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

近年来，各种旨在吸引学生学习计算机科学的课程层出不穷。媒体、机器人、游戏和其他环境为许多学生带来了这一领域的生活。然而，这些和其他创新的入门课程并不是为了满足科学、数学和工程学科学生的不同需求而设计的。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规培训(如果有的话)往往集中在有限的应用程序上，而不是基本的、可广泛移植的计算思维(CT)概念和技能。该项目的假设是，面向所有STEM学生的计算思维课程将受益于从情景“CS1”课程中获得的见解。哈维·穆德学院(HMC)最近设计、部署和评估了一个以STEM为主题的广度第一个CS1入门课程。这项工作试图将这门课程由内而外，产生一套计算思维模块，这些模块可以灵活地组合成面向非CS STEM学生和CS预科专业学生的课程。其结果将不是“另一个CS1”，而是跨越STEM服务的计算思维课程的资源，并为具有广泛的科学和工程兴趣的学生提供令人信服的核心CT思想和技能的介绍。目标是：1.设计和评估丰富而引人注目的课程模块，这些课程模块可以被组合成不同领域(例如计算机科学、生物或工程)和不同类型的机构(例如文理学院和大型大学)的各种受众(高中、本科生和研究生水平)的入门CT课程。这些单元将以问题为基础，使用STEM激励的实验和作业来开发和练习主要概念。结合这些模块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、高中计算课程和面向信息技术研究生的课程。通过以下方式传播模块和课程：(1)指导其他学校(不直接参与此项目)根据具体情况选择适当模块的结构化部署过程，以及(2)有组织的研讨会、对其他学校的访问，以及在许多教育会议和研讨会上发布和演讲。智力优势：这项工作正在创建一个灵活的、可重定目标的CT课程，以核心CS主题为基础但不限于核心CS主题，并针对具有广泛的科学和工程兴趣的学生。PI具有为CS专业以外的学生开发新颖且引人入胜的CS1课程的丰富经验：HMC的科学家CS课程已被证明成功地激发了STEM学科的学生如何在所选领域利用计算的兴趣。使这门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。广泛影响：这项工作将直接为五个非常不同的机构创建CT课程：两所大型公立大学，其中一所服务于大量少数族裔人口，一所文理学院，一所公立高中和一所研究生院。所有五门课程都将从一套灵活和模块化的资源中提取材料，这些资源将创建或提供信息，远远超出最初的一套学校。最重要的是，这五门CT课程将能够对CT对整个STEM学科的学生的影响和相关性进行全面和交叉的评估。在哈维穆德学院年轻女性对计算的兴趣日益增加方面，这一方法已经显示出显著的改进；该项目的更广泛的评估将确定这些地方成功在不同人口和机构中转移了多少。

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.