How do you eat an elephant? How problem solving informs computational instruction in high school physics

Abstract

Science educators agree that computation is a growing necessity for curricula at many levels. One program looking to bring computation into high school classes is an NSF-funded program at Michigan State University called Integrating Computation in Science Across Michigan (ICSAM). ICSAM is a year-round program that brings a community of teachers together to help them equitably add computation into their physics curricula. While in the ICSAM program, data is collected from participating teachers through interviews, surveys, classroom videos, and more. In this paper, we examine a case study of an active participant who fits the mold of a typical high school physics teacher in the United States. We utilize the lenses of critical pedagogical discourses and contextual discourses to explore the decision-making behind the adoption of various resources by this teacher during their time with ICSAM. The ways in which this teacher integrated computation in their classroom, along with the nuanced challenges that they faced, might be able to help inform other teachers, professional development providers, and curriculum development of the nature of implementing computation into high school curricula. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (DRL-1741575) and Michigan State University’s Lappan-Philips Foundation.