Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 143
B
Short Biographies of
Committee Members,
Workshop Participants, and Staff
B.1 COMMITTEE
Marcia C. Linn (Chair) is a professor specializing in education in math-
ematics, science, and technology in the Graduate School of Education at
the University of California, Berkeley. She directs the National Science
Foundation-funded Technology-Enhanced Learning in Science (TELS)
center. She is a member of the National Academy of Education and a
fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the
American Psychological Association, and the Center for Advanced Study
in Behavioral Sciences. Her board service includes the American Associa -
tion for the Advancement of Science board, the Graduate Record Exami -
nation Board of the Educational Testing Service, the McDonnell Founda -
tion Cognitive Studies in Education Practice Board, and the Education
and Human Resources Directorate at the National Science Foundation.
Linn earned a B.A. in psychology and statistics, and a Ph.D. in educational
psychology from Stanford University.
Alfred V. Aho (NAE) is the Lawrence Gussman Professor of Computer
Science and vice chair of undergraduate education for the Computer
Science Department at Columbia University. Previously, he conducted
research at Bell Laboratories from 1963 to 1991, and again from 1997 to
2002 as vice president of the Computing Sciences Research Center. Aho’s
current research interests include quantum computing, programming
languages, compilers, and algorithms. He is part of the Language and
Compilers research group at Columbia. He is widely known for his devel-
143
OCR for page 144
144 PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING
opment of the AWK programming language with Peter J. Weinberger and
Brian Kernighan (the “A” stands for “Aho”) and for his co-authorship of
Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (the “Dragon book”) with Ravi
Sethi and Jeffrey Ullman. He wrote the initial versions of the Unix tools
egrep and fgrep. He is also a co-author (along with Jeffrey Ullman and
John Hopcroft) of a number of widely used textbooks on several areas
of computer science, including algorithms and data structures, and the
foundations of computer science. He is a past president of ACM’s Special
Interest Group on Algorithms and Computability Theory. Aho has chaired
the Advisory Committee for the Computer and Information Sciences
Directorate of the National Science Foundation. He has received many
prestigious honors, including the IEEE’s John von Neumann Medal and
membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Aho was
elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1999 for contributions
to the fields of algorithms and programming tools. He earned his B.A.Sc.
in engineering physics from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. in
electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University.
M. Brian Blake is a professor of computer science and associate dean
of engineering at the University of Notre Dame. His research interests
include the investigation of automated approaches to sharing informa -
tion and software capabilities across organization boundaries, sometimes
referred to as enterprise integration. His investigations cover the spec -
trum of software engineering: design, specification, proof of correctness,
implementation/experimentation, performance evaluation, and applica -
tion. Blake’s long-term vision is the creation of adaptable software entities
or software agents that can be deployed on the Internet and, using exist-
ing resources, manage the creation of new processes, sometimes referred
to as interorganizational workflow. He has several ongoing projects that
make incremental progress toward this long-term vision. In addition, he
conducts experimentation in the areas of software engineering education
and software process and improvement to determine the most effective
methods for training students and professionals to develop module sys -
tems that by nature are distributed. Blake has consulted for such com-
panies as General Electric, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and the
MITRE Corporation. He has published more than 95 refereed journal
papers and conference proceedings in the areas of service-oriented com -
puting, agents and workflow, enterprise integration, component-based
software engineering, distributed data management, and software engi-
neering education. Blake’s work has been funded by the Federal Aviation
Administration, the MITRE Corporation, the National Science Founda-
tion, DARPA, the Air Force Research Laboratory, SAIC, and the National
Institutes of Health. He earned his bachelor’s in electrical engineering and
OCR for page 145
145
APPENDIX B
doctorate in information technology and computer science from George
Mason University.
