Infusing Computational Thinking Into Upper Elementary Science Teaching

• In Event: Computational Thinking in Elementary and Secondary Classrooms: Models for Teacher Professional Development

Abstract

Objectives:
Our objective is to determine promising ways of infusing computational thinking into upper elementary science teaching.

Background
While computational thinking (CT) is of increasing importance, little emphasis has been placed on embedding CT within core subject areas in elementary schools (Yadav, Hong, & Stephenson, 2016). This is particularly problematic for students from low-income and under-resourced schools who are often from racially-minoritized groups and have little access to CT outside of schools. Our project has worked with teachers to infuse four CT practices of abstraction, decomposition, patterns, and debugging into their reform-based science teaching.

Methods & Data Sources
In 2018-2019, we worked with eleven teachers from ethnically and linguistically-diverse high-poverty schools in Michigan to infuse CT into their teaching. Together, we revised 3rd-5th grade science lessons to infuse CT in their teaching. Our data include lesson plans and strategies, video recorded lessons enacted by elementary teachers, and samples of students’ written assessments. We qualitatively analyzed these data to generate initial codes, which were collapsed into overarching categories that showcased teachers' thinking and enactments of how they incorporated CT within their science lessons.

Results
Our analysis indicates CT can be integrated in scientific inquiry in several ways. For example, students can look for patterns when they analyze and interpret data by observing the position of the moon, sun and stars in the sky over time. Abstraction is critical when students are developing and revising causal models of phenomena such as conceptual models of air particles or forces when balls collide. Debugging is critical when planning and carrying out investigations to make sure the investigations actually work and generate good data, such as planning an investigation of what plants need to survive. Finally, decomposing is critical for breaking down problems to determine how to approach parts of the system to figure out plant parts, or how to clean dirty water.

Analysis of the implementations indicates that teachers primarily focused on the CT practice of debugging in engineering challenges, designing and conducting investigations, or CT ideas as reflection tools for the lessons they had previously taught. For example, teachers asked students to design or re-design engineering challenges or scientific investigations in their curricula. Only one teacher asked students to think about patterns in data, and none of the teachers engaged students in developing or revising conceptual models for abstraction. Initial analysis of students’ written work indicates there was little focus on abstraction using conceptual modeling.

Teachers may have focused on engineering and investigations because: these areas inherently use decomposing and debugging, these may be closer to familiar math problem-solving approaches, or these were the practices modeled in an activity during the professional learning workshop. Findings indicate that teachers may need more support to infuse patterns in data and abstraction through conceptual modeling.

Scholarly Significance
Learning how teachers can incorporate CT into their science teaching can advance the work of researchers, curriculum designers, and teacher leaders. This will allow us to understand how this CT teaching might affect student learning and equity in elementary schools.

Authors

• Christina V. Schwarz, Michigan State University

• Rachel Larimore, Samara Early Learning

• Jessica Ashley, Oakland Schools

• Aman Yadav, Michigan State University