2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Board 320: Integrating Computational Thinking into a Neural Engineering High School Curriculum

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session

Engineering design and computational thinking are critical to contemporary STEM research. This is reflected in the Next Generation Science Standards, which call for broadly exposing K-12 students to engineering design and computational thinking as core practices. The development and investigation of pathways to successfully integrate these practices in all science disciplines are presently limited. Here, we propose a framework for efficiently connecting computational thinking practices with engineering design, and describe a four week NGSS-congruent module that strategically weaves opportunities for high school life science students to apply engineering design and computational thinking. Analysis of pilot data gathered from five sections of a life science course in a northeastern U.S. urban high school during the 2022-2023 academic academic year will inform the next iteration of the module.

Authors

Susan Meabh Kelly University of Connecticut [biography]

Susan Meabh Kelly is completing a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction at the Neag School of Education. Qualified to teach both secondary-level Earth Science and Physics in Connecticut and New York, Susan has twenty years of teaching experience, largely in culturally and socioeconomically diverse urban communities. Having participated in a variety of policy-driven and agency-funded efforts herself, Susan studies secondary students' and science teachers' experiences with STEM education improvement efforts. Using a variety of social theory lenses, she investigates and conceives communal, inclusive, and agentive opportunities for secondary students and their science teachers.
Ido Davidesco University of Connecticut [biography]

Davidesco is an Assistant Professor of Learning Sciences at the University of Connecticut. He is interested in how students engage in authentic science and engineering activities and how computational thinking and data practices can be incorporated into the K-12 science and engineering curricula.
Dr. Aaron Kyle Columbia University in the City of New York

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