Not enough students are earning bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science, which is shocking as computing jobs are growing by the thousands (Zampa, 2016). These jobs have high-paying salaries and are not going to fade from the future any time soon, that is why the falling rates of computer science graduates are alarming. The working hypothesis on why so few college students major in computer science is that most think that it is too hard to learn (Wang, 2017). But I believe the real reason lies in that computer science is not an educational subject that is taught before university, which is too late for most students because by ages 12 to 13 (about seventh to eighth grade) they have decided that computer science concepts are “too difficult” for them to learn (Learning, 2022). Implementing a computer science-based education at an earlier age can possibly circumvent this seen development where students begin to lose confidence and doubt their abilities to learn computer science. This can be done easily by integrating computer science into academic subjects that are already taught in elementary schools such as science, math, and language arts as computer science uses logic, syntax, and other skills that are broadly applicable. Thus, I have created a introductory lesson plan for an elementary school class that incorporates learning how to code with robotics to promote learning computer science principles and destigmatize that it is “too hard” to learn in university.

Not enough students are earning bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science, which is shocking as computing jobs are growing by the thousands (Zampa, 2016). These jobs have high-paying salaries and are not going to fade from the future any time soon, that is why the falling rates of computer science graduates are alarming. The working hypothesis on why so few college students major in computer science is that most think that it is too hard to learn (Wang, 2017). But I believe the real reason lies in that computer science is not an educational subject that is taught before university, which is too late for most students because by ages 12 to 13 (about seventh to eighth grade) they have decided that computer science concepts are “too difficult” for them to learn (Learning, 2022). Implementing a computer science-based education at an earlier age can possibly circumvent this seen development where students begin to lose confidence and doubt their abilities to learn computer science. This can be done easily by integrating computer science into academic subjects that are already taught in elementary schools such as science, math, and language arts as computer science uses logic, syntax, and other skills that are broadly applicable. Thus, I have created a introductory lesson plan for an elementary school class that incorporates learning how to code with robotics to promote learning computer science principles and destigmatize that it is “too hard” to learn in university.

Not enough students are earning bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science, which is shocking as computing jobs are growing by the thousands (Zampa, 2016). These jobs have high-paying salaries and are not going to fade from the future any time soon, that is why the falling rates of computer science graduates are alarming. The working hypothesis on why so few college students major in computer science is that most think that it is too hard to learn (Wang, 2017). But I believe the real reason lies in that computer science is not an educational subject that is taught before university, which is too late for most students because by ages 12 to 13 (about seventh to eighth grade) they have decided that computer science concepts are “too difficult” for them to learn (Learning, 2022). Implementing a computer science-based education at an earlier age can possibly circumvent this seen development where students begin to lose confidence and doubt their abilities to learn computer science. This can be done easily by integrating computer science into academic subjects that are already taught in elementary schools such as science, math, and language arts as computer science uses logic, syntax, and other skills that are broadly applicable. Thus, I have created a introductory lesson plan for an elementary school class that incorporates learning how to code with robotics to promote learning computer science principles and destigmatize that it is “too hard” to learn in university.

Participatory Budgeting (PB) can create changes within individuals and between them and their community. PB processes allow people to determine how to spend a portion of a particular budget (in the case of School PB, a portion of the school budget). These processes help address the underrepresentation of youth in the realm of civics.

I spent time with the steering committee and teacher coordinator of school PB in Carson Junior High to explore the impact of school PB on students’ knowledge, skills, attitudes and practices in relation to civic engagement. In the study I used quantitative and qualitative components. The participants were unique in that they all had prior experience in civic engagement programs in Carson Junior High that were organized by the teacher coordinator of school PB.

The main findings suggest that the participants reported a significant amount of learning in civic knowledge. In comparison, their overall perceived growth in attitudes, practices and skills were much lower. School PB helped the participants in the steering committee to grow in different ways than their other civic engagement programs by providing them with knowledge about budgets, their school’s mechanisms and other students within their school. They also became more familiar with the democratic process of voting and more comfortable with public speaking and presenting.

Recommendations for future research on this process include compiling quantitative and qualitative data from a larger sample consisting of students who had prior civic engagement experience and students who didn’t, and students with different ethnicities from different grades. Another recommendation for future research is to conduct a longitudinal study following school PB participants to high school and beyond to explore long-term impacts.