The Evaluation of a Model Spatial Thinking Curriculum for Building Computational Skills in Elementary Grades K-5

在小学K-5项目中建立计算技能的模型空间思维课程的评估推进了STEM+计算合作伙伴关系（STEM+C）计划的目标，该计划旨在推进计算思维和计算整合到STEM教学和学习中的新方法和基于证据的理解。该项目将解决一个重大挑战，在准备小学年龄的儿童进入干劳动力在未来几十年：发展视觉空间和计算技能，在守门高中和大学干课程的成功基础。视觉空间技能，即与物体空间关系的视觉感知有关的技能，已被证明因性别而异，并可能受到社会经济因素的影响。通过制定有效的跨社会经济类别的教学和评估策略，特别是对那些在关键年级水平的视觉空间能力落后的学生的子类别，该项目将应用教育正义理论来帮助儿童获得平等的优质教学，资源和其他教育机会。在小学K-5项目中建立计算技能的模型空间思维课程的评估的目标是迭代开发和评估补充教学活动，在小学年龄段的儿童中建立早期计算技能。该项目将通过提高儿童与生俱来的空间思维能力来实现这一目标。在为期两年的时间内，课程的迭代开发将与空间和计算思维发展和成就的比较组研究相补充。形成性的评价结论，从课程开发过程和研究结果的比较组的研究将被用来完善的活动，可以整合到正式的教学在一个合作学区的格式，传播和评估全国，并内置到在职和职前教师教育计划开始在加州的雷德兰兹大学的程序。将免费提供一本载有课程的电子书。

The Evaluation of a Model Spatial Thinking Curriculum for Building Computational Skills in Elementary Grades K-5 project advances objectives of the STEM+Computing Partnership (STEM+C) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the integration of Computational Thinking and computation into STEM teaching and learning. The project will address a significant challenge in preparing elementary-aged children to enter the STEM workforce in coming decades: developing visuospatial and computational skills that underlie success in gatekeeping high school and college STEM courses. Visuospatial skills, those related to visual perception of the spatial relationships of objects, have been documented to vary by gender and may be influenced by socioeconomic factors. By developing instructional and assessment strategies that are effective across socioeconomic categories and work particularly well for subcategories of students who have been found to lag behind in visuospatial abilities at key grade levels, this project will apply educational justice theory to help children achieve equal access to quality instruction, resources, and other educational opportunities. The goal of the Evaluation of a Model Spatial Thinking Curriculum for Building Computational Skills in Elementary Grades K-5 project is to iteratively develop and evaluate supplemental instructional activities that build early computational skills in elementary-aged children. The project will accomplish this goal by improving childrens' innate capacities for spatial thinking. Iterative development of the curriculum over a two-year period will be complemented with a comparison group study of spatial and Computational Thinking development and achievement. Formative evaluation conclusions from the curriculum development process and research findings from the comparison group study will be used to refine the activities into a format that can be integrated into formal instruction at a partnering school district, disseminated and evaluated nationally, and built into in-service and pre-service teacher education programs beginning with the program at the University of Redlands in California. An e-book containing the curriculum will be made freely available.