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The need to expand computer science learning for all students has led to an increase in publicly and privately funded professional development (PD) opportunities for teachers. Our research team has been involved in the design of equity-focused PD opportunities for teachers in computing since 2012 by building partnerships with K-12 systems. The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated changes in our approach and a shift to a virtual PD institute. In this work, we describe our transition to a virtual PD institute, including the topics and design principles guiding the institute. We also examine how the virtual PD influenced teacher outcomes. Findings suggest an increase in teachers’ knowledge and self-efficacy while highlighting the affordances of virtual platforms most valued by teachers.
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Weathering the virtual storm: Using computational thinking to make a forecast. Massicotte, J., Staudt, C., & McIntyre, C. (2021). Weathering the virtual storm: Using computational thinking to make a forecast. Science Scope. 44(5): 18–27.
The Concord Consortium and our partners have developed a free seven-lesson middle school curriculum unit as part of our Precipitating Change project (Staudt, Moher, and Massicotte 2019). Students actively employ computational thinking skills and science and mathematics understanding as they collect and analyze data, run and refine weather models, and make and evaluate predictions while doing tasks similar to those of a professional meteorologist.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1640088
- PAR ID:
- 10298540
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- DN science scope
- Volume:
- 44
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 0276-4466
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 18-27
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- The DOI is not currently available.
