Hello all and thanks for watching our video! CT4EDU is collaborative project of Michigan State University, the American Institutes for Research, and the Oakland Schools that is funded by the National Science Foundation.

This project designed, implemented, and assessed a high-quality, integrated curriculum, and professional development that supported elementary school teachers in embedding computational thinking (CT) into their classrooms. Currently exposure to CT is too often limited to students participating in an accelerated curriculum (i.e. gifted and talented) or in after school activities (i.e. coding clubs). This is a highly inequitable system in which only those students who have the resources and access can build on CT in their elementary years. By embedding CT into 2nd through 5th grade, in-school science and mathematics curriculum, this project aimed to give all students early access to computing.

We look forward to learning from you, our viewers. To start the discussion, please share your thoughts about these questions:

• How do teachers use computational thinking in your schools or research projects?
• What are your thoughts on access and equity in relation to CT instruction and training?
• In your opinion, what are some innovative ways CT practices can be used more frequently in elementary school instruction?

We look forward to reading your thoughts and questions!
Please do visit our website to learn more about CT4EDU: http://ct4edu.org/ 

Hi, Mary, thanks for sharing your project! Subject-area integration is a critical pathway for introducing more students to computer science and computational thinking -- I’d love to learn more about the specifics of your approach to integration. What kinds of activities did students participate in during the project? You mention that teachers focused on meta-cognitive strategies; what did this look like in practice? I’m also curious about outcomes--how did you assess the impact of the project, and what kinds of outcomes did you see? Was there an impact on students’ learning of the science and math content? Look forward to hearing more about the work!

What an exciting project, Mary! Emily asked some great questions I am curious about, as well. How did you all define CT? i.e. What concepts did you include as CT concepts? Are students privy to those definitions and are they encouraged to use specific CT terms when describing their metacognitive processes? Can't wait to learn more!

Hello Emily and thanks for your note. I am so glad for your interest. 

Several teachers were part of this project and they taught students at several different grade levels. Some of the activities the teachers used included:

• Real-world coding applications for 4^th graders
• STEM activities

Yes, the teachers did use meta-cognitive strategies to help students apply their newly acquired computational thinking skills in many content areas. Some examples of this in practice include:

• Attitudes towards problem solving in any subject, so the children eventually started to think of errors or problems as just “bugs” to be resolved
• The students became more creative in their thinking about spelling, math, and even interpersonal situations that required solutions. They became more flexible in their thinking, in that they are starting to think of multiple ways to solve a challenge, rather than to get overwhelmed by the challenge itself. 

This project began a few years ago and evolved as the complexities of COVID changed how schooling took place with our partners in Oakland. Impact was thought of as the development and implementation of CT lesson plans in math and science but has evolved to include not only lesson plan development but also CT practices across content areas. We have measured this impact through interviews with teachers, classroom observations, and lesson plan studies. The measurement of student learning has also been impacted by COVID over the last few school years but generally, we have measured this by students’ progress in the classroom and on curriculum assessments.

Great project. Strong project team.

How hard or easy has it been to recruit teachers? How much training did they need?  How did you measure its impact on students? Have you thought about extending it beyond STEM?

 

Integrating CT across curricula is no easy task, but a really important approach to making computation more accessible.

I'm curious about the teachers who are participating in this project. How did you recruit/select them and how much experience (if any) did they have with CT? Our project is working on a slightly different topic (Integrating computational modeling into science classrooms), but one big part of this is helping teachers gain experience and confidence in teaching CT as part of a computational modeling practice. Have you found any approaches/activities/insights that have helped teachers who do not have as much experience with computational thinking begin teaching CT in their classrooms?