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1. Bridging the Divide: Exploring Affordances for Interdisciplinary Learning

   Knowe, M. & (July 2021, Computersupported collaborative learning)

   de Vries, E. (Ed.)

   This study investigates how the design of hybrid mathematics and computational activities influences the ways in which students leverage ideas from both disciplinary topics. We examine two design cycles of a computer programming summer camp for middle school students which foreground computational thinking and then mathematics alongside computational thinking respectively. We review the rationale for each design iteration, the trends we saw in students’ engagement, and the implications for students’ reasoning. Findings of this study demonstrate the importance of thinking critically about the boundary objects that are included in design that support students to make bridges between multiple disciplinary practices. 

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2. Steerable Environmental Simulations for Exploratory Learning

   Zhu, M. (January 2019, In Proceedings of E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education)

   This paper presents the software design for three interactive simulations on the subject of Earth and Environmental science in grades 5, 6 and 7. These simulations together with some programming activities have been successfully integrated into a series of instructional modules for local New Jersey elementary and middle schools. The goal of these modules was for the students to explore the steerable parameters of the simulations and develop their computational and mathematical thinking. In this paper, we present three simulations we developed, discuss their design and examine student assessment results that were collected and analyzed using statistical inferences. Our findings illustrate the effectiveness of such enticing exploratory learning processes for developing students’ reasoning of Earth and Environmental science, computational thinking and mathematics. 

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3. Using evidence of student thinking as resources in a digital collaborative platform

   Park, Sunyoung; Edson, Alden J (August 2024, Mathematics education research and practice)

   Learning mathematics in a student-centered, problem-based classroom requires students to develop mathematical understanding and reasoning collaboratively with others. Despite its critical role in students’ collaborative learning in groups and classrooms, evidence of student thinking has rarely been perceived and utilized as a resource for planning and teaching. This is in part because teachers have limited access to student work in paper-and-pencil classrooms. As an alternative approach to making student thinking visible and accessible, a digital collaborative platform embedded with a problem-based middle school mathematics curriculum is developed through an ongoing design-based research project (Edson & Phillips, 2021). Drawing from a subset of data collected for the larger research project, we investigated how students generated mathematical inscriptions during small group work, and how teachers used evidence of students’ solution strategies inscribed on student digital workspaces. Findings show that digital flexibility and mobility allowed students to easily explore different strategies and focus on developing mathematical big ideas, and teachers to foreground student thinking when facilitating whole-class discussions and planning for the next lesson. This study provides insights into understanding mathematics teachers’ interactions with digital curriculum resources in the pursuit of students’ meaningful engagement in making sense of mathematical ideas. 

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4. Computational Thinking in Practice: How STEM Professionals Use CT in Their Work

   Beheshti, E. (April 2017, American Education Research Association Annual Meeting 2017)

   The goal of this study is to bring current computational thinking in STEM educational efforts in line with the increasingly computational nature of STEM research practices. We conducted interviews with STEM practitioners in various fields to understand the nature of CT as it happens in authentic research settings and to revisit a first iteration of our definition of CT in form of a taxonomy. This exploration gives us insight into how scientists use computers in their work and help us identify what practices are important to include in high school STEM learning contexts. Our findings will inform the design of classroom activities to better prepare today’s students for the modern STEM landscape that awaits them. 

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5. Rainbow Agents: A Collaborative Game For Computational Literacy

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3341215.3356312  

   Pellicone, Anthony; Lyons, Leilah; Kumar, Vishesh; Zhang, Eda; Berland, Matthew (October 2019, CHI:PLAY '19)

   This paper describes the design of a collaborative game, called Rainbow Agents, that has been created to promote computational literacy through play. In Rainbow Agents, players engage directly with computational concepts by programming agents to plant and maintain a shared garden space. Rainbow Agents was designed to encourage collaborative play and shared sense-making from groups who are typically underrepresented in computer science. In this paper, we discuss how that design goal informed the mechanics of the game, and how each of those mechanics affords different goal alignments towards gameplay (e.g. competitive versus collaborative). We apply this framework using a case from an early implementation, describing how player goal alignments towards the game changed within the course of a single play session. We conclude by discussing avenues of future work as we begin data collection in two heavily diverse science museum locations. 

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