Partnering with Teachers on the Design of Inquiry for Socio-scientific Computational Thinking

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

As a result of the powerful innovation and application of computing in STEM disciplines, the STEM+C program supporting this project, addresses an urgent need for real-world, interdisciplinary, and computational preparation of students from the early grades through high school (pre-K-12). This project focuses on a very difficult problem that is in search of a solution. Most major challenges that confront society today, such as generating sufficient energy, preventing and treating diseases, maintaining supplies of clean water and food, and addressing other critical environmental problems, are "socio-scientific." Efforts to integrate these issues into science instruction have not fully succeeded because they include (1) the intrinsic complexity of these issues, rendering them difficult to reason about even for adults; (2) inadequate involvement of teachers in initial phases and (3) the difficulty and discomfort of facilitating classroom discussions of controversial, emotionally fraught issues that don't have single right answers. This project will address these issues in an integrated way using computational methods and computational thinking. Researchers from the University of Maryland and the University of Calgary will collaborate with teachers to design strategies for providing these concepts to middle school students. This project addresses the three above mentioned issues in the classroom context by introducing computational thinking and associated tools to teachers. The teachers will be involved as full partners in the project from the beginning. Extensive engagement in the project activities, followed by collaborative adaptation of those activities to middle school classrooms will help teachers gain comfort with STEM subjects and with socio-scientific ideas and with learner-centered pedagogy about these issues. In the context of this professional and curriculum development plan, the research team will address research questions designed to inform theory building. By working with teachers from multiple locations, the team will develop insights for how to adapt the inquiries to teachers' and students' local contexts. 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.