Lautaro Cabrera
Student
My work focuses on understanding how teachers conceptualize computer science ideas, embed them into their own lessons, and use them to advance student's disciplinary understanding. I am also interested in how students learn, adapt, and apply computing concepts.
I'm LC, a multi-disciplinary researcher interested in modernizing K-12 education through the integration of computing and technology into classrooms. I'm originally from Argentina, but I studied Psychology as an undergrad at Ohio Wesleyan University, a small liberal arts school in central Ohio. During my college years, I had the opportunity to work and volunteer at the on-campus preschool鈥攁n experience that changed my life and taught me how intriguing, rewarding, and fun (and exhausting) it is to work with young children and their sponge-like minds. After graduation, I was lucky to work for a brief period at Nationwide Children's Hospital as a research assistant where I got to deepen my appreciation for systematic investigations of children's development.
When I transitioned to UMD, I landed on a new field鈥攅ducational technology鈥攚ith lots of interests but no concrete research plans. I started my research career under the guidance of one of my advisors, Dr. Tammy Clegg, and her wonderful project . Working on this project, I started to grasp the role of community and personal relationships in learning, and how much more than just "how students learn X" there is to developing young people's minds and personalities. But, in 2017, having taken computer science classes in high-school and college and interested in education at the primary level, I found the perfect opportunity to work as part of an NSF STEM+Computing grant that has shaped my work as a researcher. Since then, I've been focused on supporting elementary schol teachers in integrating computational thinking into their science instruction. But, as I maintain my psychology, design, and early childhood education interests, I'm often pursuing other related research endeavors.
In my free time, I try to exercise by playing soccer or tennis, although I've lately fallen back in love with a game from my childhood: .
Wylie Dissertation Fellowship 鈥 Fall 2020
The Graduate School 鈥 糖心少女, College Park
The Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship is a university-wide competitive fellowship that aims to support 糖心少女 doctoral candidates who are in the latter stages of writing their dissertations. Awardees are selected by a 12-Member multi-disciplinary panel from The Graduate School who review and evaluate all of the Semester Dissertation Fellowship proposals.
Dean鈥檚 Fellowship 鈥 2016, 2017, 2018
College of Education 鈥 糖心少女, College Park
The Graduate School's Dean's Fellowships are offered by graduate programs in order to create greater flexibility in creating overall support packages for students. Each year, the Graduate School allocates a certain number of Dean鈥檚 Fellowships to colleges who then allocate the fellowships to programs. Programs are then responsible for recruiting and retaining outstanding students.
Best Student Paper Nomination 鈥 June 2018
International Conference of Learning Sciences (ICLS)
Our paper titled 鈥淓xploring Practices on the Move: Facilitating Learning Across a Neighborhood鈥 was nominated for best student paper, as I was the first author as a graduate student.
Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Award 鈥 2015
Psychology Department 鈥 Ohio Wesleyan University
The Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Award is presented to the outstanding senior psychology major selected on the basis of academic performance, professional potential and general merit.
W.E.B. DuBois Academic Achievement Award 鈥 2012 - 2015
Office of Multicultural Student Affairs 鈥 Ohio Wesleyan University
This award is given to students who successfully obtain a 3.50 or higher GPA for each academic term.
Invited Manuscripts
Ketelhut, D. J., & Cabrera, L. (2020). Computational Thinking in Early Childhood and Elementary Science and Engineering Education. Report for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Education committee on Enhancing Science and Engineering in Prekindergarten through Fifth Grade.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications
McGinnis, J. R., Hestness, E., Mills, K., Ketelhut, D. J., Cabrera, L., & Jeong H. (2020). Preservice science teachers鈥 beliefs about computational thinking following a curricular module within an elementary science methods course. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 20(1).
Cabrera, L. (2019). Teacher Preconceptions of Computational Thinking: A Systematic Literature Review. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 27(3), 305-333. Waynesville, NC USA: Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education. Retrieved January 3, 2020 from .
