CPATH-2: Modular CS1 from the Inside Out: Computational Thinking for all STEM Students

近年来，为了吸引学生学习计算机科学，设计了各种各样的课程。媒体、机器人、游戏和其他环境为许多学生带来了这个领域的生活。然而，这些和其他创新的入门课程并不是为满足科学、数学和工程学科学生的独特需求而设计的。尽管STEM学生需要越来越复杂的计算能力，但他们在计算方面的正式培训（如果有的话）往往侧重于狭窄的应用范围，而排除了基本的和广泛可转移的计算思维（CT）概念和技能。该项目的假设是，所有STEM学生的计算思维课程将受益于上下文“CS1”课程所获得的见解。Harvey Mudd College （HMC）最近设计、部署并评估了一个以stem为主题的CS1课程。这项工作旨在彻底改变这门课程，产生一套计算思维模块，这些模块可以灵活地组成非cs STEM学生和cs专业预科学生的课程。结果将不是“另一个CS1”，而是跨越stem服务的计算思维课程的资源，并为具有广泛科学和工程兴趣的学生提供核心CT思想和技能的引人注目的介绍。目标是：1。设计和评估丰富而引人注目的课程模块，这些课程模块可以组装成不同领域（如计算机科学、生物学或工程学）和不同类型机构（如文理学院和大型大学）的各种受众（高中、本科和研究生水平）的CT入门课程。这些模块将以问题为基础，使用stem激励的实验室和作业来发展和实践主要概念。结合这些模块来开发和部署几个原型课程，包括大学计算机科学入门课程、大学生物计算入门课程、高中计算课程和信息技术研究生课程。通过(1)指导其他学校（未直接参与本项目）选择适合其环境的模块的结构化部署过程和(2)结构化研讨会，访问其他学校，以及在一些教育会议和专题讨论会上发表出版物和演讲来传播模块和课程。智力优势：这项工作正在创建一个灵活的、可重新定位的计算机科学课程，以但不限于核心计算机科学主题为基础，针对具有广泛科学和工程兴趣的学生。ppi在为CS专业以外的学生开发新颖且引人入胜的CS1课程方面拥有丰富的经验：HMC的CS for Scientists课程已被证明成功地激发了STEM学科的学生，让他们了解如何在自己选择的领域利用计算。将本课程的材料适应广泛的机构是理解如何发展所有STEM学生计算能力的重要一步。更广泛的影响：这项工作将直接为五所非常不同的机构创建CT课程：两所大型公立大学，其中一所为大量少数民族人口服务，一所文理学院，一所公立高中和一所研究生院。所有五种课程都将从一套灵活和模块化的资源中提取材料，这些资源将创建或为CT课程提供信息，远远超出最初的学校。最重要的是，这五门CT课程将为STEM学科的学生提供全面和跨领域的CT影响和相关性评估。这种方法已经在提高哈维穆德学院（Harvey Mudd College）年轻女性对计算的兴趣方面取得了显著进展；本项目更广泛的评估将决定这些地方成功在多大程度上可以在不同的人群和机构中转移。

Recent years have seen a diversity of curricula designed to attract students to computer science. Media, robots, games, and other contexts have brought the field to life for many students. Yet these and other innovative introductory courses are not designed to serve the distinct needs of students in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering disciplines. Although STEM students require increasingly sophisticated computational capabilities, their formal training in computation, if any, often focuses on a narrow range of applications to the exclusion of fundamental and widely transferable Computational Thinking (CT) concepts and skills. This project's hypothesis is that the computational thinking curricula for all STEM students will benefit from the insights gained from contextual "CS1" courses. Harvey Mudd College (HMC) has recently designed, deployed, and evaluated a breadth first introductory CS1 curriculum with a STEM-themed context. This work seeks to turn that course inside-out, spawning a suite of computational thinking modules that can be flexibly composed into curricula for non-CS STEM students and pre-CS-majors alike. Instead of "another CS1," the result will be resources that span STEM-serving computational-thinking courses and provide a compelling introduction to core CT ideas and skills for students with a broad range of science and engineering interests.The objectives are to:1. Design and assess rich and compelling course modules that can be assembled into introductory CT courses for a variety of audiences (high school, undergraduate, and graduate level) in different areas (e.g. computer science, biology, or engineering) and at different types of institutions (e.g. liberal-arts colleges and large universities). These modules will be problem-based, using STEM-motivated labs and assignments to develop and exercise major concepts.2. Combine these modules to develop and deploy several prototype courses including introductory college computer science courses, an introductory college computation for biology course, a high school computation course, and a course for information technology graduate students.3. Disseminate modules and courses through (1) a structured deployment process that guides other schools (not directly involved in this project) in choosing appropriate modules for their contexts and (2) structured workshops, visits to other schools, and publications and talks at a number of education conferences and symposia.Intellectual Merit: This work is creating a flexible, retargetable CT curriculum, grounded in but not limited by core CS topics, and aimed at students with a broad range of scientific and engineering interests. The PIs have extensive experience developing novel and engaging CS1 curricula for students outside the CS major: HMC's CS for Scientists course has proven successful at exciting students across STEM disciplines about how they can leverage computation in their chosen fields. Adapting this course's materials to a broad range of institutions is an important step in understanding how to develop the computational capabilities of all STEM students.Broader Impact: This work will directly create CT curricula for five very different institutions: two large public universities, one of which serves a large minority population, one liberal arts college, one public high school and one graduate school. All five curricula will draw material from a flexible and modular set of resources that will create or inform CT courses far beyond this initial set of schools. Most importantly, these five CT courses will enable a thorough and cross-cutting assessment of the impact and relevance of CT for students throughout STEM disciplines. The approach has already shown significant improvement in increasing interest in computation among young women at Harvey Mudd College; this project's much wider assessment will determine how much these local successes transfer across a diversity of populations and institutions.