Building a Project Methodology to Provide Authentic and Appropriate Experiences in Computational Science for Middle and High School Students

Volume 3, Issue 1 (June 2012), pp. 11–18

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@article{jocse-3-1-2,
  author={Patricia Jacobs and Jennifer Houchins},
  title={Building a Project Methodology to Provide Authentic and Appropriate Experiences in Computational Science for Middle and High School Students},
  journal={The Journal of Computational Science Education},
  year=2012,
  month=jun,
  volume=3,
  issue=1,
  pages={11--18},
  doi={https://doi.org/10.22369/issn.2153-4136/3/1/2}
}

Shodor, a national resource for computational science education, has successfully developed a model for middle and high school students to gain authentic and appropriate experiences in computational science. As we prepare students for the 21st century workforce, three of the most important skills for advancing modern mathematics and science are quantitative reasoning, computational thinking, and multi-scale modeling. Shodor's Computing MATTERS: Pathways to Cyberinfrastructure program, funded in part by the National Science Foundation Cyberinfrastructure Training, Education, Advancement, and Mentoring (CI-TEAM) program, provides opportunities for middle and high school students to explore all three of these areas. One of the wide range of programs offered through Computing MATTERS is the SUCCEED Apprenticeship Program. The overall goal of the SUCCEED Apprenticeship Program is to provide students with authentic and appropriate experiences in the use of technologies, techniques and tools of Information Technology (IT) with a particular focus on computational science and to produce evidence that students become proficient in these IT technologies, techniques and skills. The program combines appropriate structure (classroom-style training and project-based work experience) with meaningful work content, giving students a wide variety of technical and communication skills. The program uses innovative approaches to get students excited about computational science and enables students to grow from excitement to expertise in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Since its beginning in 2005, the SUCCEED Apprenticeship Program has proven to be a successful model for enabling middle and high school students of both genders and of ethnically and economically diverse backgrounds to gain proficiency in STEM while learning, experiencing, and using information technologies.