STEM Outreach: Assessing Computational Thinking and Problem Solving

The ever-growing popularity of computer science has fostered the need for computational thinking (CT), especially in K-12 education. Pedagogy that infuses CT, as well as reliable methods for assessing CT, remain open problems. In this paper, we describe a 5th-9th grade STEM outreach program. Classes on micro controllers and computer programming are presented. Data collected through a newly designed self-efficacy instrument is used to determine effectiveness of these curricula at improving confidence in CT and problem solving skills. Introduction This paper describes a STEM outreach program where the Manhattan-Ogden Unified School District 383 has partnered with Kansas State University. This program lasts four weeks and is designed to expose 5th-9th grade students to STEM careers and subjects through hands-on activities. The program covers a large range of areas, including robotics, computer programming, agriculture, food science, unmanned aerial vehicles, clean energy, and construction science. Professional educators are paired with small groups (2-4) of pre-service teachers to run each class (maximum size of 18). This allows pre-service teachers to get practical, hands-on experience, as well as to learn new STEM activities to include in their own future classrooms. This also gives an excellent teacher to student ratio, providing a oneon-one learning experience for program participants. We focus, however, on measuring the impact of two classes on the program participants. Each class employed similar pedagogy and the Scratch (2009) programming language. One relied heavily on computer science theory and space exploration as a theme, and the other used micro controllers as the foundation for activities. The goals of this research are as follows: 1. Develop effective curricula for improving student self-efficacy in CT, 2. Develop a reliable and effective way of measuring student self-efficacy in CT, and 3. Enforce the notion that CT is not problem solving (PS), but a component of cognition. Background and Related Work “Computational thinking involves solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior, by drawing on the concepts fundamental to computer science”. However, computational thinking (CT) is not intended to be equated to computer science; rather the essence of CT comes from thinking like a computer scientist when faced with problems from any discipline. Wing expanded the definition of CT in 2011, mentioning that CT is “the thought process involved in formulating problems and their solutions so that the solutions are represented in a form that can be effectively carried out by an information processing agent”. The inclusion of intelligent agents in what embodies CT creates a pathway to inclusion in multiple disciplines by means of scientific simulation and real-world problem sets. In a report by the Royal Society, the need to incorporate CT in curriculum is emphasized and defined as “the process of recognizing aspects of computation in the world that surrounds us, and applying tools and techniques from computer science to understand and reason about both natural and artificial systems and process”. This encompasses the vision of CT, drawing from traditional computer science to encourage new ways of thinking about the world around us. Computational thinking can be expanded by defining it in terms of concepts, practices, and perspectives. CT concepts have been a popular target for research and curricula development; however, the concepts vary across domains. Some, such as Brennan and Resnick, present CT concepts as referenced in their problem domain (Scratch), while others, such as the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), present CT concepts for application across K-12 curricula. Even from within the general domain application, what authors include in their definition of CT concepts vary. Brennan and Resnick define computational concepts (also referred to as CT concepts) as the “concepts that designers employ as they program.” To encompass more fields, CT concepts are generalized as the usage of one of the computer science principles listed in Table 1 in solving a problem: Table 1 Computational Thinking Concepts and Related Computer Science Principles