You hear the terms all the time. But even as a tech savvy consumer who might understand what those terms mean, does that mean you actually understand how a computer thinks for itself? Or how to craft an algorithm? Or what decision trees do? If you've got the world's greatest app idea, maybe it's time to learn enough about computer science to actually make your idea real.

A team of Carnegie Mellon University learning scientists are developing a tool that could change the way high school teachers and students approach their computer science classes. This month, Schmidt Futures announced that the team is one of the winners of their Futures Forum on Learning: Tools Competition. This award will fund tools to aid recovery from pandemic learning loss and advance the field of learning engineering. The tool, RecapCS, was created by Ember Liu and Neil Thawani with support from John Stamper, an assistant professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute. Liu and Thawani both graduated from the HCII's Master of Educational Technology and Applied Learning Science (METALS) program, which trains graduate students to become learning engineers and learning experience designers.

SAN FRANCISCO -- New research from Google shows that black students are less likely to have computer science classes in school and are less likely to use computers at home even though they are 1.5 times more interested in studying computer science than their white peers. The findings are part a report released Tuesday by Google in partnership with Gallup that puts the spotlight on the racial and gender gap in K-12 computer science education. Google says its aim with the research, which surveyed thousands of students, parents, teachers, principals and superintendents, is to increase the numbers of women, blacks and Latinos in computer science. Computer science classes are popping up in K-12 schools around the country. The growing effort is coming from many quarters -- the National Science Foundation, the College Board, Freada Kapor's SMASH Academy, Black Girls Code, Girls Who Code, Code.org and major tech companies such as Google -- all searching for the best way to put computers and computer know-how in the hands of kids from all racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.

From a huge effort to help kids realize their potential to a celebration of our dear old planet, this week brought plenty of interesting and inspiring news around Microsoft. We've rounded up some of the highlights in this latest edition of Weekend Reading. Earlier this week, Microsoft announced grants to 100 nonprofit partners in 55 countries as part of YouthSpark, a global initiative to increase access for young people to learn computer science. In turn, these nonprofit partners -- such as Laboratoria, CoderDojo and City Year -- will use the power of local schools, businesses and community organizations to empower students to achieve more for themselves, their families and their communities. The nonprofits will build upon the work that Microsoft already has underway through programs like Hour of Code with Code.org,