SOU nabs $1M federal grant to train local teachers

Sep. 6—Twenty elementary school teachers from Phoenix-Talent and Ashland will construct and test "computational thinking" lesson plans as part of a project made possible by a $1 million National Science Foundation grant.

The educators will convene next month for the project, which ultimately will "develop the beginning of a K-12 computing curriculum pipeline in the state of Oregon," according to a news release from Southern Oregon University, the recipient of the grant. The current project follows the $300,000 grant on computational thinking SOU received from NSF in 2019. Both grants are part of NSF's "Computer Science for All" program.

"By building off of what we learned in the previous project, and creating new partnerships across Oregon, we have the ability to make a significant impact across the state," said Maggie Vanderberg, an SOU associate professor of computer science who also is principal investigator of the NSF project.

In an interview with the Mail Tribune, Vanderberg explained how despite its name, the term "computational thinking" is an educational concept that does not actually require a computer and instead relies on thought processes used in computer science to solve problems across a variety of subjects. Vanderberg and researchers believe computational thinking can be employed in students as young as kindergarten, which is partly why the NSF grant focuses on elementary school educators.

"A lot of students don't learn about computer science until college, and that's a very late place to do it, so trying to get it integrated into their curriculum as early as possible will give them a more equitable place to get into programs like this in college," Vanderberg said.

The 2019 NSF grant project's premise was underrepresented populations of students are not prepared for computer science and that school districts in Southern Oregon could do more to teach them. So NSF took both general elementary and bilingual teachers, including ones in the two school districts closest to SOU — Ashland and Phoenix-Talent. There, school district teachers completed work on the grant project in 2020 virtually amid coronavirus lockdowns.

Still in the grant's study phase, the teachers' lesson plans have yet to be applied in school classrooms.

"What the previous grant showed is that we can focus on computational thinking in core content areas," Vanderberg said. "It's pretty easy to make a connection between computational thinking and math or computational thinking and science ... But we've also shown that we can do this in English language arts and social studies."

On that note, the lesson plans Ashland and Phoenix-Talent teachers come up with during the grant project won't all be directly related to computer science.

"One of the things we're focused on is called 'unplugged computational thinking,' and so the work we're doing does not require computers," Vanderberg said. "It's the application of thought processes and if they can use abstraction in English language arts, and (students) become comfortable moving between levels of abstraction, then they will be more prepared to use those skills later on when it's needed in, say, programming or other technology classes."

Jennifer Mohatt, teaches first grade at Phoenix Elementary School for the bilingual two-way immersion program, meant to teach students to be literate in English and Spanish. Mohatt was part of the 2019 NSF grant project and will be on board for the 2022 one, as well.

She admits she was "a little nervous" coming onto the project, wondering how it might dovetail into her job working with children so young.

"But basically, getting to know the main components of computational thinking can — by either teaching kids explicitly or through hands-on activities — help in their problem-solving skills at any age," Mohatt said. "If we do start building these skills at a younger age, then once we get into coding in computer programming, they'll have a higher sense of confidence or interest in that subject area."

During the first grant project 2019 and into 2020, she learned how computational thinking "fits into our daily life" and leads into computer science.

"That got me more excited (about) the project's research goals, which is to make that field more accessible to all kinds of people," Mohatt said. "I really resonated with the project goal of creating more diversity in the field of computer science."

For Mohatt, collaborating with other teachers outside of Phoenix-Talent was one benefit of the first grant project.

"We're getting lots of great feedback and working on how we can be better teachers and integrate computational thinking into our daily lessons," Mohatt said.

She has received an outline of the upcoming grant project, lasting from October until September 2025. Participating teachers will come up with a lesson plan and then record themselves teaching it. The footage will then be reviewed by the research team for feedback.

In 2023, the project will involve a "summer institute" to allow teachers already participating to help bring aboard new ones, according to Mohatt.

"We will do that cycle with them and their lessons," she said.

In fact, the grant program intends to bring on teachers from the Lincoln County School District and Redmond School District before concluding in 2025.

Asked how the 2022-25 grant will build upon what she did in 2019-20, Mohatt said she hoped the current project would allow her to work on computational thinking lesson plans related to subjects she didn't address before, like social studies and science.

"To have a team look at what you're working on — that's a great way to improve our lessons, teaching styles and strategies," Mohatt said.

She noted participating teachers have spoken with NSF officials on how the research for the project associated with the grant is going.

"It's a really neat feeling to be part of something bigger, that's supporting our students and moving them forward in this world that just continues to advance in technology," Mohatt said, saying it caused her to reflect on her educational opportunities as a child. "(I wish) I would have had some of these opportunities to prepare for the world I live in as an adult."

Vanderburg acknowledged the hope for computational thinking lesson plans being crafted to be applied in actual classrooms.

"Often, the software development industry, we say, 'Fail early and often,'" she said. "We want to know what's going wrong and correct it as soon as possible. We don't want to just put the curriculum on teachers and have them come back to us and say, 'This isn't working,' and say, 'That's it. That's all we have.'"

Reach reporter Kevin Opsahl at 541-776-4476 or kopsahl@rosebudmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KevJourno.