The outcome of James’s work in cryptography (also called cryptography) with her Boonville High School students is a prime example of what Professor Cozzens had in mind when she developed the program. First, small groups of teachers learn how to do computational thinking in a short, online course designed by the DIMACS team. Then they adapt the same course materials to teach their students how to think computationally. The original learning modules were designed with math and science students in mind. However, teachers in the arts found the modules useful, too.
“It wasn’t just math and science teachers. We had librarians, French teachers, theatre arts teachers, history teachers and special ed teachers, and they developed their own understanding of computational thinking, which is a key point,” said Professor Cozzens. “The teachers developed their own understanding, and then the students developed their understanding. None of it was rote learning. Everything was discovery learning.”
“My big takeaway is that all students appreciate and are capable of understanding the use of computational thinking, what you can do to solve (complex) problems,” Cozzens added.
Computational thinking invokes four main strategies to answer questions like these, all of which involve the collection, sorting and analysis of data:
- Decomposition – breaking down a complex problem or system into smaller, more manageable parts.
- Pattern Recognition – looking for similarities among and within problems.
- Abstraction – focusing on the important information only, ignoring irrelevant detail.
- Algorithms – Developing a step-by-step set of rules to follow to solve the problem.
Many of the teachers taking the online computational thinking courses then applied what they learned to teach CT in an array of disciplines and classroom settings – from physics and advanced mathematics to environmental policy and the arts.
Under the Rutgers program, secondary school teachers have shown great imagination in applying what they have learned to their classroom lessons.
Mello asked her students to use clues (data such as birth dates, home state, marriage status, etc.) from their Revolutionary War history books to identify the other nine mystery heroes. She gave them no further guidance but had them work in teams of two to find the answers.
As Mello watched, her students chatted with each other, pointed to clues on the wall, and burrowed into their workbooks. They laughed, furrowed their brows, and exclaimed with joy when finding a right answer. Some found answers quickly, others slowly. Most importantly, their teacher observed, they were learning how to ask questions, how to think for themselves, and how to work in teams.
So thoroughly engaged were her students in these and other computational thinking exercises, some were clearly disappointed when the end-of-class school bell rang.
As one student had exclaimed in an earlier class: “What? School’s over already?”
Coded Messages and Escape Rooms
All complex problems are, in simplest terms, puzzles.
One of the most engaging puzzles for students can be found in the field of cryptography— the art of writing or solving codes or ciphers.
Which is why Boonville High School physics teacher Brea James had asked her students to solve eight coded clues to determine who had committed a hypothetical murder in a school science department.
As for James, she plans to continue teaching computational thinking.
She said her students enjoyed writing messages back and forth in code so much that “I am still getting coded messages on a regular basis.”
- Teachers from the following 17 states took DIMAC’s computational thinking course online: CA, CO, IL, KS, KY, MA, ME, MN, MO, MT, NE, NY, OK, PA, TX, UT and WI.
This article was prepared by Christopher Biddle, President, Biddle Communications & Public Relations LLC.
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