Thinking Computationally About Early Childhood Research Projects

Purpose & objective

Participants will understand what computational thinking is.
Participants will see examples of student research work and artifacts that show what they learned.
Participants will get hands on with a robot (Kibo) that students used to share their learning.
Participants will see how inquiry based learning honors student choice and voice.

Outline

Content and activities and Process:
- student research projects will be shown on the poster
-EdTech tools used in the projects will be listed on the poster
- computational thinking broken into the four areas students engaged with during each phase
- all resources will be captured on my website
- handouts will be aviable for more in-depth exploration
- contact information will be shared
Time:
- I will have the poster broken into each area. As attendees approach me I will tell a short story 5 mins or less and then allow them to ask questions prompted by the poster and / or get hands on with KIBO. I will give them a taste of the robot and send them to the exhibit hall to learn more.

Supporting research

- I wrote a chapter in the following book and will have it available for free as a pdf https://www.igi-global.com/book/handbook-research-empowering-early-childhood/258353

- https://www.pebblego.com/blog/online-research-and-reading-using-pebblego-classroom
- Bers, M., A. Strawhacker and A. Sullivan (2022), “The state of the field of computational thinking in early childhood education”, OECD Education Working Papers, No. 274, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/3354387a-en.

-Bers, M., Govind, M., & Relkin, E. (2021) Coding as Another Language: Computational Thinking, Robotics, and Literacy in First and Second Grade. in Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A., & Yadav, A. (2021). Computational Thinking in PreK-5: Empirical Evidence for Integration and Future Directions. ACM and the Robin Hood Learning + Technology Fund, New York, NY

-Govind, M. & Bers, M. (2021). Assessing Robotics Skills in Early Childhood: Development and Testing of a Tool for Evaluating Children’s Projects. Journal of Research in STEM Education, 7(1).