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1. Studying Synergistic Learning of Physics and Computational Thinking in a Learning by Modeling Environment

   Hutchins, N. ; Biswas, G. ; Conlin, L. ; Emara, M. ; Grover, S. ; Basu, S. ( November 2018 , Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Computers in Education. Philippines: Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education)

   Synergistic learning of computational thinking (CT) and STEM has proven to effective in helping students develop better understanding of STEM topics, while simultaneously acquiring CT concepts and practices. With the ubiquity of computational devices and tools, advances in technology,and the globalization of product development, it is important for our students to not only develop multi-disciplinary skills acquired through such synergistic learning opportunities, but to also acquire key collaborative learning and problem-solving skills. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a collaborative learning-by-modeling environment developed for high school physics classrooms. We develop systematic rubrics and discuss the resultsmore »of key evaluation schemes to analyze collaborative synergistic learning of physics and CT concepts and practices.« less
2. Design and Development of a Low-Cost Open-Source Robotics Education Platform

   Darrah, T. ( June 2018 , Proceedings of the 50th International Symposium on Robotics. Munich)

   The impact of robotics has grown beyond research laboratories and industrial facilities into home environments and primary and secondary school classrooms. Of particular interest to us are robots for education. In general, educational robotics kits are expensive and proprietary, or cheap and unreliable. This research seeks to bridge that gap by providing a hands-on open-source robotics learning environment that is both inexpensive and reliable. In this paper, we review the applicability of such environments to support the synergistic learning of computational thinking (CT) and STEM, with an emphasis on Computer Science (CS) concepts and practices. The CT and Advanced Placementmore »CS Principles frameworks (from the US) govern the design and implementation of our system. We discuss the hardware system of the robot and the accompanying software architecture that runs on Linux-based single board computers. We conclude with results from a small pilot study analyzing the usability and curricular effectiveness of the system.« less
3. Design and Development of a Low-Cost Open-Source Robotics Education Platform

   Darrah, T. ( June 2018 , Proceedings of the 50th International Symposium on Robotics. Munich)

   The impact of robotics has grown beyond research laboratories and industrial facilities into home environments and primary and secondary school classrooms. Of particular interest to us are robots for education. In general, educational robotics kits are expensive and proprietary, or cheap and unreliable. This research seeks to bridge that gap by providing a hands-on open-source robotics learning environment that is both inexpensive and reliable. In this paper, we review the applicability of such environments to support the synergistic learning of computational thinking (CT) and STEM, with an emphasis on Computer Science (CS) concepts and practices. The CT and Advanced Placementmore »CS Principles frameworks (from the US) govern the design and implementation of our system. We discuss the hardware system of the robot and the accompanying software architecture that runs on Linux-based single board computers. We conclude with results from a small pilot study analyzing the usability and curricular effectiveness of the system.« less
4. A DSML for a Robotics Environment to Support Synergistic Learning of CT and Geometry. Kong, S. C., Sheldon, J., & Li, K. Y.. (Eds.). Conference

   Hutchins, N. ( July 2018 , Proceedings of International Conference on Computational Thinking Education 2018.)

   Synergistic learning of computational thinking (CT) and STEM has proven to be an effective method for enhancing CT education as well as advancing learning in many STEM domains. Domain Specific Modeling Languages (DSML) facilitate the building of computational modeling frameworks that are directly linked to STEM content, thus making it easier for students to focus on concepts and practices. At the same time, teachers can more easily relate curricular content to the model building tasks. This paper discusses the design, development, and implementation of a robotics DSML to support a middle school geometry curriculum.
5. A Principled Approach to Designing Assessments That Integrate Science and Computational Thinking

   https://doi.org/10.22318/cscl2018.384  

   Basu, S. ; McElhaney, K. W. ; Grover, S. ; Harris, C. J. ; Biswas, G. ( July 2018 , 13th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS))

   There is increasing interest in broadening participation in computational thinking (CT) by integrating CT into pre-college STEM curricula and instruction. Science, in particular, is emerging as an important discipline to support integrated learning. This highlights the need for carefully designed assessments targeting the integration of science and CT to help teachers and researchers gauge students’ proficiency with integrating the disciplines. We describe a principled design process to develop assessment tasks and rubrics that integrate concepts and practices across science, CT, and computational modeling. We conducted a pilot study with 10 high school students who responded to integrative assessment tasks asmore »part of a physics-based computational modeling unit. Our findings indicate that the tasks and rubrics successfully elicit both Physics and CT constructs while distinguishing important aspects of proficiency related to the two disciplines. This work illustrates the promise of using such assessments formatively in integrated STEM and computing learning contexts.« less