Integrating Computational Thinking into Elementary Science Curriculum: an Examination of Activities that Support Students\u2019 Computational Thinking in the Service of Disciplinary Learning

Kevin P Waterman,Lynn Goldsmith,Marian Pasquale

doi:10.1007/s10956-019-09801-y

Kevin P Waterman, Lynn Goldsmith + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-019-09801-y

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Abstract

Using an example of a grade 3 science unit about population changes during competition for resources, we describe how we integrated computational thinking (CT) into existing curriculum identifying three levels of depth of integration: identifying connections that already exist, enhancing and strengthening connections, and extending units to include activities that more explicitly develop students’ CT. We discuss students’ understanding of the relationship between a simple model of an ecosystem and the actual phenomenon it represents, their engagement with the unit’s data-gathering and data analysis activities, their ability to engage in sense-making regarding data they generated and analyzed, and how collectively the study supports their understanding of the complex system. This example module is part of “Broadening Participation of Elementary School Teachers and Students in Computer Science through STEM Integration and Statewide Collaboration,” a National Science Foundation-funded collaboration among Massachusetts teacher educators, researchers, teachers, and state-level education administrators that developed and implemented a number of elementary grade, CT-integrated science and mathematics curriculum modules. Collectively, these modules are designed to develop practices related to several key CT topics: abstraction, data, modeling and simulation, and algorithms. These CT topics support the development of core skills related to, but not exclusively the domain of, computer science. The strategy of integrating CT into core elementary STEM subject areas was intended to cultivate CT practices in support of science learning.

Highlights

The Broadening Participation of Elementary School Teachers and Students in Computer Science through STEM Integration and Statewide Collaboration project (“Broadening Participation”) is a collaboration among curriculum developers, classroom teachers, researchers, and state-level administrators, designed to address the challenge of making computational thinking (CT) a regular part of every child’s school day
Each integrated module (I-Mod) was tested, revised, and refined in an iterative process, and the resulting materials are available through Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), along with additional resources for integrating CT into science, mathematics, and other disciplinary instructions
We focused on developing science and mathematics materials that integrated the first four of these topics

Summary

Introduction

We began by working with teachers to identify those previously developed units that provided promising contexts for integrating CT, consulting both the CSTA Standards (Computer Science Teachers Association 2017) and the Massachusetts’ DLCS (Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 2016), as well as the computational thinking in mathematics and science taxonomy described by Weintrop and colleagues (Weintrop et al 2016). Students use a computer simulation and modify variables or underlying code to investigate how dynamic systems change over time, leading to a richer understanding of the system This framework offered a structure for the development team, including our teacher partners, to identify opportunities for integrating CT. The result was an expanded set of activities for the original unit which third grade teachers could use whenever they taught students about interdependent relationships in ecosystems (NGSS Lead States 2013)

A Promising Activity for Integration

Discussion

Conclusions