Teaching Computational Thinking and Spatial Visualization in K-12 with 3D Weather Visualizations
Mahnas Mohammadi-Aragh, Yan Lindsay Sun, Jamie L. Dyer, Jonathan G. Harris, Chase A. Robinson, Mengni Bai, Jolie K. Kavanagh, Kimberly E Ball · 2022 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) · 2022
This Innovative Practice Full Paper presents a K-12 teacher training workshop for computational thinking instruction. Computational thinking refers to a set of skills that are necessary for success in engineering and science careers. Teaching computational thinking skills prior to university-level enrollment helps students be more successful in their degree programs. Our project serves as an attempt to innovate science education by designing and testing data-driven, scientific inquiry experiences that integrate teaching and learning of atmospheric science with computational thinking and practices in authentic, innovative, and effective ways. In this paper, we describe our design process for developing authentic computational thinking and spatial visualization modules for the two-week computational thinking professional development that uses 3D weather visualizations to train K-12 teachers in eleven computational thinking and spatial visualization skills.