Computer Science

Getting Unstuck is a 10-module intermediate Scratch curriculum to help your students develop greater creative and conceptual fluency with code. The curriculum reimagines the classroom as a design studio: a culture of learning in which students explore, create, share, and reflect. Get started with the curriculum by reading the orientation, then explore the modules.

Access Link:

https://gettingunstuck.gse.harvard.edu/

Author/Presenter:

The Getting Unstuck Team

Lead Organization(s):

Harvard University

Year:

2021

Short Description:

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Mathematical and Computational Methods for Planning a Sustainable Future (PS-Future)

Access Link:

https://www.comap.com/Free/PS-Future/index.html

Author/Presenter:

The PS-Future Team

Lead Organization(s):

Rutgers University (RU)

Consortium For Mathematics and Its Applications, Inc. (COMAP)

Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS)

Year:

2018

Short Description:

Instructional modules that bring sustainability topics into classrooms in a way that emphasizes the methods and tools of mathematics and computing and illustrates their role in planning for sustainability. Through the modules, students learn foundational and emerging concepts in mathematical and computational sciences set in the context of sustainability issues involving physical, biological, environmental, and social sciences. Students develop an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the ways that these disciplines interact through inquiries driven by real problems such as combating invasive species, understanding environmental threats, managing water resources, interpreting weather data, and simply living greener.

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Reaching Across the Hallway: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Supporting Computer Science in Rural Schools

Principal Investigator:

Bryan Wallace

"Reaching Across the Hallway: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Supporting Computer Science in Rural Schools" is in its first project year. Our goal is to design and develop a train-the-trainer professional development model that supports 5th-8th grade teachers in integrating culturally relevant computer science into their rural, social studies classrooms.

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Discipline / Topic:

Computer Science

Broadening Participation

Curriculum

Professional Development

Target Audience:

Middle School

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Strengthening STEM Teaching in Native American Serving Schools through Long-Term, Culturally Responsive Professional Development

Principal Investigator:

Angelina Castagno

This is a 4-year, level II Exploratory study within the teaching strand of DRK12. The research explores the functioning and impact of a nationally-developed STEM professional development model within the Navajo Nation. Teacher participants represent the entire K-12 grade range and multiple content areas, and they all participate in an innovative STEM-content, culturally responsive, 8-month professional development fellowship. We explore the extent to which culturally responsive principles are evident in their self-authored curriculum units.

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Discipline / Topic:

Broadening Participation

Curriculum

Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Professional Development

Target Audience:

Middle School

High School

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Extending and Investigating the Impact of the High School Model-based Educational Resource (Collaborative Research: Passmore and Wilson)

Principal Investigator:

Cynthia Passmore

Chris Wilson

We are collaborating on a project to examine the efficacy of high school biology instructional materials that support teachers' understanding and practice of model-based reasoning as an approach to support students in developing an integrated, multidimensional understanding of science. This poster summarizes our efforts to develop assessment tasks that measure students' ability to use model-based reasoning to make sense of biological phenomena and describes our use of crowdsourced adults to pilot test the tasks.

Co-PI(s): Molly Stuhlsatz, BSCS Science Learning

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Discipline / Topic:

Educational Technology

Professional Development

Target Audience:

Pre-Kindergarten

Elementary School

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Getting Unstuck: Designing and Evaluating Teacher Resources to Support Conceptual and Creative Fluency with Programming

Principal Investigator:

Karen Brennan

We are studying how an online professional learning experience for K-12 computer science teachers can be adapted for use in the classroom. Our goal is to increase teachers' conceptual and creative fluency with the Scratch programming environment. In collaboration with several teachers, we further refined our online professional learning experience for summer 2020. We have also been collaboratively developing and studying educative curriculum materials that promote both teacher and student learning and development.

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Discipline / Topic:

Computer Science

Curriculum

Disciplinary Content Knowledge

Professional Development

Target Audience:

Elementary School

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Building Networks and Enhancing Diversity in the K-12 STEM Teaching Workforce

Principal Investigator:

Carol O'Donnell

The goal of this planning grant, which is based on the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). is to explicitly focus on broadening participation in the K-12 STEM teaching workforce, with the theory of action that diversifying the K-12 STEM teaching workforce would in the long term help more students see STEM as accessible to them and then be more likely to choose a STEM degree or career. This grant is also funded by NSF INCLUDES.

Co-PI(s): Helen Bond and Marilyn M Irving, Howard University; Hyunju Lee and Amy L D'Amico, Smithsonian Institution

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Discipline / Topic:

Target Audience:

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Teaching STEM with Robotics: Design, Development, and Testing of a Research-based Professional Development Program for Teachers

Principal Investigator:

Vikram Kapila

To lower the barriers in STEM disciplines for students, using evidence-based research, we designed and conducted a professional development program that built middle school teachers' capacity to use hands-on robotics and engineering design as the curriculum focus. Through summer workshops, teachers learned to: build and program LEGO robots; create and implement standards-aligned robotics-based STEM lessons; and develop, practice, and examine optimal pedagogical approaches for STEM learning using robotics.

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Discipline / Topic:

Disciplinary Content Knowledge

Educational Technology

Professional Development

Target Audience:

Middle School

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STEM Sea, Air, and Land Remotely Operated Vehicle Design Challenges for Rural, Middle School Youth

Principal Investigator:

Guenter Maresch

STEM SEALs builds collaborative partnerships between North Florida College and local middle schools to bolster STEM pathways for students in this region. It involves the development of inexpensive, rigorous, and versatile design challenges to expose rural middle school students to high quality STEM experiences. Researchers study the feasibility and efficacy of these experiences to promote greater awareness of STEM pathways, increase readiness for STEM study; and generate student identity as STEM-able, STEM-skilled, and STEM-belonging.

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Discipline / Topic:

Target Audience:

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From Access to Sustainability: Investigating Ways to Foster Sustainable Use of Computational Modeling in K-12 Science Classrooms

Principal Investigator:

Paulo Blikstein

Our vision is to make computational modeling a sustained practice in middle school science classrooms. We are working closely with teachers to design a tool and curricula that integrate computational modeling with data practices and enables students to move towards unpacking models and their underlying assumptions. Our research questions involve investigating 1. students modeling trajectories in this environment; 2. how classrooms norms develop over time; and, 3. the interplay between computational modeling and data practices.

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Discipline / Topic:

Target Audience:

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Computer Science

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