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Funded by the NSF STEM+C program, the 3D Weather project developed instructional modules of using IDV visualization of weather data to help middle and high school students to develop spatial computational thinking. This paper reports the research on the professional development provided to 15 teachers by the 3D Weather project in the second project year.
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Building Computational Skills Via Exergames
Teaching Engineering Concepts to Harness Future Innovators and Technologists (TECHFIT) was an NSF-funded science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) project (DRL-1312215) (Harriger B. , Harriger, Flynn, & Flynn, 2013) that included a professional development (PD) program for teachers and an afterschool program for students. Curriculum and Assessment Design to Study the Development of Motivation and Computational Thinking for Middle School Students across Three Learning Contexts is an NSF-funded research project (DRL-1640178) (Harriger A. , Harriger, Parker, & Li, 2016) that examines the impact of delivering the TECHFIT curriculum to middle school students in three different contexts: afterschool program, in-school class, core class module. Thus far, the new project has deployed TECHFIT using the first two contexts, both of which use the entire TECHFIT curriculum. The goal of the TECHFIT curriculum is to spark interest in STEM and computational thinking (CT) in middle school students. The curriculum employs two computer programming tools as well as physical computing to introduce participants to STEM and CT. It also includes use of brain blasts to engage participants in a wide variety of physical activity throughout the instruction as well as to enrich their imaginations with different ways to make movement fun. This paper focuses on the process of exergame development using TECHFIT tools as a way to support CT skills development. The process is illustrated using a complete example from inception to a picture of teachers testing the working, physical exergame.
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- PAR ID:
- 10217294
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Technology and engineering teacher
- Volume:
- 80
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 2158-0502
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 8-14
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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