We will investigate and address the problems of practice by developing a research-based model for modifying the K-8 curriculum to address state CS standards. The project will situate learning within issues related to sustainability, which have been elevated as one of the most pressing challenges facing global societies (United Nations, 2015). The complexity and scale of such issues provide a particularly rich context for leveraging CS/CT in transdisciplinary contexts, creating ample opportunities for integrating CT into existing curricula. Teacher-leaders on the team will pilot lessons from the newly integrated units with their students and refine the lessons in response to these experiences.
The integrated units will be disseminated as exemplars from MSDE and the model for integration that is developed in this phase will ground the teacher PL that the RPP will design in Phase Two. Data collection relevant to our research questions will focus on qualitative and quantitative measures of the partners’ experiences learning and working toward shared goals in the RPP (RQ1), in-classroom video and audio data, and artifacts representing student learning in the newly developed curriculum pilots (RQ2).