LP Based Integration of Computing and Science Education in Middle Schools
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LP Based Integration of Computing and Science Education in Middle Schools Yuanlin Zhang Jianlan Wang Texas Tech University Texas Tech University [email protected] [email protected] Fox Bolduc William G. Murray Texas Tech University Texas Tech University [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT To develop effective, integrative curriculum, it is desirable tohave There is a consensus on integrating computing with STEM teaching frameworks on how CT can be integrated to STEM education to in K-12. However, very little is known about the integration. In support both CT and STEM curricular topics and students’ learning this paper, we propose a novel framework for integrating science outcomes. and computational thinking teaching using Logic Programming. In this paper we propose a Logic Programming (LP) based frame- We then develop and implement two 8-session integration mod- work for integration, called LPK12. LPK12 achieves a deep integra- ules on chemistry and physics for 6th and 7th graders. Pre- and tion of CT and STEM education by building computer models for post- tests, class observations and interviews show the feasibility STEM problems through Answer Set Programming (ASP) [15] – a of the framework in terms of 1) development and implementation modern LP paradigm. LPK12 is based on the following arguments. of the modules, and 2) the students’ learning outcomes on science First, LP has low floor and high ceiling [32]. It allows students to content and Computational Thinking, and their acceptance of the start developing computer models for interesting, non-trivial STEM integration. problems after a very short introduction and yet it is a full-fledged programming paradigm. Second, LP facilitates a unified treatment CCS CONCEPTS of the fundamental skills and topics in STEM and Computing thanks to the fact that LP is based on discoveries and ideas of Logic which • Social and professional topics → Computational thinking; forms an important base for learning and problem solving in all K-12 education; • Computing methodologies → Logic pro- STEM disciplines. The LP modeling methodology allows a natural gramming and answer set programming. and seamless connection of subject-matter concepts and reasoning KEYWORDS to computer model development. Thirdly, middle school students are cognitively ready for LP based approaches. By Piaget [33] and Logic Programming, Middle School Science, Computing Vygotsky [44], children at age 11 to 15 demonstrate substantial ACM Reference Format: knowledge of natural language and the logical use of symbols re- Yuanlin Zhang, Jianlan Wang, Fox Bolduc, and William G. Murray. 2019. LP lated to abstract concepts. Finally, for STEM, LPK12 facilitates stu- Based Integration of Computing and Science Education in Middle Schools. dents to develop fundamental skills, as defined in next generation In ACM Global Computing Education Conference 2019 (CompEd ’19), May science standards (NGSS) [30], such as asking questions and defining 17–19, 2019, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 7 pages. problems, constructing explanations, engaging in argumentation, and https://doi.org/10.1145/3300115.3309512 communicating information. For Computing, students will get abun- 1 INTRODUCTION dant opportunities to learn and practice various levels of abstraction, problem solving, programming and communication as identified in There is consensus on the need of integrating computing, integral the K-12 Computer Science Framework [22]. to the practice of all other STEM disciplines, in STEM teaching and The rest of the paper is organized as follows. We present the learning in K-12 (Kindergarten to 12th grade in the US education LPK12 framework in Section 2 before the discussion of the related system) (see, e.g., [31, 41]). However, little is known about how best work in Section 3. In Section 4, we introduce the design of the study Computational Thinking (CT) can be taught and how to integrate of the feasibility of LPK12 and the procedure of data collection and it with STEM disciplines to improve STEM and CT learning in K-12 analysis. In Section 5, we present the data in alignment with our in general and middle schools in particular. research questions. The paper is concluded by the last section. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, 2.1 LP Based Integration of Computing and to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]. Science Teaching CompEd’19, May 17 – 19, 2019, Chengdu, Sichuan, China To integrate STEM and Computing teaching, we employ a method- © 2019 Association for Computing Machinery. ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-6259-7/19/05...