Integrating Computational Thinking and Modeling Into Next Generation Science Standards–Aligned Elementary Science Curriculum With English Learners

• In Event: A New Generation of Goals for Scientific Modeling: Strategies and Lessons Learned for Reach and Impact

Abstract

Purpose/Significance. Research on integrating computational thinking and modeling (CTM) into science curriculum is in its infancy, especially in elementary science classrooms with diverse student groups. This study examined classroom implementation of a yearlong fifth-grade curriculum aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) that integrates CTM with a focus on English learners (ELs).

Theoretical Framework. Our research directly addresses linking research, policy, and practice with ELs at scale. First, our work integrates CTM with NGSS-aligned curriculum, which offers policy implications as 43 states and DC have adopted or adapted the NGSS. Second, our work involves elementary students, which offers implications for developmental trajectories to the existing literature that typically involves secondary students. Third, our work integrates science, language, and CTM with ELs, which offers equity implications. Finally, our work involves a full-year curriculum, which offers implications for learning progressions over time.

Our curriculum is grounded in a conceptual framework that integrates science and language with ELs (Author, 2019a; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). Building on and extending this framework, we integrate CTM in terms of (a) agent-based modeling of complex systems, (b) blocks-based programming to explain causal mechanisms of complex systems, and (c) progressive accessibility to reveal functionality (e.g., Sengupta et al., 2013). In integrating science, language, and CTM with ELs, we place science at the center, promoting participation of all students in three-dimensional learning to make sense of phenomena, while leveraging the parallels between language and CTM in terms of modalities, registers, and interactions in service of learning science (Author, 2019b; Kress, 2000).

Methods. This presentation reports on the first-year implementation of our curriculum by two fifth-grade elementary science teachers during the entire 2018–2019 school year. The curriculum consisted of four, 9-week units that addressed all fifth-grade NGSS performance expectations. In each unit, students developed computational models using StarLogo Nova to answer the unit driving question. Data sources included 80 classroom observations, as well as teacher feedback through online, individual interviews, and meetings with the research team.

Findings/Conclusions. Teachers used the curriculum to engage students in the practice of modeling in ways that allowed for rich sense-making of phenomena. Complementing the affordances of physical or diagrammatic modeling, computational modeling supported students, including ELs, in learning science. The results also indicated parallels between language and CTM with all students, including ELs. In terms of modalities, agent-based modeling provided multimodal resources, making modeling the complex systems more accessible to students. In terms of registers, a blocks-based modeling environment enabled students to communicate ideas in everyday language using “meaningful chunks of code.” In terms of interactions, peer and classroom interactions with and about agent-based models in a blocks-based modeling environment supported students in developing CTM through varying types of interactions, in ways analogous to developing language through varying types of interactions. These preliminary results will guide the iterative cycles of our design-based research, which will have impacts on educational policies and classroom practices with ELs and other diverse student groups.

Authors

• Alison Marie Haas, New York University

• Scott Grapin, University of Miami

• Marcelle Goggins, University of Washington

• Lorena Llosa, New York University

• Okhee Lee, New York University