Computational Thinking for Next Generation Science Toolkit

The collection of resources include Data Practices, Creating Algorithms, and Understanding Models with Computational Thinking. Each resource contains the following components:

• “Look Fors” are actions that teachers may observe when students are engaged in computational thinking practices. Teachers may reference “Look Fors” to consider opportunities to integrate computational thinking into their classroom and/or reflect on how students engaged in lessons integrated with computational thinking.
• Prompting questions are examples of questions to ask students to reflect on their process or progress. Teachers may use one or more of these questions to more explicitly integrate computational thinking into their instruction.
• Resources and examples provide illustrative examples of middle school science activities integrated with computational thinking practices. Although the examples are topic-specific, templates are available for teachers to design opportunities in different topics or contexts.
• Assessments are detailed rubrics outlining components of each computational thinking practice that can be utilized to assess student work.
• Tools provide a curated list of supports to implement, explore, and promote computational thinking practices in your classroom.

These resources can be implemented with practices that support inclusion of students historically underrepresented in STEM.

Computational thinking is an interrelated set of skills and practices for solving complex problems, a way to learn topics in many disciplines, and a necessity for fully participating in a computational world.

Many different terms are used when talking about computing, computer science, computational thinking, and programming. Computing encompasses the skills and practices in both computer science and computational thinking. While computer science is an individual academic discipline, computational thinking is a problem-solving approach that integrates across activities, and programming is the practice of developing a set of instructions that a computer can understand and execute, as well as debugging, organizing, and applying that code to appropriate problem-solving contexts. The skills and practices requiring computational thinking are broader, leveraging concepts and skills from computer science and applying them to other contexts, such as core academic disciplines (e.g. arts, English language arts, math, science, social studies) and everyday problem solving. For educators integrating computational thinking into their classrooms, we believe computational thinking is best understood as a series of interrelated skills and competencies.

In order to integrate computational thinking into K-12 teaching and learning, educators must define what students need to know and be able to do to be successful computational thinkers. Our recommended framework has three concentric circles.

• Computational thinking skills, in the outermost circle, are the cognitive processes necessary to engage with computational tools to solve problems. These skills are the foundation to engage in any computational problem solving and should be integrated into early learning opportunities in K-3.
• Computational thinking practices, in the middle circle, combine multiple computational skills to solve an applied problem. Students in the older grades (4-12) may use these practices to develop artifacts such as a computer program, data visualization, or computational model.
• Inclusive pedagogies, in the innermost circle, are strategies for engaging all learners in computing, connecting applications to students’ interests and experiences, and providing opportunities to acknowledge, and combat biases and stereotypes within the computing field.

What does inclusive computational thinking look like in a classroom? In the image below, we provide examples of inclusive computing pedagogies in the classroom. The pedagogies are divided into three categories to emphasize different pedagogical approaches to inclusivity. Designing Accessible Instruction refers to strategies teachers should use to engage all learners in computing. Connecting to Students’ Interests, Homes, and Communities refers to drawing on the experiences of students to design learning experiences that are connected with their homes, communities, interests and experiences to highlight the relevance of computing in their lives. Acknowledging and Combating Inequity refers to a teacher supporting students to recognize and take a stand against the oppression of marginalized groups in society broadly and specifically in computing. Together these pedagogical approaches promote a more inclusive computational thinking classroom environment, life-relevant learning, and opportunities to critique and counter inequalities. Educators should attend to each of the three approaches as they plan and teach lessons, especially related to computing.

A micro-credential is a digital certificate that verifies an individual’s competence in a specific skill or set of skills. To earn a micro-credential, teachers submit evidence of student work from classroom activities, as well as documentation of lesson planning and reflection.

Because the integration of computational thinking is new to most teachers, micro-credentials can be a useful tool for professional learning and/or credentialing pathways. Digital Promise has created micro-credentials for Computational Thinking Practices. These micro-credentials are framed around practices because the degree to which students have built foundational skills cannot be assessed until they are manifested through the applied practices.