Two ways that I have integrated coding into the science classroom is through animations that model scientific concepts and collecting experimental data to analyze (Barr & Stephenson, 2011; Yadav, Hong, & Stephenson, 2016). Click on the links below to view some coding projects that I have used.
Animations could be used as a starting point to generate discussion about:
concepts shown in the model, address misconceptions
limitations of the model (particle movement, spacing of particles)
what might be added to enhance the simulation?
what coding blocks and concepts were used? how could the efficiency of the program be improved?
what mathematics understanding made this program possible?
Microbits are devices that can be programmed using either block based or javascript. They have sensors that collect scientific data to analyze and automate the process of collecting data. Some data that can be collected is:
Temperature
Moisture
Light
Acceleration (g forces)
Magnetism (compass sensor)
Additional Ideas
In the future, I would like to integrate coding into the science classroom through video game creation (Kellinger, 2017) or story creation (Ouyang, Hayden, & Remold, 2018) that demonstrates understanding of the science concepts.
Barr, V., & Stephenson, C. (2011). Bringing computational thinking to K-12: What is involved and what is the role of the computer science education community?. Acm Inroads, 2(1), 48-54.
Kellinger, J. J. (2017). A guide to designing curricular games: How to "game" the system. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-42393-7
Ouyang, Y., Hayden, K. L., & Remold, J. (2018). Introducing computational thinking through non-programming science activities. In Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education,308-313. https://doi.org/10.1145/3159450.3159520
Yadav, A., Hong, H., & Stephenson, C. (2016). Computational thinking for all: Pedagogical approaches to embedding 21st century problem solving in K-12 classrooms. Tech Trends, 60, 565-568. doi: 10/1007/s11528-016-0087-7