RAPID: Developing Computational Thinking through Digital Storytelling: Coping with the Effects of the Oil Spill

这项提议的双重动机是为了满足国家公认的需要，即准备一支精通计算的21世纪劳动力队伍，以及迫切需要应对深水地平线漏油事件的情感影响。越来越多的人认识到计算思维的重要性，计算思维是一套策略、技能和能力，借鉴了计算学科的思想。这些技能对于在计算机科学领域以外的广泛背景下理解和解决问题很有价值，可以帮助学生在全球创新经济中具有竞争力。自从2010年4月深水地平线钻井平台爆炸，石油开始涌入墨西哥湾以来，墨西哥湾沿岸的个人、家庭和社区一直受到生计、健康和直接环境威胁的压力。面对2.06亿加仑的石油，水务、渔业和旅游业陷入低迷。在灾难发生的大部分时间里，该地区受影响的学生都不在学校，当他们返回时，许多人可能没有机会与他们的同龄人分享他们的个人经历。尽管漏油被阻止了，但后遗症仍在隐约可见。在这个项目中，PI与路易斯安那州新奥尔良的一个城市小学网站(98%的少数族裔人口)合作，开发、实施和研究新的教学材料，将计算思维的培养纳入社会和情感学习的背景中。具体地说，战略目标如下：-SA1。开发新的教学材料，以便在社交和情感学习的背景下培养计算思维。研究这些材料在非正式环境中与学生一起使用时，在发展计算能力和支持情感反思方面的潜力。这些战略目标将使用名义小组技术、半结构访谈和人工制品分析来评估。大多数社交情绪学习或应对项目都脱离了学术背景，而许多计算思维项目则缺乏有意义的背景。这项研究的智力价值是一个新的项目，它融合了21世纪的学习技能与社交和情感学习，可以改变学生参与其中每一个领域的方式。更广泛的影响，在一定程度上是一个融合这些领域的课程框架，将通过一个在线网站向有兴趣支持学生培养计算思维技能的教师传播。此外，随着Scratch在线提供，学生们将在云中编程，并开始参与我们国家的网络基础设施。

The dual motivations for this proposal are to address a nationally recognized need to prepare a computationally savvy 21st Century workforce, and the immediate need to respond to the emotional impact of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. There is a growing recognition of the importance of computational thinking, a set of strategies, skills, and capacities that draw on ideas from the computing disciplines. These skills are valuable for understanding and solving problems in a wide range of contexts beyond the field of computer science, and can help students to be competitive in the global innovation economy.Since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April 2010 and oil began gushing into theGulf of Mexico, individuals, families, and communities along the coast of the Gulf have been stressed by threats to their livelihoods, their health, and their immediate environment. Confronted with 206 million gallons of oil, the water, fishing and tourism industries took a downturn. Impacted students in the region were not in school during much of the time of the disaster, and when they returned, many may not have had the opportunity to share their personal experiences with their peer groups. Although the spill was stopped, the aftereffects still loom. The time is ripe, then, to aid students in documenting, reflecting, and grappling with the specifics of the disaster, their emotional responses to it, and productive ways to cope, as well as study the spill in the immediate environment in which it is taking place.In this project, the PI partners with an urban elementary school site ( 98% minority population) in New Orleans, Louisiana, to develop, implement, and study new instructional materials that place the cultivation of computational thinking into the context of social and emotional learning. More specifically, the strategic aims are the following:-SA1. Develop new instructional materials geared toward the cultivation of computational thinking in the context of social and emotional learning.-SA2. Study the potential of these materials to develop computational competencies and support emotional reflection when utilized with students in an informal setting.These strategic aims will be assessed utilizing nominal group techniques, semi-structured interviews, and artifact analysis. Most social-emotional learning or coping programs are separated from the academic context, while many computational thinking programs are devoid of meaningful context. The intellectual merit of this research is a new program that fuses twenty first century learning skills with social and emotional learning which can transform the way students engage with each of these areas. The broader impact, in part, is a curricular framework for blending these areas that will be disseminated through an online website for teachers interested in supporting students in building computational thinking skills. Further, as Scratch becomes available online, students will be programming in the cloud, and begin to participate in our nation's cyberinfrastructure.