Students at Tyee Middle School learned how coding relates to science through real-world examples. By processing and analyzing national air quality data, they identified cities in the country where air quality is of concern.
Bellevue School District, in partnership with the Lawrence Hall of Science, is developing two innovative science units that integrate computer science and science. The ten day science units simulate internships and are designed to provide a motivating, student-centered learning experience in which students work collaboratively to address meaningful real-world problems. Jake Duke, a BSD STEM curriculum developer, explained that “coding and computational thinking deepen students’ science content understanding and position coding as a tool for doing science”.
Earlier this school year, several middle school science classes piloted another computer science and science unit. In this unit, students used computer science to improve the health of coral reef populations in Hawaii through programming simulated robots and constructing computer models.