A plan for immediate immersion of computational thinking into the high school math classroom through a partnership with the Alabama math, science, and technology initiative

Abstract

This paper describes a design for an immediate immersion of computational thinking into current high school math classrooms in Alabama. Most schools in our region have eliminated computer science classes from the curriculum. Alabama has an existing state initiative to improve mathematics, science and technology education in K-12. The Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) emphasizes learning by doing, with hands-on, activity based instruction. We have developed an instructional treatment that uses strategically designed computer exercises to push students to form the mental foundation necessary for abstraction and generalization. We selected popular problems from the AMSTI mathematics curriculum and applied our instructional design.