Research and Assessment on Synergistic Learning of Physics and Programming through Computational Modeling and Problem Solving

计算和计算思维(CT)是现代科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域日常实践中不可或缺的一部分。因此，STEM+计算伙伴关系(STEM+C)计划寻求推动新的多学科方法和对计算在STEM教与学中的整合的基于证据的理解，以及特定学科在计算方面的努力，旨在为K-12阶段的计算机科学教学和学习建立一个证据基础，包括在不同的人群中。将CT融入核心科学教学解决了K-12教育中的实际限制，因为课程中没有空间直接向每个人教授它。但是，更重要的是，将CT整合到核心科学中提供了一个协同作用的机会，以深化两者的教学。这个项目通过学生构建直观地表示物理系统的计算模型并与之交互来调查物理和CT概念和实践的协同学习。由范德比尔特大学的研究人员领导的项目团队包括计算机科学家、物理学家、教育开发人员以及学习科学家SRI国际、斯坦福大学和塞勒姆州立大学。该项目将开发、实施和研究创新的编程环境、为期数周的计算物理课程，以及侧重于力和运动的物理概念以及计算建模中涉及的CT实践的新评估。在编程环境和课程的指导下，学习者构建代表物理系统的模型，分析和解释模型行为，然后使用模型解决问题。这些过程支持他们在探索和学习计算和物理系统和现象时像科学家一样思考和行动的能力。将开发评估来衡量课程中有针对性的CT灌输的物理学习，以及CT学习者应用于新物理主题和他们遇到的问题解决情况的情况。该教育计划将满足高中学生和教师在下一代科学标准、AP计算机科学原理和最近STEM计算思维共识框架中规定的相关学科内容、实践和计算方面的具体需求。大约450名学生将在四个不同的高中环境中参与该项目并从中受益。参与学校的多样性将吸引人口统计上不同的STEM学生群体，并通过确保开发的调查结果和产品反映广泛的人和地区的需求，帮助该项目实现重大的更广泛的影响。该项目将开发新的教育技术、课程材料和评估，以整合物理和计算，并将在高中物理和计算机科学课程中广泛使用。该项目将研究一种方法，通过在中学物理课程中整合计算建模和问题解决来扩大获取CT的途径。通过构建代表复杂物理系统的计算模型，学生将学习牛顿物理学的关键概念和问题表示、抽象、分解、合成和验证的CT实践。该项目将产生一个新的编程环境，该环境针对建模物理系统和现象进行了优化，促进了协作建模和问题解决，并通过自适应支架诊断和响应用户的学习活动。将开发三个符合标准、面向问题的计算物理单元，并与方案编制环境一起使用。以证据为中心的设计将用于开发和验证评估，以衡量单元中有针对性的CT灌输的物理学习。将开发一套独立于建模环境的独特评估，以衡量CT学生是否以及什么自发地迁移到新的物理问题和学习情景中。课程和评估将由田纳西州和加利福尼亚州不同高中环境的研究人员和四名教师共同开发。学生评估、调查、工作成果、计算机使用日志和录像任务的定量和定性分析将被用来确定该方法及其组成部分在整合物理和计算方面的有效性和广泛的实用性。通过解决将学生学习和行为的线下和在线衡量标准保持一致的挑战，该项目将使人们更深入地了解学生是如何学习的，他们面临的困难，以及改善学习的适应性支架的前景。这项研究还将阐明显式CT框架为学生未来的物理学习和问题解决做好准备的潜力。该项目将为该领域设计结合科学和计算建模的学习技术提供坚实的基础。研究成果将通过在同行评议期刊和会议演讲中发表的论文，与项目团队成员在计算机科学、技术教育、网络学习、物理教育、科学教育和教师教育方面的各自社区分享。将努力通过实践者讲习班、会议和期刊向教师传播。通过该项目将培养一名博士后和三名研究生。

Computing and computational thinking (CT) are an integral part of everyday practice within modern fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). As a result, the STEM+Computing Partnerships (STEM+C) program seeks to advance new multidisciplinary approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the integration of computing in STEM teaching and learning, and discipline-specific efforts in computing designed to build an evidence base for teaching and learning of computer science in K-12, including within diverse populations. Integrating CT into core science instruction addresses practical constraints in K-12 education, in that there is no room in the curriculum to teach it directly to everyone. But, more importantly, integrating CT into core science provides a synergistic opportunity to deepen instruction in both. This project investigates the synergistic learning of physics and CT concepts and practices through students' construction of and interaction with computational models that visually represent physical systems. Led by investigators at Vanderbilt University, the project team includes computer scientists, physicists, education developers, and learning scientists SRI International, Stanford, and Salem State University. The project will develop, implement, and study an innovative programming environment, a multi-week computational physics curriculum, and new assessments that are focused on physics concepts of force and motion and CT practices involved in computational modeling. Guided by the programming environment and the curriculum, learners construct models that represent physical systems, analyze and explain model behaviors, and then use models for solving problems. These processes support their abilities to think and act like a scientist as they explore and learn about both the computational and physical systems and phenomena. Assessments will be developed to measure CT-infused physics learning that is targeted in the curriculum, but also what CT learners apply to new physics topics and problem-solving situations they encounter. The educational program will address specific needs of high school students and teachers with regard to relevant disciplinary content, practices, and computation as specified in Next Generation Science Standards, the AP Computer Science Principles, and recent consensus frameworks for computational thinking in STEM. Approximately 450 students will be involved with and benefit from the project in four diverse high school settings. The diverse nature of the participating schools will both engage a demographically diverse student population in STEM and help the project achieve significant broader impacts, by assuring that the findings and products developed reflect the needs of a broad diversity of people and places. The project will develop new educational technologies, curriculum materials, and assessments for integrating physics and computation that will be broadly usable in high school physics and computer science courses.This project will investigate a method of broadening access to CT through the integration of computational modeling and problem solving in secondary physics courses. Through constructing computational models that represent complex physical systems, students will learn key concepts of Newtonian physics and CT practices of problem representation, abstraction, decomposition, composition, and verification. The project will produce a new programming environment that is optimized for modeling physics systems and phenomena, that facilitates collaborative modeling and problem solving, and that diagnoses and responds to users' learning activity with adaptive scaffolds. Three standards-aligned, problem-oriented computational physics units will be developed and used in conjunction with the programming environment. Evidence-centered design will be used to develop and validate assessments that measure CT-infused physics learning that is targeted in the units. A unique set of assessments will be developed independent of the modeling environment to measure whether and what CT students spontaneously transfer to new physics problems and learning situations. The curriculum and assessments with be co-developed by researchers and four teachers from diverse high school settings in Tennessee and California. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of student assessments, surveys, work products, computer-use logs, and videotaped tasks will be used to determine the effectiveness and broad utility of the approach - and its component parts - for integrating physics and computing. By tackling the challenge to align offline and online measures of students' learning and behaviors, the project will generate deeper understanding of how students learn, the difficulties they face, and the promise of adaptive scaffolds for improving learning. The research will also elucidate the potential of explicit CT frameworks for preparing students' for future physics learning and problem solving. The project will provide the field with a strong foundation for designing learning technologies that integrate science and computational modeling. The research findings will be shared with the project team members' respective communities in computer science, technology education, cyberlearning, physics education, science education, and teacher education through papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations. Efforts will be made to disseminate to teachers through practitioners workshops, conferences, and journals. A post-doctoral fellow and three graduate students will be trained through this project.