Ketelhut, D. J., Mills, K., Hestness, E., Cabrera, L., Plane, J., & McGinnis, J. R. (2019). Teacher Change Following a Professional Development Experience in Integrating Computational Thinking into Elementary Science. Journal of Science Education and Technology, (Computational Thinking from a Disciplinary Perspective), 1鈥15.
Mills, K., Bonsignore, E., Clegg, T., Ahn, J., Yip, J., Pauw, D., Cabrera, L., Hernly, K., Pitt, C. (2019). Connecting Children鈥檚 Scientific Funds of Knowledge Shared on Social Media to Science Concepts. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.
Golbeck, J., Auxier, B., Bickford, A., Cabrera, L., Conte McHugh, M., Moore, S., 鈥 Zimmerman, J. (2018). Congressional twitter use revisited on the platform鈥檚 10-year anniversary. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 69(8), 1067鈥1070.
Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings
Cabrera, L., Maloney, J. H., & Weintrop, D. (2019). Programs in the Palm of your Hand: How Live Programming Shapes Children鈥檚 Interactions with Physical Computing Devices. In ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC). Boise, ID: Association for Computing Machinery.
Ketelhut, D. J., Hestness, E., Cabrera, L., Jeong, H., Plane, J., & McGinnis, J. R. (2019). Examining the Role of Mentor Teacher Support in a Professional Learning Experience for Preservice Teachers on Integrating Computational Thinking into Elementary Science Education. In K. Graziano (Ed.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (SITE) 2019 (pp. 2281鈥2285). Las Vegas, NV, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved from
Cabrera, L., Ahn, J., Yip, J. C., Clegg, T., Hernly, K., Bonsignore, E., 鈥 Pauw, D. (2018)*. Exploring Practices on the Move: Facilitating Learning Across a Neighborhood. In Proceedings 13th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), 705鈥712.
*[Best Student Paper Nominee]
Hestness, E., Jass Ketelhut, D., McGinnis, J.R., Plane, J., Razler, B., Mills, K., Cabrera, L. & Gonzalez, E. (2018). Computational Thinking Professional Development for Elementary Science Educators: Examining the Design Process. In E. Langran & J. Borup (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2018 (pp. 1904-1912). Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Ahn, J., Clegg, T., Yip, J., Bonsignore, E., Pauw, D., Cabrera, L., 鈥 Marr, R. (2018). Science Everywhere: Designing Public, Tangible Displays to Connect Youth Learning Across Settings. In Proceedings of SIGCHI Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2018). New York, NY: ACM., 1鈥12.
Invited Conference Presentations
Cabrera, L., Byrne, V., Killen, H., Coenraad, M., Ketelhut, D. J., & Plane, J. (2021). Facilitation as Assessment of Teacher鈥檚 Computational Thinking Knowledge during Lesson Co-Design. To Be Presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference 2021.
Killen, H., Coenraad, M., Byrne, V., Cabrera, L., Ketelhut, D. J., & Plane, J. (2021). Benefits of Expanded Mentorship in a Community of Practice Model for Computational Thinking Professional Development. To Be Presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference 2021.
Coenraad, M., Byrne, V., Ketelhut, D. J., Plane, J., Cabrera, L., Killen, H., & Mills, K. M. (2021). Designing the Science Teaching Computational Thinking Inquiry Group: Professional Development for CT-Integrated Elementary Science. To Be Presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference 2021.
Cabrera, L., Coenraad, M., Mills, K., McGinnis, J. R., Jass Ketelhut, D. (2020). Preservice Teachers鈥 Self-Efficacy and Computational Thinking: A Mixed-Methods Approach. To be presented at the Division C Outstanding Graduate Student Research Posters session at the American Educational Research Association Conference 2020 (AERA). San Francisco, CA.
Killen, H., Mills, K., Cabrera, L., Coenraad, M., Jass Ketelhut, D., McGinnis, J. R., Plane, J. (2020). Computational Thinking in Elementary Education: A Framework to Develop a CT Language Roadmap. To be presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference 2020 (AERA). San Francisco, CA.
