Science+C

Challenge

Today, all scientists use computational thinking (CT) skills and technology to conduct routine tasks, to discover, and to innovate. Such skills are important for students to acquire while in high school as preparation for successful careers in high-tech scientific enterprises. However, schools often don’t provide the necessary solid grounding in computational science to enable them to develop these skills before graduation.

In the Science+C project, EDC collaborated with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to create and test computational units integrated into three core high school science courses: Computational Biology (Biology+C), Computational Chemistry (Chemistry+C), and Computational Physics (Physics+C). These units have now been made available for use by all high schools within and beyond Massachusetts.

Key Activities

The Science+C team conducted the following activities:

• Built broad-based interest and visibility, developing champions for high school computational science courses within the state and national stakeholder communities
• Developed, researched, and evaluated 14 computational science units over the three courses that support students in using, decoding, and modifying computational science models
• Developed, researched, and evaluated a blended (i.e., face-to-face and online) teacher professional development model
• Trained 40 science teachers in NetLogo and computational science modeling
• Developed a community of practice among Massachusetts computational science teachers
• Conducted research on the impact of computational science courses on students’ state and national assessment scores
• Launched efforts to expand Science+C to additional districts and states, including providing a Science+C Interest Form to provide widespread access to curriculum units

Our Impact

• An estimated 40 teachers were trained in computational modeling.
• An estimated 1,425 students in 59 classrooms across Massachusetts participated in Science+C courses.
• The team’s research indicated the following:
  • Integrating computer science (CS) and CT into required science courses enabled all students to experience and build these key skills.
  • Science+C exposed students to other important Next Generation Science Standards practices, such as asking scientific questions, collecting and analyzing data, and reasoning from evidence.
  • Use of visual models made CS and CT “real” for students and helped them understand systems, concepts, interactions, and connections among variables.
  • Learning that simulations can have errors and/or not provide the full picture gave students the opportunity to modify models to better and more accurately represent scientific phenomenon.