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Classroom computing challenges can help students see computing as a tool for investigating real questions, creating something, or expressing an idea. They can also make the subject feel difficult or frustrating—especially when students are unfamiliar with the tools or concepts. What students take away depends partly on the challenge’s design and partly on what they already know; no single format guarantees greater confidence, belonging, or achievement.
What a computing challenge can change
A challenge can influence more than what students learn to do. It can affect whether they see computing as useful, relevant, and connected to work they care about. In a US high-school physics case study, students described computation as making science learning feel more authentic when they were already familiar with it. Students without that familiarity could instead experience frustration and aversion toward physics.
The study authors called computation “a double-edged sword”: it can make science learning more authentic for students who know it, while generating frustration for students who do not. That finding comes from a particular physics classroom study, not a general estimate of how all computing challenges affect students. Read the 2022 study in Physical Review Physics Education Research.
Screen-based and hands-on activities involve different trade-offs
Hands-on work may appeal to students without feeling easier. A study of 170 middle-school students compared a screen-based computing unit with a physical-computing unit. The screen-based group reported statistically greater attitudes toward classroom applications and the future use of computing concepts. Students in the physical-computing group perceived greater difficulty, yet preferred the hands-on opportunities.
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Physical computing means designing and programming physical systems or devices using computational-thinking skills. The comparison does not establish that screens are better overall: students’ reported attitudes and preference for hands-on learning are different outcomes. The repository abstract does not report effect sizes, so the size of the differences cannot be inferred from “statistically greater.” Read the 2022 study in the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.
Purpose can shape whether computing feels relevant
Students may be more able to connect computing to their goals when they can see who or what it could help. A 2023 ACM conference study analyzed survey data from more than 45,000 undergraduates and found that the relationship between communal goals and belonging varied with students’ perceptions of computing’s communal-goal affordances—that is, whether they saw computing as offering ways to work toward goals involving other people.
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This is evidence of an association in undergraduate survey data, not proof that assigning a social-impact challenge will change school-age students’ attitudes or belonging. It does, however, support asking whether an activity makes the human purpose of computing visible, rather than presenting code as an isolated technical exercise. Read the study presented at ACM SIGCSE 2023.
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An exploratory study of multilingual upper-elementary students in a year-long computational-thinking curriculum reported favorable pre- and post-program differences in students’ computing experiences, perceptions of computing, self-perception as computer scientists, and family support. The findings are promising for that context, but the study’s exploratory phase does not establish lasting or broadly causal change. Read the study in ACM Transactions on Computing Education.
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A separate 2026 study adapted an ecological belonging intervention for an introductory college computer-science course. Recipients showed larger increases in self-efficacy, and first-year students had a larger increase in one belonging factor, Affect. The study found no significant effects on exam performance, engagement, persistence, or other belonging factors. Because it tested a belonging intervention rather than a challenge-based lesson format, it cannot show that classroom challenges produce those effects. Its results illustrate why confidence, belonging, engagement, persistence, and performance should be treated as separate outcomes. Read the 2026 study in ACM Transactions on Computing Education.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What to look for when choosing a classroom challenge
Evidence across these studies points to questions teachers can use to think through an activity—not a universal recipe or guarantee of an outcome.
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- Prior familiarity: Are students being asked to learn a computing concept and use unfamiliar tools at the same time? In the high-school physics case, familiarity helped students experience computation as authentic work, while unfamiliarity could add frustration.
- Format and friction: Does the activity use a screen, a physical device, or both? The middle-school comparison found different responses to these formats: screen-based students reported stronger attitudes in specific application and future-use areas, while physical-computing students perceived more difficulty and preferred hands-on opportunities.
- Visible purpose: Can students explain what their computing work helps them investigate, make, or communicate? Undergraduate survey findings connect perceptions of computing’s communal possibilities with the relationship between communal goals and belonging, but do not establish an effect for younger students.
- Outcome being claimed: Is the evidence about attitudes, self-efficacy, belonging, engagement, persistence, or performance? Improvement in one measure does not establish improvement in the others.
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