This Q&A style session is intended to provide information to the community and foster informal discussion about the DRK–12 and STEM+C programs, as well as NSF funding opportunities and initiatives.
(Moderator: Evan Heit)
This session explores the kinds of obstacles students encounter when creating computational models and potential approaches for addressing these issues.
Students have traditionally faced difficulties in creating their own computational models due to steep learning curves associated with programming, difficulties in formulating mathematical equations, and lack of student-centered tools to facilitate the use of data from real-world phenomena to inform model design. Addressing these issues will make it possible to broaden participation by engaging students in computational thinking and modeling at younger ages, and by providing a pathway for students who struggle with mathematical formulas and data/graph literacy to participate.
This panel session brings together several projects that explore affordances and challenges to synergistic delivery of STEM and CT concepts and practices in K–12 classrooms.
While there is broad consensus about the synergistic relations between STEM domains and CT concepts and practices, there remains much to be done in developing CT-supported STEM curricula and in providing K–12 teachers and practitioners with the tools and resources to implement such curricula. In this 90-minute topical session, leaders from four DRK–12 STEM+C projects that are developing technology-based solutions address challenges in developing appropriate curricula, resources, and assessments for elementary, middle, and high school STEM courses.
Panelists discuss the changing landscape of work, business and industry workforce demands, and current education needs and research in areas such as computational thinking.
(Moderator: Joyce Malyn-Smith)
What does preK–12 education need to look like in order to prepare our future workforce and citizenry? Trends and forecasts lead us to understand that the future of work will be vastly different from what we know today, particularly the relationship between humans and machines both in routine work environments across industry sectors, and also in designing solutions to formerly intractable problems. With more work tasks being performed by machines, the role of humans in the world of work is changing. What does this mean for teaching and learning in the 21st century?
Plan how to broadly disseminate, maintain, and sustain the products of your DRK–12 and/or STEM+C project. Learn about common models, and share your own ideas and experiences.
This session, led by veteran PIs and co-PIs from Georgia Tech and Concord Consortium, provides a forum for participants to explore the pros and cons of different routes toward product sustainability. The session begins with a carousel activity in which participants respond to prompt questions about challenges and models for transitioning educational resources from research projects to sustained dissemination at scale.
Join presenters as they use an equity framework to engage participants in discussing broadening the participation of Latinx middle school students in a mathematics and computer programming program.
This roundtable discussion begins by framing the affordances and challenges in the context of broadening the participation of Latinx middle school students in STEM+C using an equity lens (Gutiérrez, 2012). Four axes are included as part of this framework: access, achievement (in our case, understandings), identity, and power. Participants are asked to share their understandings of the issues in relation to this equity lens and share stories of opportunities and challenges, as well as ideas of how to address those challenges.
Hypothetical learning trajectories imply negotiation between teachers and students. In this session, researchers discuss how they validate learning trajectories under variable conditions and anticipate change in practice artifacts.
This session contributes to a methodological strand involving experienced researchers on learning trajectories and/or learning progressions (LTs/LPs). All these researchers have empirically demonstrated the potential of LT/LP work to broaden participation by leveraging student ideas and offering engaging task designs. Presenters share new LT research on computational thinking. This topical session asks participants to respond to critical questions on the topics of validity and change followed by audience questions and comments.
The framing plenary presentation addresses the necessity and urgency for the NSF DRK–12 and STEM+C communities to capitalize on intersections or the nexus of the three domains of broadening participation, STEM+C disciplines, and technological innovations.
The education system is rapidly changing due to three emerging forces: traditional minority groups are now the majority; standards in STEM and computer science are academically rigorous; and technological innovations are advancing fast. The NSF 10 Big Ideas provide the vision for harnessing these emerging forces. This framing plenary presentation will address the necessity and urgency for the NSF DRK–12 and STEM+C communities to capitalize on intersections of the three domains of broadening participation, STEM and computer science disciplines, and technological innovations in education.
Learn about the STEM+Computing funding program and its relationship to NSF’s Big Ideas (specifically, interdisciplinary Convergence and Work at the Human Technology Frontier), and network with other STEM+C awardees.
