2021 NSF STEM for All Video Showcase

May 11, 2021

Once again we are excited to participate in the 2021 NSF STEM for All Video Showcase!

About the STEM for All Video Showcase

Now in its seventh year, the annual showcase will feature over 250 innovative projects aimed at improving Science, Math, Engineering and CS education, which have been funded by the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies. During the 8 day event, researchers, practitioners, policy makers and members of the public are invited to view the short videos, discuss them with the presenters online, and vote for their favorites.

The theme for this year’s event is “COVID, Equity & Social Justice.” Video presentations address broadening participation, impacts of COVID on STEM teaching and learning, design implementation on STEM and CS programs, research informing STEM and CS teaching and learning, and measuring impact of innovative programs. Collectively the presentations cover a broad range of topics including science, mathematics, computer science, engineering, cyberlearning, citizen science, maker spaces, broadening participation, research experiences, mentoring, professional development, NGSS and the Common Core.

Our video

Given the rapid proliferation of computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) in elementary schools, there is a growing need to understand how to integrate CS/CT into existing instruction. The Learning Trajectories for Everyday Computing (LTEC-2) is a collaborative NSF STEM+C project that seeks to understand how to integrate computational thinking (CT) into elementary mathematics. The LTEC-2 team has worked to iteratively develop and test integrated fractions + computational thinking lessons and assessments for grades 3 and 4. These instructional materials are aligned with learning trajectories in the areas of sequencing, repetition, conditional logic, decomposition, and debugging. This project is a collaborative effort between researchers, staff, and research assistants from the University of Florida, UChicago STEM Education, the University of Illinois-Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, and the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. Our research investigates the extent to which these integrated lessons influence students’ understanding of mathematics as well as their computational thinking. The project was funded by the National Science Foundation (Award # 1932920).

We encourage everyone – from researchers to policy-makers to teachers to interested community members – to visit the video showcase, join the discussion, and vote for our video by sharing it on social media!

View our video: Learning Trajectories for Everyday Computing