Unit Fraction Sums +CT Integrated Activity: Challenges and Implications

• In Event: Teaching Practices to Support Computational Thinking and Computer Science

Abstract

Integrating CT into core subjects is becoming a common strategy for bringing CS to more students, but knowledge about how students respond to such activities is still emerging. This paper presents two findings about third- and fourth-graders’ work on an early integrated fractions + CT activity. First, third-grade students struggled to answer basic questions about what they saw in code. Second, fourth-grade students used more sophisticated math number sentences which did not have a one-to-one correspondence to the provided programming blocks. This illuminates a challenge in integrated instruction: if integrated activities are designed for a specific place in both subjects’ instruction, and students are ahead in one subject, the learning outcomes of the activity may be affected.

Authors

• Diana Franklin, University of Chicago

• Carla Strickland, University of Chicago

• Donna Eatinger, University of Chicago

• Kathryn Rich, Michigan State University

• Max White, University of Chicago

• Marco Anaya, University of Chicago

• Andy Isaacs, University of Chicago