Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education
Volume
23
Issue
2
Publisher
Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education
Publication Date
1-1-2023
First Page
368
Last Page
392
Abstract
As computing becomes an essential component of professional practice across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, integration of computing across content areas in K-12 classrooms is also becoming important. Particularly within science classrooms, computer science and computational thinking (CS/CT) are novel and necessary skills for modeling, working with data, and other foundational science skills. Finding ways to engage students in practicing and learning CT within authentic science learning is challenging for most teachers. In this article, the authors report on one teacher’s efforts to engage high school students in maker-based physics education, integrating computational thinking by designing and building escape rooms. Escape rooms are puzzle rooms, wherein participants solve a series of linked puzzles to “escape” a locked room. The puzzles were a year-end activity and utilized the physics content students learned throughout the school year. The authors conducted a text analysis of student reflective journals and teacher reflections to understand the affordances and challenges for students with engaging CS/CT in their science class. Findings indicated high levels of student satisfaction with their puzzles and varying degrees of challenge when coding the microprocessors. Students believed that being able to code responses to physics phenomena enriched their peers’ experiences of learning physics.
Recommended Citation
Tofel-Grehl, C., Searle, K., Ball, D., & Jeong, S. (2023). Examining spaces for integrating physics and computing through classroom inquiry. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 23(2), 368-392.