Robert Constable is the dean of the Faculty of Computing and Infor-
mation Science at Cornell University. Formerly he was the chair of the
Computer Science Department for 6 years. He also heads a research group
in automated reasoning and formal methods in the Computer Science
Department, where he is a professor. Constable is a graduate of Princeton
University, where he earned his A.B. in mathematics and worked with
Alonzo Church, one of the pioneers of computer science. He did his M.A.
and Ph.D. work at the University of Wisconsin with Stephen Cole Kleene,
a Ph.D. student of Church and another pioneer of computer science. Con-
stable joined the Cornell University faculty in 1968. He has supervised
more than 43 Ph.D. students in computer science. He is known for work in
connecting programs and mathematical proofs that has led to new ways
of automating the production of reliable software. This work is known by
the slogan “proofs as programs,” and it is embodied in the Nuprl (“new
pearl”) theorem prover. He has written three books on this topic as well
as numerous research articles. Since 1980 he has headed a project that
uses Nuprl to design and verify software systems, instances of which
are still operational in industry and science. Currently he is working on
extending this programming method to concurrent processes, realizing
the notion of “proofs as processes.” In 1999 he became the first dean of
the Faculty of Computing and Information Science, a unit that includes
the Computer Science Department, the Department of Statistical Science,
the Information Science Program, and the Program in Computer Graph-
ics. It also sponsors the undergraduate major and graduate specialty in
computational biology.
Yasmin B. Kafai is a professor at the Graduate School of Education, Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania. In addition, she spent more than a decade on
the faculty at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information
Studies. As a learning scientist, she has researched and developed media-
rich software tools and environments, most recently Scratch, together
with researchers at the MIT Media Lab, that support youth in schools
and community centers in becoming designers of games, simulations,
and virtual worlds. As part of her policy initiatives, she wrote Under the
Microscope: A Decade of Gender Equity Interventions in the Sciences (2004) and
participated in the national commission that produced the report Tech-
Savvy Girls: Educating Girls in the Computer Age (2000) for the American
Association of University Women. She also briefed the committee that
prepared the National Research Council report Being Fluent with Informa-
tion Technology (National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1999). She
OCR for page 146
146 PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING
received her hauptdiplom in psychology from the Technical University of
Berlin in Germany and her D.E.U.G. in psychology from the Université de
Haute Bretagne II in France. While conducting research at the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory, she received her Ed.D. in
human development and psychology from Harvard University.
Janet L. Kolodner is a Regents’ Professor in the School of Interactive
Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research over the
past 30 years has addressed a wide variety of issues in learning, mem-
ory, and problem solving, both in computers and in people. During the
1980s, she pioneered the computer method called case-based reasoning,
which allows a computer to reason and learn from its experiences. The
first case-based design aids (CBDA), such as Archie 2 for architecture,
came from her lab. During the early 1990s, she used the cognitive model
implied by case-based reasoning to address issues in creative design
with the development of programs like JULIA (planned meals), Creative
JULIA (planned meals with leftovers), IMPROVISOR (simple mechanical
design), and ALEC (simulated Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of
the telephone). Later in the 1990s, she used the cognitive model in case-
based reasoning to guide the design of a science curriculum for middle
school. Learning by Design™ is a design-based learning approach and
an inquiry-oriented project-based approach to science learning that has
children learn science from their design experiences. Learning by Design
curriculum units and embedded sequencing structures were integrated
into a full 3-year middle-school science curriculum called Project-Based
Inquiry Science Digging-In (It’s About Time) and published in 2009.
Most recently, Kolodner’s research uses what she learned in design -
ing Learning by Design to create informal learning environments to help
middle schoolers come to think of themselves as competent scientific
reasoners through Kitchen Science Investigators (science in cooking), and
Hovering Around (motion, airflow, and design of hovercrafts). Kolodner
is the founding editor in chief of the Journal of the Learning Sciences and
is a founder and first executive officer of the International Society for the
Learning Sciences. She has headed up the Cognitive Science Program at
Georgia Tech and headed an organization called EduTech in the mid-
1990s whose mission was to use what we know about cognition to design
educational software and integrate it appropriately into educational envi-
ronments. She has a B.S. from Brandeis University in math and computer
science and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in computer science from Yale University.
