code to create an animation of the story in Alice. Through this hands-on experience, students engage in algorithmic problem solving while using their imagination and creativity, increasing their exposure to, and interest in, CS. 

Exposure to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) at a young age is key to inspiring students to pursue careers in these fields. Thus, many institutions of higher education offer events to engage youth in STEM activities. These events are most effective when they are adapted to the specific audience. In Montana, a large percentage of the K-12 student population is from rural communities, where the ability to participate in such events is limited due to travel logistics and a shortage of relatable materials. We have developed a computer science outreach module that targets these populations through the use of storytelling and the Alice programming environment, thus drawing a parallel between storytelling and building algorithms. We describe the module's implementation, report and analyze feedback, and provide lessons learned from the module's implementation at outreach events.