Computational Sciences Pathway Option for Massachusetts High School Students

Education Development Center, Waltham MA

Investigators

Abstract

As a result of the powerful innovation and application of computing in STEM disciplines, the STEM+C program addresses an urgent need for real-world, interdisciplinary, and computational preparation of students from the early grades through high school (preK-12). The Education Development Center in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will develop and test a series of computational science high school courses. The approach to embed computational thinking and computational skills development within required core science courses is consistent with the modernization of science to use computational tools and methods that advance scientific understanding, accelerate discovery, and prepare students for future endeavors in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The new courses will reflect the traditional science pathway that will be integrated with topics that align with digital literacy and computer science state standards. The design of curricular materials will be guided by computational scientists and experts in computational science integration to ensure relevance to modern computational practices in STEM fields. 75 high school teachers will participate in a specialized professional development program that will enhance teachers' ability to decode and explain mechanisms that embed scientific ideas with computer models. The instructional materials, which includes lessons and assessments, will be tested and revised. The courses and related instructional materials will be endorsed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and will be available to all 406 Massachusetts public high schools. During the last year of the project, the impact of the computational science courses on students' computational thinking skills and science knowledge will be measured. By the end of the project, the computational science courses will be embedded in the Massachusetts educational infrastructure with major statewide impact on STEM+C teaching and learning. This project will develop and test three science high school courses in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics which integrates Massachusetts standards for Digital Literacy and Computer Science. For each course, the project will develop and test 10 curriculum units, mid- and end-of-year unit assessments, and professional development learning units. Education Development Center will partner with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for the development and implementation. Research questions address whether the students enrolled in the developed courses demonstrate higher levels of computational thinking skills and science knowledge than students who are enrolled in the same course without computational integration. To answer the questions, the project will use a quasi-experiment research design involving 60 intervention teachers (20 teachers per course) and 60 comparison teachers. Assessment of knowledge surveys will be administered to approximately 2,400 students enrolled in courses of interest who are taught by the 120 teachers participating in the study. In addition to the traditional dissemination methods of journal and conference publications and presentations, these units and the associated assessments will immediately become part of Massachusetts high school curriculum and will be available at no cost from the State of Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website. 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.