Can Android App Inventor Bring Computational Thinking to K-12?

App Inventor for Android is a new visual programming plat-form for creating mobile applications for Android-based smart phones. This paper reports on the summer component of an ongoing project aimed at addressing whether App Inven-tor would be a suitable platform for bringing computational thinking to K-12 students. The project brought together a team consisting of two high school CS teachers, two novice undergraduate computing students, a community outreach leader, and a college CS instructor. The students were eas-ily able to develop complex mobile apps completely on their own initiative. Overall, the team found App Inventor to be an accessible and powerful platform that could well support introductory level courses at the college and K-12 levels