Building Educational Bridges Between Computer Science and Biology Through Transdisciplinary Teamwork and Modular Curriculum Design

由于计算已经成为科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）实践中不可或缺的一部分，STEM+计算计划旨在通过将计算思维和计算活动应用于高中（preK-12）早期儿童教育的STEM教学和学习，来解决计算STEM领域的新挑战。该项目将开发、实施和测试一门创新的高中生物模块化课程，该课程将计算和计算思维与科学内容和实践相结合。该课程将由一个跨学科团队开发，该团队由生物学和计算机科学方面的大学专家、两名研究生、两名本科生、两名高中生和四名高中教师组成。该团队将设计并实施一个实验系统，该系统集成了生物学实践和计算组件，以解决复杂的现实世界的生物学问题。教师们将在暑期学院期间使用这个实验系统，并将用它来开发和试点测试一个模块化课程，该课程侧重于一个复杂的现实问题，传粉昆虫的减少。正在测试的课程策略是一般化的，可以修改以解决其他生物学问题，以及其他STEM领域的复杂现实问题。这项原理证明研究将检验跨学科团队在设计、开发和测试模块化课程方面的有效性，这些课程将科学实践和计算机科学方法整合在一起，用于模拟复杂的自然系统。项目活动以两个研究问题为指导：(1)发展一个由生物学家、计算机科学家和教育专家组成的跨学科、垂直整合的团队，是产生有效计算工具和STEM+C课程的变革先驱吗？(2)将计算和计算思维纳入科学实践的模块化课程是否能让教师有效地向学生讲授生物学和计算机科学的多个层次的课堂内容？该课程将让学生和教师参与科学实践，使用他们自己收集的生物数据，以及他们设计和实施的计算工具来解决一个复杂的现实问题，传粉媒介的减少和生物多样性的丧失。课程质量、模块性和有效性将使用多种工具来衡量，包括课程质量和实施可行性调查、教师和学生对生物和计算机科学内容知识和科学实践的前后测试，以及对生物和计算机科学的态度。

As computing has become integral to the practice of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), the STEM+Computing program seeks to address emerging challenges in computational STEM areas through the applied integration of computational thinking and computing activities within STEM teaching and learning in early childhood education through high school (preK-12). This project will develop, implement, and test an innovative modular curriculum for high school biology that integrates computing and computational thinking with science content and practices. The curriculum will be developed by a transdisciplinary team consisting of university specialists in biology and computer science, two graduate students, two undergraduate students, two high school students, and four high school teachers. The team will design and implement an experimental system that integrates biology practices and computing components to address complex real-world biological problems. Teachers will employ the experimental system during a summer institute, and will use it to develop and pilot test a modular curriculum that focuses on a complex real-world problem, pollinator decline. The curricular strategy being tested is generalizable, and can be modified to address other biological questions, and complex real-world problems in other STEM fields. This proof of principle study will examine the effectiveness of a transdisciplinary team in designing, developing, and testing modular curricula that integrate scientific practices and computer science approaches used to model complex natural systems. Project activities are guided by two research questions: (1) Is developing a transdisciplinary, vertically integrated team comprised of biologists, computer scientists and education specialists a transformative precursor for the generation of effective computational tools and STEM+C curriculum? And (2) Will a modular curriculum incorporating computing and computational thinking into scientific practices allow teachers to effectively deliver classroom content to students at multiple levels in biology and computer science? The curriculum will engage students and teachers in scientific practices using biological data that they collect themselves, and computational tools that they design and implement to address a complex real-world problem, pollinator decline and loss of biodiversity. Curriculum quality, modularity, and effectiveness will be measured using multiple instruments, including surveys of curriculum quality and implementation feasibility, pre and post testing of both teachers and students on biology and computer science content knowledge and scientific practices, and attitudes toward biology and computer science.