Massachusetts K–12 Computer Science Curriculum Guide

Curricular Materials

This guide helps school districts choose the computer science (CS) curricula that best suit their communities’ needs. The guide was developed as part of an initiative for school districts to accelerate the creation of classroom opportunities for learning CS that are standards based, high quality, career relevant, and accessible to all students at all grade levels.

Read More

Becoming Technosocial Change Agents: Intersectionality and Culturally Responsive Pedagogies as Vital Resources for Increasing Girls’ Participation in Computing

Publication

Drawing from our two‐year ethnography, we juxtapose the experiences of two cohorts in one culturally responsive computing program, examining how the program fostered girls’ emerging identities as technosocial change agents. In presenting this in‐depth and up‐close exploration, we simultaneously identify conditions that both facilitated and limited the program's potential. Ultimately, we illustrate how these findings can enhance anthropological research and practice in youth identity, culturally responsive pedagogies, and computing education.

Read More

The Synergies Research–Practice Partnership Project: A 2020 Vision Case Study

Publication

This paper, describes Synergies, an on-going longitudinal study and design effort, being conducted in a diverse, under-resourced community in Portland, Oregon, with the goal of measurably improving STEM learning, interest and participation by early adolescents, both in school and out of school. Authors examine how the work of this particular research-practice partnership is attempting to accommodate the six principles outlined in this issue: (1) to more accurately reflect learning as a lifelong process occurring across settings, situations and time frames; (2) to consider what STEM content is

Read More

Rating of Mother-Child Interactions

Instruments

This study examined relations between ratings of mother-child interactions in a problem-solving situation at school entry and academic achievement in grades 2, 3, and 4. Data on the child's cognitive and fine-motor ability and mother's education were also collected at school entry. Academic achievement was assessed with the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). A factor score reflecting mother-child competence in the interaction situation correlated approximately .40 with ITBS total and subtest scores in grades 2, 3, and 4. In regression analyses with the mother-child measures entered first

Read More

A Framework for Aligning Needs, Abilities and Affordances to Inform Design and Practice of Educational Technologies

Publication

This paper addresses the need for enhancing our awareness of user‐centered design in educational technology through a more explicit and systematic alignment between the needs of educational technology users (learners and educators) and the affordances provided by the technology. First, we define the term “affordance” and discuss it from the perspectives of cognitive psychology and user interaction design. Next, we propose a taxonomy of functional affordances that builds on prior research and reflects the current trends in the design of educational technologies. The paper is concluded with an

Read More

Florida's iDigFossils program uses giant 3D printed shark teeth to get kids into STEM subjects

News

A new educational curriculum established by the University of Florida and the Florida Museum of National History is using 3D printing technology to bring kids closer to our pre-historic forebears. The program is known as iDigFossils, and a report in Paleontological Society Special Publications titled ''3-D Fossils for K-12 Education: A Case Example Using the Giant Extinct Sharkcarcharocles Megalodon’' suggests that it is having great success.

Read More

How University of Florida researchers are using 3D printing and digital fossils to improve education

News

A recently conducted case study on the effectiveness of utilizing 3D printing technology to teach intricate subjects within science to young students showcases what researchers from the University of Florida have been working on in a National Science Foundation-funded program called iDigFossils that offers curriculum on intricate subjects such as evolution and climate change through the usage of 3D printed fossil replicas. The case study of the

Read More

iDigFossils receives $1.2 million, will donate 3-D printers to children

News

A UF professor will help give 3-D printers and scanners to children in Florida and California. Pavlo “Pasha” Antonenko, a UF associate professor of educational technology, helped lead “iDigFossils,” a project awarded almost $1.2 million by the National Science Foundation. The funding to give students scanners and printers started Monday. The 3-year project will allow kindergarten through high-school students to develop skills and interest in

Read More