Computational Thinking in the Classroom

Christian Rodriguez, Wolfram Foundation

Join the Conversation #WolframTechConf

ABSTRACT

To integrate CT into current middle- and high-school curricula presents a momentous effort, especially for educators. Teaching CT using many technologies can be exciting, but it risks overwhelming students and instructors. It also may not achieve the depth of familiarity students will need to be creative with the same tools in the future. Computational Thinking Initiatives uses the Wolfram Language, a high-level language designed for CT. In this talk, we will review efforts for CT in their classroom and how one might be able to integrate the subject into a subject by employing the computational thinking principles and the mindset of programming as the tool, not the activity.

Background

3rd WTC

Project Manager for CTI

Nearly 4 years at Wolfram

Researcher at the University of Illinois Child Development Laboratory

Technical Writer at Turn

University of Illinois, BS Advertising

The Challenge

Preparing teachers to teach computational thinking is a major challenge of our time.

It is an unfamiliar discipline to many educators, and one that they had never previously had formal instruction in, let alone instruction on how to teach it.

To better prepare Educators for they need resources, time, peer mentoring networks and additional targeted professional development opportunities.

The observation of these needs prompted CTI to add an additional focus to teacher training.

CTI initially focused on extra-curricular programs for MS and HS students… we maintained a line between outside the school day and during the school day/inside the classroom.

There’s complexities behind instituting a new curriculum or starting a new course… there’s guidelines, standards, resources, etc. that come into play.

With an apparent need of teacher tools and resources we decided to add a new focus to the initiatives.

CT Teacher Training

Educator Roundtables

Computational Essays as Assessments

Writing a Computational Thinking Lesson Plan

Running an AI Adventure

Computational Thinking Educator Course

Developed with support and guidance with Russell Foltz-Smith, Co-founder of Acton Academy Venice Beach

Premise: Teachers will be able to articulate their own understanding of CT. They will be able to implement CT in their regular in-school teaching, as well as in other aspects of their own lives.

Computational thinking requires a new type of training, both in formulating one’s thinking and the implementation of one’s thoughts. Our professional development materials provide a balance of instruction on both aspects, as well as practical explanations for how to teach CT to students.

Logistics of course

CT Educator Course in Depth

We had five outcomes:

WL Proficiency - working through EIWL

Definition of CT

AI Adventure Log

Create your own Adventure/CT Lesson Plan

Proposal on how they will implement CT into their environment

(A follow up)

Core Themes:

What is Computational Thinking?

CT Lesson Plans

Computational X

Differentiated CT

Motivations

Structuring a program

Integrating CT

How else can we address the challenge?

How can we build a community to support other educators looking to make a change?

Focusing on the CT Principles

We primarily focus on:

Interpreting a problem or idea in a way that a computer can assist with it.

Treating the computer’s “misunderstandings” as proxies for one’s own

Making visualizations to think through ideas (not just as final output).

Using data to address real-world situations

Simulating things that are hard or impossible to do with real-world experiments.

Using code, graphics and text to communicate ideas while working on the project and after finishing.

Exploring entire categories all at once (i.e. look at all flags, all of Shakespeare’s sonnets, etc.). ◼ Using different computational devices to augment one’s senses and abilities (robots, 3D printing, RPi, IoT, etc.).

An Example from a Social Studies Course

Students compare their modern lifestyle with the lifestyles of children from another era.

They simulate the experience of children from the other era by writing about it in a blog. The teacher calls attention to the fact that they are practicing skills relevant to computational thinking, such as organizing and analyzing data logically, and representing data through an abstraction

Students review data and identify patterns and trends in wars and other historical events.

The teacher helps the students recognize that they are practicing the CT skill of "pattern recognition."  Students also create visualizations of these patterns and trends, and the teacher refers to them as "abstractions"

Students create a simulation to study relationships in social science phenomena such as women’s education and health. This is an abstraction

Students create models or “abstractions” for social systems, social networks, or social choice

Students used primary source data to study patterns of voting rights in the nation.