Collaborative Research: Conference on Advancing the Integration of Interdisciplinary Computational Thinking in the Physical Sciences and Life Sciences

American Association Of Physics Teachers, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

The American Association of Physics Teachers and Michigan State University will develop a three-day conference to evolve a research-driven strategy for the application of computational approaches and computational thinking in physical science education and closely-related disciplinary areas. The conference will bring together 35 participants, including physical and life science educators, education researchers, and computer science educators as well as representatives from other disciplines who have worked on integrating computational thinking in their secondary school disciplinary courses and who have practical experience with the challenges and opportunities afforded by computational education and the critical competencies and skills needed to prepare students in future computational science careers. The conference will develop a set of open research questions whose answers will provide evidence for the effectiveness of computational thinking integration and to articulate the common features of the computational thinking skills and competencies developed by the computer science professional community and by the physics, physical sciences, and computer science education communities. Having students develop computational thinking competencies will have a major influence on college and career readiness and the enhancement of the nation's computational workforce. The results of the conference will provide advice to secondary school educators about how to develop STEM and computer science education programs that foster the development of computational thinking for students, potentially affecting millions of students across the nation. This project is in response to NSF Dear Colleague Letter, DRK12: Advancing STEM + Computing (17-149) and is supported by the STEM + Computing Program that advances research and development of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to the integration of computing within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning for preK-12 students in both formal and informal settings. STEM+C supports research on how students learn to think computationally to solve interdisciplinary problems in the STEM fields. Computational thinking includes the use of computational skills and methods to articulate and solve essential problems in a range of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, and to aid in developing a deeper understanding of core disciplinary ideas and crosscutting concepts to solve problems that will benefit society. The conference participants will identify similarities and differences among definitions of computational thinking and formulate a series of education research questions focusing on scaffolding computational thinking development in students (with an emphasis on secondary school physics and physical science students), professional development for teachers and faculty members, and assessing the effectiveness of various strategies in enhancing students' skills in computational thinking. The research questions will also address how computational thinking enhances students' understanding of the physics and physical sciences disciplines. Topics will include the vertical alignment of secondary STEM curricula that integrate computational thinking, appropriate learning progressions, standards, and assessment of the effectiveness of the curricula in fostering computational thinking and deepening the understanding of STEM content. The participants will also discuss how to develop a STEM + computer science education culture that fosters the pervasive implementation of computational thinking that has broad application to students. The project will make use of existing secondary school frameworks for computational thinking as articulated by elements of the 2012 Framework for K-12 Science Education and the 2017 CSK12 Framework at the secondary level, similar frameworks at the higher education level, and the early results of education research into integrated computational thinking in several NSF-funded projects. Direct outcomes from this conference will include an analysis of alignment of content, skills, and assessments/research metrics to enhance the existing projects, as well as a set of open research questions that will guide funding programs and computational thinking education research efforts. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.