DARTMOUTH – Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth have received a $2.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to help elementary school teachers teach skills common to computer programming in math and science classes, the university announced Wednesday.
The initiative will promote computational thinking, a skill typically taught in college-level courses, UMass said. The goal is to expand the teaching to K-12 classes.
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The initiative’s researchers at UMass will work with three elementary schools in New Bedford over four years.
“The future of work and the future of citizenship require that our young people develop an unprecedented level of problem-solving skills and collaborative abilities,” UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Robert E. Johnson said in a statement. “Through this research, our world-class faculty will develop new strategies for elementary school teachers to unleash their students’ potential. This is an example of how our region benefits from having a national tier-one university in its midst.”
The initiative is called “Computational Thinking Counts in Elementary Grades: Powerful STEM Teaching and Learning for the 21st Century.”
The principal investigator on the grant is Director of the Kaput Center for Research & Innovation in STEM Education Chandra Orrill, who is also a professor of mathematics education at UMass Dartmouth.
“These thinking skills are important for students, because they will build confidence in tackling complex problems,” Orrill said. “Students prepared with computational thinking skills will be better equipped to persist when faced with any challenging problem.”
Co-principal investigators for the grant are Associate Provost for Decision Support & Strategic Initiatives and Professor of Computer and Information Science Ramprasad Balasubramanian, and Assistant Professor of STEM Education and Teacher Development Shakhnoza Kayumova.
