Development of a Pandemic Awareness STEM Outreach Curriculum: Utilizing a Computational Thinking Taxonomy Framework.

David M. Reif,Frieda E. Sanders,Ashley Q. Hooker,Alonzo B. Alexander,Adrian J. Green,Pamela O. Gilchrist

doi:10.3390/educsci11030109

Abstract

Computational thinking is an essential skill in the modern global workforce. The current public health crisis has highlighted the need for students and educators to have a deeper understanding of epidemiology. While existing STEM curricula has addressed these topics in the past, current events present an opportunity for new curricula that can be designed to present epidemiology, the science of public health, as a modern topic for students that embeds the problem-solving and mathematics skills of computational thinking practices authentically. Using the Computational Thinking Taxonomy within the informal education setting of a STEM outreach program, a curriculum was developed to introduce middle school students to epidemiological concepts while developing their problem-solving skills, a subset of their computational thinking and mathematical thinking practices, in a contextually rich environment. The informal education setting at a Research I Institution provides avenues to connect diverse learners to visually engaging computational thinking and data science curricula to understand emerging teaching and learning approaches. This paper documents the theory and design approach used by researchers and practitioners to create a Pandemic Awareness STEM Curriculum and future implications for teaching and learning computational thinking practices through engaging with data science.

Highlights

Many reports over the last twenty years have emphasized the importance of STEM careers to both the United States and the global workforce [1]
While some activities may only address one computational thinking practice, others naturally encompassed several practices. These activities were designed by the PAOC team to provide learners progressive points of engagement with the content and critical data science skills used by professionals in epidemiology
A similar approach was implemented by Behesti and others in a study covering a variety of STEM disciplines in a formal school setting

Summary

Introduction

Many reports over the last twenty years have emphasized the importance of STEM careers to both the United States and the global workforce [1] Nowhere has this been more cited than in A Framework for K-12 Science Education, which in 2002 articulated eight essential elements of a complete K-12 science and engineering curriculum [2]. Common Core math guidelines from 2010 explicitly call for the use of “technological tools” that aid in the understanding of mathematical concepts [3]. These elements served as the foundation for the Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in 2013, where they were situated within core concepts of the fields of science. Mathematical and computational thinking has been defined by NGSS as:

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Conclusion