Proceedings of the 45th Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE ’14)
The desire to expose more students to computer science has led
to the development of a plethora ... more The desire to expose more students to computer science has led
to the development of a plethora of educational activities[16, 7, 15, 4] and outreach programs to broaden participation in computer science. Despite extensive resources (time and money), they have made little impact on the diversity of students pursuing computer science. To realize large gains, computational thinking must be
integrated into K-12 systems, starting with elementary school. In order to do so, existing resources need to be adapted for a school setting. In order to make a curriculum with lessons that build on each other over several years, and accountability for student learning, we need standards, an understanding of how students learn, and identification of what students know before exposure to the curriculum. In this paper, we present our detailed findings of what fourth graders know before encountering a computational thinking curriculum. Groups of students participated in activities modified from CS Unplugged[4] in order to discover their knowledge (rather than provide instruction). We identify aspects of the activities students were able to complete successfully, and where they will need further instruction. We then explain how we used these results to modify our pilot curriculum.
Physics Education Research Conference 2013, Feb 1, 2014
Computational thinking, an approach to problem solving, is a key practice of science education ra... more Computational thinking, an approach to problem solving, is a key practice of science education rarely integrated into instruction in an authentic way. A second key practice, creating models of physical phenomenon, has been recognized as an important strategy for facilitating students' deeper understandings of both science concepts and the practices of science. We are creating an interdisciplinary computational thinking curriculum for grades 4-6 that combines the development of computational thinking with content in other disciplines such as science. Here we present an example project where students can iteratively develop a model to explain the momentum and acceleration of an object, coupled with sophisticated computational thinking concepts to simulate that model. In addition, we present two findings from related research on fourth graders' pre-instructional knowledge related to computational thinking: 1) Students recognized the need for but struggled to produce specific instructions, and 2) Students understood that small errors could change outcomes.
Proceedings of the 45th Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE ’14)
The desire to expose more students to computer science has led
to the development of a plethora ... more The desire to expose more students to computer science has led
to the development of a plethora of educational activities[16, 7, 15, 4] and outreach programs to broaden participation in computer science. Despite extensive resources (time and money), they have made little impact on the diversity of students pursuing computer science. To realize large gains, computational thinking must be
integrated into K-12 systems, starting with elementary school. In order to do so, existing resources need to be adapted for a school setting. In order to make a curriculum with lessons that build on each other over several years, and accountability for student learning, we need standards, an understanding of how students learn, and identification of what students know before exposure to the curriculum. In this paper, we present our detailed findings of what fourth graders know before encountering a computational thinking curriculum. Groups of students participated in activities modified from CS Unplugged[4] in order to discover their knowledge (rather than provide instruction). We identify aspects of the activities students were able to complete successfully, and where they will need further instruction. We then explain how we used these results to modify our pilot curriculum.
Physics Education Research Conference 2013, Feb 1, 2014
Computational thinking, an approach to problem solving, is a key practice of science education ra... more Computational thinking, an approach to problem solving, is a key practice of science education rarely integrated into instruction in an authentic way. A second key practice, creating models of physical phenomenon, has been recognized as an important strategy for facilitating students' deeper understandings of both science concepts and the practices of science. We are creating an interdisciplinary computational thinking curriculum for grades 4-6 that combines the development of computational thinking with content in other disciplines such as science. Here we present an example project where students can iteratively develop a model to explain the momentum and acceleration of an object, coupled with sophisticated computational thinking concepts to simulate that model. In addition, we present two findings from related research on fourth graders' pre-instructional knowledge related to computational thinking: 1) Students recognized the need for but struggled to produce specific instructions, and 2) Students understood that small errors could change outcomes.
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Papers by Hilary Dwyer
to the development of a plethora of educational activities[16, 7, 15, 4] and outreach programs to broaden participation in computer science. Despite extensive resources (time and money), they have made little impact on the diversity of students pursuing computer science. To realize large gains, computational thinking must be
integrated into K-12 systems, starting with elementary school. In order to do so, existing resources need to be adapted for a school setting. In order to make a curriculum with lessons that build on each other over several years, and accountability for student learning, we need standards, an understanding of how students learn, and identification of what students know before exposure to the curriculum. In this paper, we present our detailed findings of what fourth graders know before encountering a computational thinking curriculum. Groups of students participated in activities modified from CS Unplugged[4] in order to discover their knowledge (rather than provide instruction). We identify aspects of the activities students were able to complete successfully, and where they will need further instruction. We then explain how we used these results to modify our pilot curriculum.
to the development of a plethora of educational activities[16, 7, 15, 4] and outreach programs to broaden participation in computer science. Despite extensive resources (time and money), they have made little impact on the diversity of students pursuing computer science. To realize large gains, computational thinking must be
integrated into K-12 systems, starting with elementary school. In order to do so, existing resources need to be adapted for a school setting. In order to make a curriculum with lessons that build on each other over several years, and accountability for student learning, we need standards, an understanding of how students learn, and identification of what students know before exposure to the curriculum. In this paper, we present our detailed findings of what fourth graders know before encountering a computational thinking curriculum. Groups of students participated in activities modified from CS Unplugged[4] in order to discover their knowledge (rather than provide instruction). We identify aspects of the activities students were able to complete successfully, and where they will need further instruction. We then explain how we used these results to modify our pilot curriculum.