%AZhang, N.%ABiswas, G.%AChiu, J.%AMcElhaney, K.%D2019%I %K %MOSTI ID: 10110551 %PMedium: X %TAnalyzing Students' Design Solutions in an NGSS-aligned Earth Sciences Curriculum %XThis paper analyzes students’ design solutions for an NGSS aligned earth sciences curriculum, the Playground Design Challenge (PDC), for upper-elementary school (grade 5 and 6) students.We present the underlying computational model and the user interface for generating design solutions for a school playground that has to meet cost, water runoff, and accessibility constraints. We use data from the pretest and posttest assessments and activity logs collected from a pilot study run in an elementary school to evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum and investigate the relations between students’ behaviors and their learning performances. The results show that (1) the students’ scores significantly increased from pretest to posttest on engineering design assessments, and (2) students’ solution-generation and testing behaviors were indicative of the quality of their design solutions as well as their pre-post learning gains. In the future, tracking such behaviors online will allow us to provide adaptive scaffolds that help students improve on their engineering design solutions. Country unknown/Code not availablehttps://doi.org/978-3-030-23204-7OSTI-MSA