Case for Integrating Computational Thinking and Science in aLow-Resource Setting
Published in International Conference of Information and Communication Technologies on Development (ICTD), 2017
Recommended citation: Gautam, A., Bortz, W. E. W., & Tatar, D. (2017). Case for integrating computational thinking and science in a low-resource setting. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD'17). http://aakash.xyz/files/ictd2017.pdf
There is a growing need to use computers to formulate problems andtheir solutions across domains. It has thus become imperative that students across the globe be able to work with computing to express themselves. However, teaching computer science in a traditional way may not be possible in all settings. We studied a method to integrate computational thinking, the ability to express problems and their solutions to a computing device, into an existing science classroom with the goal of deepening learning in both science and computational thinking in a low-resource setting in Nepal. In this note, we present findings from the study. The proposed curricular method acknowledges local differences and presents a way to adapt to those differences through adaptable multiple layers of activities and representational variability. We hope that interested educators and development practitioners would try our method in classrooms.