Lessons From Co-Designing With Science Teachers to Support Sustained Computational Modeling in Middle School Classrooms

• In Event: Meaning-Making, Negotiation, and Framing in Learning Interactions and Apprenticeship

Abstract

This proposal is part of the NAME project that aims to foster sustained engagement in computational modeling in middle-school science classrooms. To do so, we collaborate closely with teachers as co-designers on 3 design elements of the project: 1. Thematically linked units; 2. Integrating data and modeling; and, 3. Designing a block-based modeling tool. Analyzing data from a 3-day co-design workshop, we found that the workshop boosted teachers’ self-reported comfort with these tools and practices, and identified salient themes in teachers’ feedback on the design. Based on these results, we further reflect on how alignment across design elements is key to teachers’ needs in a modeling unit.

Authors

• Aditi Wagh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Tamar Fuhrmann, Columbia University

• Adelmo Eloy, Transformative Learning Technologies Lab / Universidade de Sao Paulo

• Engin Bumbacher, Stanford University

• Michelle Hoda Wilkerson, University of California - Berkeley

• Paulo Blikstein, Teachers College, Columbia University