STELAR Webinar: Unpacking Computational Thinking & CT's Role in Interdisciplinary Learning

Event

Computational Thinking and CT have become a buzz word and buzz acronym in schools and education systems worldwide, yet is still a phrase that invokes confusion and debate. This 2-part webinar unpacked CT and discussed it in the context of non-CS disciplinary learning.

In Part 1, Dr. Shuchi Grover provided an encore (with a few relevant contextual edits) of her keynote address to 700 heads of schools in New Delhi in September 2017. She discussed:

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How Baltimore Is Growing Its Tech Gurus From Scratch

News

The Digital Harbor Foundation, recent recipient of ITEST funding, was featured last month in Politico Magazine's "What Works" series. Digital Harbor, a non-profit maker-space laboratory located in Baltimore, is teaching area youth to learn STEM by doing, and having fun: Researchers who’ve studied Digital Harbor kids recently found that teens who’ve gone through its introductory course show a 10-percent increase in “divergent thinking” – a measure

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Advanced Bioinformatics: Genetic Research (Bio-ITEST)

Curricular Materials

The Bio-ITEST genetic research curriculum unit explores how bioinformatics is used to perform genetic research. Specifically, the bioinformatics tools of BLAST, ORFinder, ClustalW and Cn3D are used to analyze genetic sequences. The cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene is introduced as the “DNA barcoding” gene that allows for identification of species. Students examine DNA sequences from different animal species, investigate the relationship between protein structure and function, and explore evolutionary relationships among eukaryotic organisms. The unit concludes with an authentic

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Introductory Bioinformatics: Genetic Testing (Bio-ITEST)

Curricular Materials

The Bio-ITEST genetic testing curriculum explores how bioinformatics is applied to genetic testing. Specifically, the bioinformatics tools of BLAST and Cn3D are used to investigate the genetic and molecular consequences of a mutation to the Breast Cancer Susceptibility 1 (BRCA1) gene. Students are also introduced to principles-based bioethics in order to support their thoughtful consideration of the many social and ethical implications of genetic testing. Throughout the unit, students are presented with a number of career options in which the tools of bioinformatics are used. In a series of

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Bioinformatics Education in High School: Implications for Promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Careers

Publication

We investigated the effects of our Bio-ITEST teacher professional development model and bioinformatics curricula on cognitive traits (awareness, engagement, self-efficacy, and relevance) in high school teachers and students that are known to accompany a developing interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. The program included best practices in adult education and diverse resources to empower teachers to integrate STEM career information into their classrooms. The introductory unit, Using Bioinformatics: Genetic Testing, uses bioinformatics to teach basic

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Concord Consortium Data Science Education Webinar

Opportunities

Join ITEST colleagues at the Concord Consortium on Tuesday, May 30, as they host Cliff Konold of the Scientific Reasoning Research Institute for a 2-hour webinar about data science education. Cliff will lead a discussion of the article “Modeling as a core component of structuring data” (Konold, Finzer, & Kreetong, in press), which describes research on student understanding of and ability to organize complex data for analysis.

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NSF Dear Colleague Letter: Growing Convergence Research at NSF

Opportunities
Growing Convergence Research at the National Science Foundation (NSF) is one of 10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments. NSF seeks to highlight the value of convergence as a process for catalyzing new research directions and advancing scientific discovery and innovation. This Dear Colleague Letter describes an initial set of opportunities to explore Convergence approaches within four of the research-focused NSF Big Ideas:
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