Collaborative Research: INSTANCES: Incorporating Computational Scientific Thinking Advances into Education & Science Courses

计算科学结合计算机模拟和科学学科的知识来解决复杂的问题。十年前，计算科学还很少见，主要出现在研究项目中，而今天，它甚至被推荐为K-12教育，作为一种有效的教学方法，在上下文中教授科学、数学和计算机科学。然而，在K-12的课堂上，科学和数学教师往往没有为他们的计算机工作做好准备。他们可能无法解释学生使用的计算机应用程序中发生了什么。研究人员正在为计划成为K-12教师的学生开发一门名为“教师计算科学思维与建模”的新课程。本课程旨在提供与科学问题解决范例相结合的实际计算，以及对计算重要性的上下文理解。这将使教师有更好的准备，学生有更好的知识，更广泛地参与计算机。该项目代表了一名计算物理教育家、一名科学和数学教育家、一所教育基金会、一名计算生物学家和两名社区大学科学教师之间的多机构合作。课程材料包括在线内容和一系列基于视频的模块。正在评估学生的学习成果，并在全国科学和数学教师会议上发布评估结果。

Computational Science combines computer simulations and knowledge from a science discipline to solve complex problems. While a decade ago computational science was rare and found mainly in research programs, today it is recommended even for K-12 education as an effective pedagogy for teaching science, math and computer science in context. However, science and math teachers are often not prepared well for their work with computers in K-12 classrooms. They may not be able to explain what is occurring within the computer applications used by their students. The investigators are developing a new course for students who plan to be K-12 teachers, called Computational Scientific Thinking and Modeling for Teachers. The course is designed to provide practical computation integrated into the scientific problem-solving paradigm and a contextual understanding of the important of computation. This will lead to better prepared teachers, to better informed students and to broader participation in computing. The project represents a multi-institution collaboration among a computational physics educator, a science and math educator, an education foundation, a computational biologist and two community college science teachers. Course materials include online content and a collection of video-based modules. Student learning outcomes are being assessed and the results are being disseminated at national meetings for science and math teachers.