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2 Key Points Expressed by Presenters and Discussants
Pages 6-35

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From page 6...
... This problem engages students in using a computational algorithm at a very early age. Matthew Stone, a computational linguist at the Rutgers University's Department of Computer Science and Center for Cognitive Science, argued that core ideas of computational thinking arise in many domains independent of computer technology.
From page 7...
... and abstraction from cases. 2.2 ACTIVITIES OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING Workshop participants extended the discussion of activities associ ated with computational thinking that had been initiated at the first workshop.
From page 8...
... Mitch Resnick, professor of learning research at the MIT Media Lab, said that the ability to use computational media to create, build, and invent solutions to problems is central to computational thinking. He argued that computational thinkers can express themselves and their ideas in computational terms.
From page 9...
... Jim Slotta, a professor at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, echoed the point that understanding complex systems requires computational thinking. He mentioned a Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE)
From page 10...
... 2.3.2 Games and Gaming A number of participants described game playing and game development as activities well suited to developing computational thinking. They stressed the importance of games that involve domain-specific ideas such as simulations of political situations.
From page 11...
... 2.3.3 Science Robert Tinker advocated the use of simple models of physical phenomena such as temperature, light, and force to teach computational thinking. He described activities in which students use temperature probes to capture data and use graphing programs to develop a model to explain their data.
From page 12...
... Walter Allan and Jeri Erickson described computational thinking in ecology and environmental science using a modeling approach. Using simulations to address topics found in the curriculum, they created activities to help students understand complex systems.
From page 13...
... Danny Edelson showed how geography and earth science involve computational thinking. Edelson described some of the issues that arise for students learning to understand geographic data: • Continuous versus discrete data sets.
From page 14...
... Students learn how to use logic tools to locate specific geographic features. Robert Panoff advocated teaching computational thinking through computational science, in part because this approach develops metacog nitive skills or the ability to monitor understanding of computational results.
From page 15...
... Echoing discussions from the first computational thinking workshop, she pointed to intellectual parallels between com putational thinking and solving engineering problems. Cunningham stressed that understanding engineering habits of mind and mental processes is an important goal of elementary science.
From page 16...
... Michelle Williams, assistant professor of science education at Michi gan State University, made a similar point, arguing for helping students and their teachers recognize that the computational thinking skills they use to make sense of representations of scientific knowledge work for multiple representations. Williams showed how a WISE project can scaf fold students to use computational thinking skills as they engage with a number of computer-based representations.
From page 17...
... For example, John Jungck argued that the key to computational thinking in a biological context is in the power of visualization. Robert Tinker stressed the value of visualizations in simple models of scientific concepts such as temperature, light, and force to teach computational thinking.
From page 18...
... Along the way an important step is us ing computational models and seeing that these models are influenced by parameters. This figure is a snapshot from a Molecular Workbench (http://mw.concord.org/modeler)
From page 19...
... WISE guides students to engage in computa tional thinking using scientific visualizations, simulations, models, com plex data, or long-term projects. A typical WISE project might engage students in designing solutions to problems that require computational thinking (e.g., design a desert house that stays warm at night and cool during the day using simulations of the day/night cycle and other resources)
From page 20...
... • Storytelling Alice. Storytelling Alice is a programming environment designed to motivate a broad spectrum of middle school students to learn to program computers through creating short three-dimensional animated movies.9 Jill Denner engages students with a use-modify-create approach.
From page 21...
... • Globaloria. Idit Caperton described Globaloria as a project-based learning environment for stimulating computational thinking, creativity, and inventiveness in youth and educators.
From page 22...
... 22 PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING Find out how healthy these foods are Save the farms from evil pollution! FIGURE 2.3 Globaloria example -- a depiction of the Globaloria learning environ ment, where students develop computational thinking skills through team design and creation of computer games.
From page 23...
... and assume that a partial inquiry is completely explicative. Although young children can successfully employ some of the intellectual skills of scientific thinking, they can have a hard time articulating how they know something.
From page 24...
... 2.5.2 Possible Progressions As a preliminary point, a number of workshop participants felt that it is often possible to get students to use even advanced computational thinking without invoking the use of that term. For example, Robert Panoff argued that once students are thinking about a leaky bucket as a time and rate problem, they are in fact doing calculus.
From page 25...
... As a point of departure for considering learning progressions, Joyce Malyn-Smith proposed a sequence: • Grades K-4, to focus on computational thinking literacy, career awareness, and computational thinking skills for learning. An overarching theme in this time frame might be the lesson that learning is cumulative -- a student can learn more by building on something he or she already knows.
From page 26...
... 2.6 ASSESSMENTS FOR COMPUTATIONAL THINKING Many workshop participants stressed the importance of student evaluation for pedagogical purposes. For example, Christine Cunningham pointed out that both teachers and students in the Museum of Science's Engineering is Elementary project pay much more attention to material when student understanding of such material will be evaluated.
From page 27...
... Williams also noted that teachers need professional development to become proficient in teaching computational thinking. In her work she found that teachers followed a learning progression, becoming more proficient over time in using technology and guiding students with inquiry questions.
From page 28...
... Jill Denner reported a number of challenges in promoting computational thinking in middle school. These included mundane issues such as difficulties with hardware and software and with Internet access, consistent with the comments of Slotta.
From page 29...
... Teachers can help students understand the connection between computational thinking and future earning power. Malyn-Smith said that students often have understanding of details about computational thinking from their areas of interest but lack the historical and cultural frameworks for placing such information in context.
From page 30...
... , whereas computational thinking is most useful for integrating and building connections in the midst of such knowledge. Those accustomed to thinking primarily in terms of declarative knowledge may find it difficult to appreciate educational themes oriented toward procedural knowledge.
From page 31...
... Several participants noted that learning about engineering or compu tational thinking may meet teacher goals that are not necessarily based in educational standards but are expected outcomes for students. For example, Cunningham observed that many elementary school teachers want to find ways to help their students work together in teams.
From page 32...
... Stephen Uzzo promotes computational thinking as a way to help future scientists cope with the transformational effect of data-rich science. New York Hall of Science activities entail developing exhibits, implementing them, and then evaluating them for pedagogical efficacy in conveying the relevant concepts to students.
From page 33...
... These institutions are in a good position to conduct learning research on computational thinking and to integrate such research into professional development and curriculum development for K-12 formal education. 2.9 RESEARCH AND UNANSWERED QUESTIONS REGARDING COMPUTATIONAL THINKING The first workshop report identified five open questions that at least some participants in that workshop believed were worth further exploration: 1.
From page 34...
... 2.9.3 The Need for Interoperability Al Aho noted that "the software world of today is largely a Tower of Babel, with lots of incompatible infrastructures and a lot of expense regarding who pays, who collects the data, who maintains the data, who maintains and evolves the software." Stephen Uzzo said this was especially true in an e-science environment in which data is produced in prodigious quantities and there is a premium on making large data sets available to researchers reliably and promptly. In this view, computational thinking efforts would be facilitated by interoperability between applica tions used by researchers, and it must provide easy-to-use tools for pro cessing, manipulating, and combining multiple data types.
From page 35...
... The S3 environment is highly customizable and supports the coordination of people, activities, and materials with real-time sensitivity to inputs from students. 2.9.4 The Need for a Career Framework Joyce Malyn-Smith contended that for computational thinking to get traction in the K-12 education community, it needs to be connected to frameworks and standards that are already implemented nationwide.


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