Mills, K., Coenraad, M., Cabrera, L., Killen, H., Jass Ketelhut, D., McGinnis, J. R. (2020). A Design Based Research Approach to Integrating Computational Thinking into Elementary Science Teacher Education. To be presented at a roundtable at the American Educational Research Association Conference 2020 (AERA). San Francisco, CA.
Cabrera, L., Jass Ketelhut, D., Hestness, E. E., Mills, K., & McGinnis, J. R. (2019). Effects of a Computational Thinking Module on Preservice Teachers鈥 Knowledge and Beliefs. Presented at a roundtable at the American Educational Research Association Conference (AERA). Toronto, ON.
Mills, K., Bonsignore, E., Pauw, D., Pitt, C., Hernly, K., Cabrera, L., 鈥 Clegg, T. (2019). Eliciting Scientific Funds of Knowledge Through Social Media Sharing in Formal Learning Environments. Presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference (AERA). Toronto, ON.
Hestness, E. E., Mills, K. M., McGinnis, J. R., Ketelhut, D. J., Jeong, H., & Cabrera, L. (2019). Preservice Teachers鈥 Beliefs About CT Integration in Elementary Science Instruction. In NARST 92nd Annual International Conference. Baltimore, MD.
Cabrera, L., McGinnis, J. R., Ketelhut, D. J., Hestness, E. E., Mills, K. M., & Jeong, H. (2019). Preservice Teachers鈥 Changes in Self-Efficacy Regarding Computational Thinking. In NARST 92nd Annual International Conference. Baltimore, MD.
McGinnis, J. R., Ketelhut, D. J., Hestness, E. E., Mills, K. M., Jeong, H., & Cabrera, L. (2019). An Examination of Preservice Teachers鈥 Integration of Computational Thinking in Their Elementary School Lesson Plans. In NARST 92nd Annual International Conference. Baltimore, MD.
Cabrera, L., Ahn, J., Yip, J. C., Clegg, T., Hernly, K., Bonsignore, E., 鈥 Pauw, D. (2018). Exploring Practices on the Move: Facilitating Learning Across a Neighborhood. Presented at the Human-Computer Interaction Lab 35th Annual Symposium. 糖心少女, College Park.
Science Everywhere 鈥 Graduate Research Assistant
糖心少女, College Park 鈥 College Park, MD
Science Everywhere is an NSF-funded research study aimed at understanding how technology can engage entire communities in science learning. We utilize a design-based research approach in which we co-design innovative science learning technology with families, teachers, and leaders in a community, implement that technology in the community, and then redesign that technology in an iterative design process. Broadly, this study will contribute to theory on connected learning by developing an understanding of how to connect science learning at home, school, and community spaces with technology. This study also aims to contribute to our understanding of parent-child learning, interactive display design, and social media for learning.
Computational Thinking in Preservice Education 鈥 Graduate Research Assistant
糖心少女, College Park 鈥 College Park, MD
The goal of our study is to investigate how to improve the preparation that elementary teachers receive about computational thinking (CT) to increase both the quantity and quality of exposure for elementary-aged children that can then be built upon throughout their schooling.
Our Goals: As Computational Thinking (CT) becomes more relevant in professional science, we situate our project as a response to the need to include CT into K-12 education. Specifically, our goal is to help preservice teachers develop the necessary skills to integrate CT into their science teaching.
Computational Thinking: CT is "the thought processes involved in formulating problems and their solutions so that the solutions are represented in a form that can be effectively carried out by an information-processing agent" such as a computer (Wing 2006). However, we also base our work on Weintrop et al.'s (2016) CT practices for integration of CT in science and math teaching.
Equity: While CT is considered an essential skill in today's world, participation in STEM is not representative of the racial and gender distribution of our population. Especially in Computer Science, women and minorities are largely absent from academic and professional positions.