There is a critical need for research-based active learning instructional materials for the teaching and learning of STEM in online courses. Every year, hundreds of thousands of undergraduate non-science majors enroll in general education astronomy courses to fulfill their institution’s liberal arts requirements. When designing instructional materials for this population of learners, a central focus must be to help learners become more scientifically and data literate. As such, we developed a new, three-part, curricular model that was used to inform the creation of active-learning instructional materials designed for use in online courses. The instructional materials were designed to help introductory astronomy students engage meaningfully with science while simultaneously improving their data literacy self-efficacy (especially as it pertained to making evidence-based conclusions when presented with a variety of data representations).
We conducted a pilot study of these instructional materials at nine different colleges and universities to better understand whether students’ engagement with these materials lead to improved beliefs and self-efficacy. The results of our student survey analysis showed statistically significant changes on survey items that assessed students’ beliefs about science engagement, citizen science, and their data literacy skills. Additionally, we assessed whether faculty who implemented these materials were able to easily incorporate them into existing online astronomy courses. The instructor feedback emphasized that our curriculum development model did successfully inform the creation of easy-to-implement instructional materials, generating the potential for widespread dissemination and use at the undergraduate level.
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Exploring Quantum Reversibility with Young Learners
Quantum computing is poised to revolutionize some critical intractable computing problems; but to fully take advantage of this computation, computer scientists will need to learn to program in a new way, with new constraints. The challenge in developing a quantum computing curriculum for younger learners is that two dominant approaches, teaching via the underlying quantum physical phenomenon or the mathematical operations that emerge from those phenomenon, require extensive technical knowledge. Our goal is to extract some of the essential insights in the principles of quantum computing and present them in contexts that a broad audience can understand.
In this study, we explore how to teach the concept of quantum reversibility. Our interdisciplinary science, science education, computer science education, and computer science team is co-creating quantum computing (QC) learning trajectories (LT), educational materials, and activities for young learners. We present a draft LT for reversibility, the materials that both influenced it and were influenced by it, as well as an analysis of student work and a revised LT. We find that for clear cases, many 8-9 year old students understand reversibility in ways that align with quantum computation. However, when there are less clear-cut cases, students show a level of sophistication in their argumentation that aligns with the rules of reversibility for quantum computing even when their decisions do not match. In particular, students did not utilize the idea of a closed system, analyzing the effects to every item in the system. This blurred the distinction between between reversing (undoing) an action, recycling to reproduce identical items with some of the same materials, or replacing used items with new ones. In addition, some students allowed for not restoring all aspects of the original items, just the ones critical to their core functionality. We then present a revised learning trajectory that incorporates these concepts.
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- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10209012
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2020 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER '20)
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 147 to 157
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract This paper argues for a re‐examination of the nature and goals of broad computing education initiatives. Instead of starting with specific values or goals, we instead begin by considering various desired endpoints of computing instruction and then work backward to reason about what form learning activities might take and what are the underlying values and principles that support learners in reaching these endpoints. The result of this exercise is a push for rethinking the form of contemporary computing education with an eye toward more diverse, equitable and meaningful endpoints. With a focus on the role that constructionist‐focused pedagogies and designs can play in supporting these endpoints, we examine four distinct cases and the endpoints they support. This paper is not intended to encompass all the possible alternate endpoints for computer science education; rather, this work seeks to start a conversation around the nature of and need for alternate endpoints, as a means to re‐evaluate the current tools and curricula to prepare learners for a future of active and empowered computing‐literate citizens.
Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic
There is a growing call for computing education to be a core educational component.
Computing education traditionally has a narrow goal of training people for programming jobs.
Computing education fails to connect with students underrepresented in STEM.
What this paper adds
An argument for why we need more and diverse endpoints to computing education.
That many possible endpoints for computing education can be more inclusive, just and equitable than software engineering.
Constructionism is a particularly useful paradigm for approaching and supporting alternate endpoints.
Implications for practice and policy
Helps reframe the goals of computing education, to truly be “for all.”
Provides a set of cases for how this reframing can be achieved.
Gives policy new lenses for understanding, evaluating and implementing computing education.
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3372782.3406255
