Collaborative Research: Conference on Advancing the Integration of Interdisciplinary Computational Thinking in the Physical Sciences and Life Sciences

美国物理教师协会和密歇根州立大学将举行为期三天的会议，以制定一种研究驱动的战略，将计算方法和计算思维应用于物理学教育和密切相关的学科领域。会议将汇集35名与会者，包括物理和生命科学教育工作者、教育研究人员和计算机科学教育工作者，以及来自其他学科的代表，他们致力于在中学学科课程中整合计算思维，并对计算教育提供的挑战和机遇以及为学生未来计算科学职业生涯做准备所需的关键能力和技能具有实际经验。会议将提出一系列公开的研究问题，这些问题的答案将为计算思维整合的有效性提供证据，并阐明计算机科学专业人士以及物理、物理和计算机科学教育界开发的计算思维技能和能力的共同特征。让学生发展计算思维能力将对大学和职业准备以及国家计算劳动力的增强产生重大影响。会议的结果将为中学教育工作者提供建议，说明如何开发STEM和计算机科学教育项目，以促进学生计算思维的发展，可能会影响全国数百万学生。这个项目是对NSF亲爱的同事信DRK12：推进STEM+计算(17-149)的响应，并得到STEM+计算计划的支持，该计划旨在推动研究和开发跨学科和跨学科的方法，将计算与科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)教与学相结合，在正式和非正式环境中为K-12预科学生提供教学。STEM+C支持学生如何学习计算思维来解决STEM领域的跨学科问题的研究。计算思维包括使用计算技能和方法来阐明和解决一系列科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)学科中的基本问题，并帮助加深对核心学科思想和交叉概念的理解，以解决将造福社会的问题。与会者将确定计算思维定义的异同，并制定一系列教育研究问题，重点是支撑学生的计算思维发展(重点是中学物理和物理科学学生)、教师和教职员工的专业发展，以及评估各种策略在提高学生计算思维技能方面的有效性。研究问题还将讨论计算思维如何提高学生对物理和物理科学学科的理解。主题将包括将计算思维、适当的学习进度、标准和评估课程在促进计算思维和加深对STEM内容的理解方面的有效性评估在内的中学STEM课程的垂直排列。与会者还将讨论如何发展STEM+计算机科学教育文化，以促进广泛应用于学生的计算思维的普遍实施。该项目将利用现有的中学计算思维框架，如2012年K-12科学教育框架和2017年CSK12中学框架的内容所阐述的那样，高等教育一级的类似框架，以及国家科学基金会资助的几个项目将计算思维纳入教育研究的早期成果。这次会议的直接成果将包括对内容、技能和评估/研究指标的一致性进行分析，以增强现有项目，以及一系列开放式研究问题，这些问题将指导资助计划和计算思维教育研究工作。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The American Association of Physics Teachers and Michigan State University will develop a three-day conference to evolve a research-driven strategy for the application of computational approaches and computational thinking in physical science education and closely-related disciplinary areas. The conference will bring together 35 participants, including physical and life science educators, education researchers, and computer science educators as well as representatives from other disciplines who have worked on integrating computational thinking in their secondary school disciplinary courses and who have practical experience with the challenges and opportunities afforded by computational education and the critical competencies and skills needed to prepare students in future computational science careers. The conference will develop a set of open research questions whose answers will provide evidence for the effectiveness of computational thinking integration and to articulate the common features of the computational thinking skills and competencies developed by the computer science professional community and by the physics, physical sciences, and computer science education communities. Having students develop computational thinking competencies will have a major influence on college and career readiness and the enhancement of the nation's computational workforce. The results of the conference will provide advice to secondary school educators about how to develop STEM and computer science education programs that foster the development of computational thinking for students, potentially affecting millions of students across the nation. This project is in response to NSF Dear Colleague Letter, DRK12: Advancing STEM + Computing (17-149) and is supported by the STEM + Computing Program that advances research and development of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to the integration of computing within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning for preK-12 students in both formal and informal settings. STEM+C supports research on how students learn to think computationally to solve interdisciplinary problems in the STEM fields.Computational thinking includes the use of computational skills and methods to articulate and solve essential problems in a range of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, and to aid in developing a deeper understanding of core disciplinary ideas and crosscutting concepts to solve problems that will benefit society. The conference participants will identify similarities and differences among definitions of computational thinking and formulate a series of education research questions focusing on scaffolding computational thinking development in students (with an emphasis on secondary school physics and physical science students), professional development for teachers and faculty members, and assessing the effectiveness of various strategies in enhancing students' skills in computational thinking. The research questions will also address how computational thinking enhances students' understanding of the physics and physical sciences disciplines. Topics will include the vertical alignment of secondary STEM curricula that integrate computational thinking, appropriate learning progressions, standards, and assessment of the effectiveness of the curricula in fostering computational thinking and deepening the understanding of STEM content. The participants will also discuss how to develop a STEM + computer science education culture that fosters the pervasive implementation of computational thinking that has broad application to students. The project will make use of existing secondary school frameworks for computational thinking as articulated by elements of the 2012 Framework for K-12 Science Education and the 2017 CSK12 Framework at the secondary level, similar frameworks at the higher education level, and the early results of education research into integrated computational thinking in several NSF-funded projects. Direct outcomes from this conference will include an analysis of alignment of content, skills, and assessments/research metrics to enhance the existing projects, as well as a set of open research questions that will guide funding programs and computational thinking education research efforts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.