$15.00 ology with two (often iterative) sequential components: (1) Prob- https://doi.org/10.1145/3300115.3309512 lem Description. Teach students a new or learned STEM topic (problem). Students are expected to answer basic questions in this Y is extinct. (Note: the rule is an accurate representation of the topic and understand why. (2) Modeling. Ask students to build a knowledge in food chains, but needs to be refined when a food computer model using LP. The model is expected to answer the web is modeled.) With these newly added rules, the LP program questions in the problem descriptions. concludes that eagles are extinct too. We will use food chain as an example to illustrate both the We have covered almost all major constructs of ASP. We hope the methodology and LP. examples demonstrate the simplicity of ASP and the naturalness of the modeling and how the modeling focuses on domain knowledge. Problem description. Food chains are a science topic taught in One can also see that LP, together with its modeling methodology, middle school. Consider a chain with carrots, rabbits, snakes and produces a seamless integration of Science and Computing. eagles. Typical questions include “Q1: do eagles eat snakes?” and “Q2: what would happen to eagles if snakes become extinct?” Stu- dents are expected to review or learn food chains and how these 2.2 LPK12 Facilitates STEM and CT Learning questions can be answered. Model-based learning is well accepted in science education. It is Modeling. To design a computer model to answer the questions anticipated to help students’ “attainment of ’conceptual under- above, we follow an LP modeling methodology which consists of standing’ in science at a level that goes beyond memorized facts, two steps. (1) Identify objects and relations in the problem. (2) Iden- equations, or procedures” [5]. It is well recognized that building tify knowledge in the problem and write LP rules for this knowledge. computer models for STEM problems helps STEM education too The final LP rules, also called a program, form the model of the [10, 16, 19, 21, 35, 40, 45]. In fact, Harel and Papert [19] pointed out problem. that learning computing together with another subject can be more Objects of the food chain problem. The objects here are four effective than learning each separately. species of organisms, which can be represented in LP by the fol- To illustrate how LP-based integration will facilitate STEM learn- lowing sort declaration: ing, we use the framework for K-12 science education[11]. The #species = {eagle, snake, rabbit, carrot}. framework articulates a vision of the scope and nature of K-12 Note that each species is taken as an object here. #species is education in Science, engineering, and technology. It has been imple- called a sort name. mented by NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) which has Relations in the food chain problem. From question Q1, we iden- been adopted by 16 states in US. tify a relation of the form f eedsOn(X;Y ) meaning that members of The NGSS framework divides the fundamental, core skills for sci- species X feed on those of species Y . In question Q2, we introduce a ence, engineering and technology into eight practices. SP1: asking relation extinct (X ) which means that species X is extinct. questions and defining problems. SP2: developing and using mod- Knowledge and LP Rules. In this part, we explicate the science els. SP3: planning and carrying out investigations. SP4: analyzing knowledge needed to answer the questions in English and then and interpreting data. SP5: using mathematics and Computational “translate” that knowledge into LP rules. The declarative nature Thinking. SP6: constructing explanations and designing solutions. of LP allows for a natural translation. For example, in the given SP7: engaging in argument from evidence. SP8: Obtaining, evaluat- food chain, we know that “rabbits feed on carrots”, which can be ing, and communicating information. translated, using the relation introduced earlier, into LPK12 is able to cover the majority of the eight practices. As r1 : f eedsOn(rabbit;carrot): shown in our integration example in Section 2, students have to ask which is called a fact, a simplest form of an LP rule. r1 is the and answer questions before building a computer model. Hence, label of the rule which may be referred to later. Similarly, we SP1 is in a prominent position in LPK12. LPK12 is driven by de- have the knowledge that “snakes feed on rabbits” and “eagles veloping computer models for STEM problems and thus SP2 will feed on snakes” which are translated respectively into the facts: be practiced intensively under our integration methodology. In r2 : f eedsOn(snake;rabbit) and r3 : f eedsOn(eaдle;snake): The LPK12, as shown in Section 2.1, students are encouraged to iden- collection of rules above forms an LP program which can be used to tify the knowledge and represent it as rules for computer models.