iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

The Assessing Computational Thinking in Making Activities (ACTMA) project aims to create embedded, adaptive, and culturally responsive activities and formative assessments of computational thinking (CT) in STEM that can be used in informal learning spaces such as makerspaces, but can also be brought into more formal physics classroom experiences. Our 2017 2-week summer program brought 15 students together to run a second pilot of our activities and assessments created and iterated upon, thus far in the project. The summer program was facilitated by classroom physics teachers who implemented the activities in their classrooms during the school year. Our team has been focusing the research on what cultural responsiveness means for developing CT in making environments, and how to best embed assessments in making activities.

Since the turn of this century, the “4C’s of 21st century” skills—critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication—have seen growing recognition as essential ingredients of school curricula. This shift has prompted an uptake in pedagogies and frameworks such as project-based learning, inquiry learning, and deeper learning across all levels of K-12 that emphasize higher order thinking over rote learning. I argue that we need computational thinking (CT) to be another core skill—or the “5th C” of 21st century skills—that is taught to all students.

There is growing recognition in the education systems around the globe that being able to problem-solve computationally—that is, to think logically and algorithmically, and use computational tools for creating artifacts including models and data visualizations—is rapidly becoming a prerequisite competency for all fields.