Research on Effects of Integrating Computational Science and Model Building in Water Systems Teaching and Learning

随着计算能力日益革命化并成为科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）学科实践的组成部分，STEM+计算（STEM+C）合作伙伴计划旨在将计算方法的使用整合到K-12 STEM教学和学习中。 Comp Hydro项目将解决STEM+C项目的目标，以及社会面临的紧迫问题：清洁水作为支持人类使用和生态完整性的生态系统服务的可用性。 Comp Hydro的愿景是通过整合真实的，基于地点和数据的学习来培养水和计算科学素养，因为高中学生构建和使用物理，数学和概念模型。 Comp Hydro的方法和资源将在广泛多样的环境中开发-学校和学校系统的类型，学生和教师群体，教学环境以及水质和可用性的区域挑战和限制。全国四个地点的团队将根据当地环境和学校情况调整以地表水和地下水为主题的计算机模块，将在高中地球和环境科学课程中进行试点测试，并将合作开展学生和教师STEM学习的教育研究。大约2,400名学生将参与并受益于该项目。参与学区的多样性将使STEM中人口统计学上多样化的学生群体参与进来，并通过确保开发的结果和工具反映广泛多样的人和地方的需求，帮助该项目实现更广泛的影响。 通过课程资源的创建和教师的专业发展，Comp Hydro将帮助建立每个学区整合计算和环境科学的能力。 根据学习进度编写的教材将支持学生发展公民知情决策所需的水科学知识。Comp Hydro项目将解决发展学生科学素养的最艰巨挑战之一：以真实，创新和有效的方式将基于地点的环境科学的关键思想和实践的教学与计算和定量科学相结合。该项目的基本前提是，要在环境科学中实现基于模型的推理，学生需要同时开发更复杂的计算推理。将开发四个课程/专业发展模块，以整合地球系统和计算思维内容。 他们将专注于这些计算概念和实践：访问和操纵来自多个来源的数据的能力;使用计算工具开发模型，分析数据，生成数据可视化和识别关键趋势的能力;计算推理和基于模型的理解的应用，以构建定量，科学的解释和预测水文系统。 该项目将：1）开发和完善地表水和地下水教学单元，每个单元包括两个为期一周的模块，2）让教师成为传播的合作伙伴和代理人，3）研究教师和学生的学习，4）探索对教学的支持和限制，以及5）建立项目研究和开发以及传播的平台。该项目将涉及四个由6名教师组成的小组，他们将在两个学年内与四个不同地点（亚利桑那州、科罗拉多州、马里兰州和蒙大拿州）的教育工作者和科学家一起工作。 Comp Hydro将采用基于设计的研究方法，以学习进展为基础，作为其研究和教学材料的理论和方法框架。该项目将把计算和数据感知的实践和理解整合到水系统学习进程中。它将产生一个学习和相关评估工具的轨迹，可以描述学生如何在综合科学实践方面变得更加复杂，包括分析，解释和表示数据;开发和使用模型;使用计算思维;以及构建有关水文系统的科学解释和预测。该项目还将制定一套设计原则，以及一个相关的计算机平台，用于更广泛的传播，并支持教师将大数据集和小数据集的使用融入高中学生有意义的环境科学学习体验。

As computational capabilities increasingly revolutionize and become integral to the practice of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines, the STEM+Computing (STEM+C) Partnerships program seeks to integrate the use of computational approaches in K-12 STEM teaching and learning. The Comp Hydro project will address the goals of the STEM+C program, as well as an urgent issue facing society: the availability of clean water as an ecosystem service supporting human uses and ecological integrity. The vision of Comp Hydro is to foster water and computational science literacy by integrating authentic, place- and data-based learning as high school students build and use physical, mathematical and conceptual models. The approaches and resources of Comp Hydro will be developed in a broad diversity of settings - types of schools and school systems, student and teacher populations, instructional contexts, and regional challenges and constraints on water quality and availability. Teams in four locations around the country will adapt surface water- and groundwater-themed computer modules to local environmental and school contexts, will pilot test them in high school Earth and environmental science classes, and will partner in education research on student and teacher STEM learning. Approximately 2,400 students will be involved with and benefit from the project. The diverse nature of the participating school districts will both engage a demographically diverse student population in STEM and help the project achieve significant broader impacts, by assuring that the findings and tools developed reflect the needs of a broad diversity of people and places. Through curricular resource creation and professional development for teachers, Comp Hydro will help to build the capacity of each school district to integrate computational and environmental science. Instructional materials based on learning progressions will support students in developing water science literacy required for informed citizen decision-making. The Comp Hydro project will address one of the most daunting challenges to developing scientific literacy in students: integrating teaching and learning of key ideas and practices of place-based environmental science with computational and quantitative science in authentic, innovative and effective ways. The basic premise of the project is that to achieve model-based reasoning in environmental science, a student needs to concurrently develop more sophisticated computational reasoning. Four curriculum/professional development modules will be developed to integrate Earth system and computational thinking content. They will focus on these computational concepts and practices: ability to access and manipulate data from multiple sources; ability to use computational tools to develop models, analyze data, produce data visualizations, and identify key trends; application of computational reasoning and model-based understanding to construct quantitative, scientific explanations and predictions regarding hydrologic systems. The project will: 1) develop and refine instructional units for surface and groundwater, each comprising two 1-week modules, 2) engage teachers as partners and agents of dissemination, 3) study teacher and student learning, 4) explore supports and constraints on teaching, and 5) build a platform for project research and development and dissemination. The project will engage four teams of 6 teachers, who will work over two school years with educators and scientists at four diverse sites (Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, and Montana). Comp Hydro will utilize a design-based research approach, grounded in learning progressions as a theoretical and methodological frame, for both its research and instructional materials. The project will integrate computational and data sense making practices and understandings into the Water Systems Learning Progression. It will produce a trajectory of learning and associated assessment instruments that can describe how students become more sophisticated with respect to integrated scientific practices, including analyzing, interpreting and representing data; developing and using models; using computational thinking; and constructing scientific explanations and predictions about hydrologic systems. The project also will develop a set of design principles, and an associated computer platform for broader dissemination and for supporting teachers in integrating the use of big and small data sets into meaningful environmental science learning experiences with high school students.