Recent efforts have increased the number of elementary and middle schools teaching computer science — but do they have the right tools for the job? Elementary school teachers are usually responsible for teaching all subjects, and often do not have a background or training in computer science. Fourth through sixth grade students are still developing their math and reading skills as well as learning how to type and use computers. Fortunately, computer science is one of the only domains that can adapt to meet the needs of the user. Unlike math or physics, computer science has few constants; computers, languages, and development environments have changed over the last decades and will continue to evolve. How can programming languages and environments better meet the needs of upper elementary classes learning computer science? This paper looks at designing block-based programming environments for upper elementary school students as a part of a larger research study on early computer science education.

Block-based programming environments let children create complex, visual programs without worrying about compiling or syntax errors. This paper describes the research studies completed in the design and implementation of block-based programming environments created alongside the development of KELP-CS, a computational thinking curriculum for 4th — 6th grade. Both the programming environment and curriculum were piloted in schools across California as part of a design-based research project.

Young Americans consistently vote at lower rates than older Americans, particularly seniors. What explains this age-turnout gap, and which interventions, if any, can help reduce it?

My dissertation argues that voting costs are distributed unequally across age groups, and that this unequal distribution plays a central role in explaining the age-turnout gap. I present empirical evidence that when certain voting costs are alleviated via the introduction of voter registration reforms, youth voting rates disproportionately increase: same-day registration laws boost youth turnout by 3.2 to 7.3 percentage points, and automatic voter registration is associated with a 6.3 percentage-point increase in youth turnout. Older age groups see much smaller effects.

Using data from an original, nationally representative survey, I show that young Americans face higher voting costs than older age groups. In turn, these higher costs predict lower registration and turnout rates. Compared to seniors, today’s youth are less informed about the voting process and how to research candidates and issues; struggle more to find the time to vote, to plan ahead to vote, and to balance voting with other life tasks; face greater transportation issues and tradeoffs between voting and earning money; have greater difficulty with the parts of voting that cannot be done online; disproportionately think mail voting is a hassle; and are less likely to own the documentation they need to register and vote. When asked directly, youth are significantly more likely than older Americans to say that registration and voting are difficult. After adjusting for race and ethnicity, gender, education, and family income, being young (relative to being a senior) is a large and statistically significant predictor of facing voting costs. I also find that young people are the least-informed of any age group about their state’s policies on same-day registration, early voting, mail voting, and policies around updating voter registration.

Considering the recent rise in youth-targeted voter suppression, I present data from a randomized controlled survey experiment, which finds that informing young people about efforts to limit their ability to vote does not significantly increase their voting intentions. Notably, it does among youth with a strong sense of age identity—but most young people do not identify especially strongly with their age group. Previously documented backlashes to voter suppression may have been larger because they targeted more cohesive or “important” identity groups. Unless young people begin seeing their age as a more important aspect of their identity, we should not expect youth-targeted suppression to spark the same countermobilization.