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This poster paper explores how teachers and researchers in a research-practitioner partnership utilize a rubric to evaluate lesson plans in terms of the integration of culturally relevant computer science. Results include that teachers felt able to include opportunities for cultural competence but indicate that additional support is necessary to include opportunities for cultural critique and conceptions of knowledge. The poster presented at this conference will highlight additional supports that teachers may need to develop culturally relevant computer science lesson plans. 

In this study, we examine the reported beliefs of two elementary science teachers who co-taught a four-week engineering project in which students used a computational model to design engineering solutions to reduce water runoff at their school (Lilly et al., 2020). Specifically, we explore the beliefs that elementary science teachers report while enacting an engineering project in two different classroom contexts and how they report that their beliefs may have affected instructional decisions. Classroom contexts included one general class with a larger proportion of students in advanced mathematics and one inclusive class with a larger proportion of students with individualized educational programs. During project implementation, we collected daily surveys and weekly interviews to consider teachers’ beliefs of the class sections, classroom activities, and curriculum. Two researchers performed a thematic analysis of the surveys and interviews to code reflections on teachers’ perceived differences between students in the class sections and their experiences teaching engineering in the class sections. Results suggest that teachers’ beliefs about students in these two different classroom contexts may have influenced opportunities that students had to understand and engage in disciplinary practices. The teachers reported making changes to activities based on their perceptions of student understanding and engagement and to save time which led to different experiences for students in each class section, specifically a more teacher-centered implementation for the inclusive class. Teachers also suggested specific professional development and educative supports to help teachers to support all students to engage in engineering tasks. Thus, it is important to understand teachers’ beliefs to build support for teachers in their implementation of engineering projects that meet the needs of their students and ensure that students have access and support to engage in engineering practices. 

While national frameworks call for the integration of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computer science (STEM+CS) in K-12 contexts, few studies consider elementary teachers’ perceptions of implementing STEM+CS projects in science classrooms. This single case study explores elementary science teachers’ perceptions of enacting STEM+CS curricular materials. Survey and interview data were collected over the four-week project and qualitatively coded. Findings demonstrate teachers’ reported struggles to implement unfamiliar disciplines and leverage students’ prior knowledge in familiar disciplines as well as unanticipated consequences of instructional decisions based on perceived student engagement and pacing. Results underscore the value of teacher voice for curricular and professional development and highlight the need for further investigation of how teachers’ perceptions may influence enactment of STEM+CS curricular materials.