Workshop Description (in case your interested for next year)
This workshop illustrates the wide variety of applications of computational thinking at conceptual and practical levels through a series of teacher-participation exercises and presentations. In particular, the workshop includes hands-on activities that teachers can duplicate in their classrooms to illustrate computing principles beyond computer programming. (From the CMU ACTIVATE website)
I am always looking for opportunities to learn new programming languages and applications of computing, which is why I enrolled for this workshop (oh, did I forget to mention, they pay you to attend :) )
What is computational thinking? This term was coined by Jeanette Wing, her vision "is that computational thinking will be a fundamental skill used by everyone in the world by the middle of the 21st century."
Some examples of computational thinking in our everyday lives:
- Sorting important documents
- Choosing a line at the supermarket (queuing and scheduling)
- Putting things in your child's knapsack for the day (caching)
- Running errands (traveling salesperson)
- Cooking dinner or washing loads of laundry (parallel processing/pipelining)
Computational Thinking in STEM
- Biology: DNA sequences are strings in a language
- Brain Science: Analyzing fMRI data with machine learning algorithms
- Chemistry: Optimizaion and searching algorithms identify best chemicals for improving reaction conditions to improve yields
- Engineering: Boeing 777 tested via computer simulation alone, not in a wind tunnel
An operational definition of computational thinking for K-12
- formulating problems in a way that enables us to use a computer and other tools to solve them
- logically organizing and analyzing data
- representing data through abstractions such as models and simulations
- automating solutions through algorithmic thinking (a series of ordered steps)
- identifying, analyzing, and implementing possible solutions with the goal of achieving the most efficient and effective combination of steps and resources
- generalizing and transferring this problem solving process to a wide variety of problems
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