Integration of Computational Thinking and Science Using Culturally-Based Topics

教育工作者面临的挑战是找到通向听众的途径，有效地改变他们的思想和思维机制，使学习者能够自信地向前迈进，拥抱下一个前沿。STEM+C （STEM + Computing Partnerships）项目的目标是将计算与科学相结合。该项目寻求新的和创新的途径，使学习者能够将科学和计算作为一个整体。先前对文化定位设计工具（CSDTs）的研究显示，在代表性不足的学生中，有统计学上显著的改善。最初的重点是模拟文化艺术，帮助学生发现新的虚拟设计的“遗产算法”。现在，研究人员希望扩展CSDTs，将计算活动纳入地理信息系统（GIS），以及其他社会动机，如公民参与和环境概念。CSDTs现在已经简化，允许学生使用编程平台探索基于文化的STEM主题，并通过在线用户社区分享他们的代码。学生将学习如何编程并将他们的想法应用于与文化相关的科学任务的计算方面。主要活动将在纽约州奥尔巴尼高中进行，该校有2214名学生，其中70%是黑人和拉丁裔学生。来自伦斯勒理工学院工程与科学大使项目的20名本科生将与10名教师配对，他们每天教授STEM+C课程的两个部分。这创造了一种比较研究，其中实验组和对照组相当匹配，可以自信地进行评估。因此，每年约有500名学生参与。中学活动将利用课外和暑期学习项目，通过非营利组织“第四家庭”向斯克内克塔迪高中、特洛伊高中和绿色科技特许高中的学生进行更广泛的传播。此外，它还让这些高中生参与到初中和小学的点对点外展活动，以及社区无障碍活动，如纽约州黑人和拉丁裔青年峰会。在过去的三年里，这个小组已经达到了大约2000名学生。如果本研究支持文化敏感假设，那么跨其他学科“联网”以增强社会相关性的学习模块将显示出更高的传播率，更复杂的计算思维，并且与代表性不足的学生的STEM参与和表现的独立衡量指标之间的相关性更好。

The challenge to educators is to find avenues to the audience that are effective at transforming their minds and thinking mechanisms so that the learner can confidentaly go forward to embrace the next frontier. The STEM+C (STEM + Computing Partnerships) program has as its goal the integration of computation and science. This project seeks new and innovative avenues to empower the learners with science and computation as one integral unit. Prior work on Culturally Situated Design Tools (CSDTs) showed statistically significant improvement for under-represented students. The original focus was on simulations of cultural arts and helping students discover "heritage algorithms" for new virtual designs. Now, the investigators wish to expand CSDTs to include computational activities into Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and other social motivations such as civic engagement and environmental concepts. CSDTs has now been simplified which allows students use of a programming platform to explore culturally-based STEM topics and share their code through an online user community. The students will learn how to program and apply their ideas to computational aspects of culturally relevant science tasks.The primary activities will be carried out at Albany high school in New York with 2,214 students, 70% of whom are Black and Latino. Twenty undergraduates from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Engineering and Science Ambassadors program will be paired with 10 teachers who teach two sections of the same STEM+C course each day. This creates a comparison research study wherein the experimental and control groups are reasonably well-matched and can be evaluated with confidence. Thus, a total of about 500 students will be engaged annually. Secondary activities will use after school and summer learning programs for broader dissemination through the 4th Family that is a nonprofit organization reaching students at Schenectady High, Troy High, and Green Tech Charter High. Further, it engages these high school students in peer to peer outreach to middle and elementary schools as well as community accessible events such as the New York State Black and Latino Youth Summit. In the last 3 years, this group has reached a total of about 2,000 students. If the culturally sensitive hypothesis is supported by this research study, learning modules that are "networked" across other disciplines to enhance social relevance will show higher rates of propagation, more sophisticated computational thinking, and better correlation with independent measures of STEM engagement and performance among underrepresented students than learning modules that lack relevant attributes.