Identifying Formative Assessment Strategies for Computational Thinking in Makerspaces Focused on Physics and Engineering Learning

• In Event: 45.095 - Sheraton Roundtable Seven - Osgoode Ballroom
  In Roundtable Session: 45.095-5 - Division C Section 1e Roundtable 2

Abstract

Making activities and environments can foster the development of computational thinking (CT) skills for students in STEM. To cultivate CT skills and dispositions, educators must understand students’ needs and build awareness of how CT informs a deeper understanding of content. We studied a lesson in a circuitry unit implemented in a makerspace environment, examining when formative assessment could guide understanding of CT. Qualitative analysis results indicated that the establishment of a classroom culture that generated continual formative assessment of CT between instructors and students used the following strategies: (1) using materials in conjunction with the promotion of CT concepts and dispositions, (2) drawing for understanding, (3) the practice of debugging, and (4) a fluidity of roles in the learning space.

Authors

• Kate Thomas, Northeastern Illinois University

• Roxana Hadad, University of California - Los Angeles

• Mila Kachovska, Become, Inc.

• Yue Yin, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Xiaodan Tang, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Qiao Lin, University of Illinois at Chicago