Lawrence Snyder is a professor of computer science and engineering
at the University of Washington in Seattle (UW). Snyder’s research has
focused on parallel computation, including architecture, algorithms, and
OCR for page 147
147
APPENDIX B
languages. He has served on the faculties of Yale and Purdue Universities
and has had visiting appointments at UW, Harvard, MIT, Sydney Uni-
versity, the Swiss Technological University, the University of Auckland,
and Kyoto University. In 1980 he invented programmable interconnect,
a method to dynamically configure on-chip components, and a tech-
nology used today for field-programmable gate arrays. In 1990 he was
co-designer of Chaos Router, a randomizing adaptive packet router. He
was the principal investigator of the ZPL language design project, the
first high-level parallel language to achieve “performance portability”
across all parallel computer platforms. Snyder is the author of Fluency
with Information Technology: Skills, Concepts and Capabilities, a textbook for
non-techie college freshmen that teaches fundamental computing con -
cepts; the book is in its third edition. With former Ph.D. student Calvin
Lin (University of Texas, Austin), he has written Principles of Parallel Pro-
gramming, published in 2008. Snyder was a three-term member of the
Computer Research Association Board of Directors, developing a series
of best-practice white papers. He chaired the NSF CISE Advisory Board
as well as several CISE directorate oversight panels and numerous review
panels. The two National Research Council studies that he has chaired
produced influential reports—Academic Careers for Experimental Computer
Scientists and Engineers (1994) and Being Fluent with Information Technology
(1999). He served three terms on the NRC’s Army Research Laboratory
Technical Advisory Board. He serves on ACM’s Education Board, has
been general chair or program committee chair of several ACM and IEEE
conferences, and he is a fellow of both the ACM and the IEEE. He received
a B.A. from the University of Iowa in mathematics and economics and his
Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in computer science as a student
of A. Nico Habermann.
Uri Wilensky is a professor of learning sciences and computer science
at Northwestern University and holds appointments in the cognitive
science program and in complex systems. He is the founder and current
director of the Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based
Modeling and also a founder and member of the governing board of the
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO). His most recent
projects focus on developing tools that enable users (both researchers
and learners) to simulate, explore, and make sense of complex sys -
tems. His NetLogo agent-based modeling software is in widespread use
worldwide. Prior to coming to Northwestern, he taught at Tufts Univer-
sity and MIT and was a research scientist at Thinking Machines Corpo -
ration. Wilensky is a founder and an executive editor of the International
Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning. His research interests
include computer-based modeling and agent-based modeling, STEM
OCR for page 148
148 PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING
education, mathematics in the context of computation, and complex
systems. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Career
Award as well as the Spencer Foundation’s Post-Doctoral Award. He has
directed numerous NSF research projects focused on developing com -
puter-based modeling tools and studying their use. Among these tools
are multiagent modeling languages, such as StarLogoT and NetLogo;
model-based curricula such as GasLab, ProbLab, NIELS, and BEAGLE
Evolution; and participatory simulation toolkits such as Calc-HubNet
and Computer-HubNet. The tools enable learners to explore and create
simulations of complex phenomena across many domains of natural and
social science and, through creating and exploring such simulations, to
deepen their understanding of core scientific concepts. Many of these
tools are also in use by researchers across a wide variety of domains,
including the natural sciences, social sciences, business, and medicine.
By providing a low-threshold language for exploring and constructing
models, Wilensky hopes to promote modeling literacy—the sharing and
critiquing of models in the scientific community, in education, and in
the public at large. Wilensky did his undergraduate and graduate stud -
ies in mathematics, philosophy, and computer science at Brandeis and
Harvard Universities and received his Ph.D. in media arts and sciences
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
B.2 WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS
Walter Allan is medical director and consulting scientist to ScienceWorks
for ME at the Foundation for Blood Research (FBR), a non-profit indepen-
dent research and education institution in Scarborough, Maine. He was
the first pediatric neurologist in Maine and was the director of both the
Pediatric and the Adult Neurology Divisions at the Maine Medical Center,
where his responsibilities included teaching medical and pediatric resi -
dents prior to coming to the FBR. His interests include the consequences
of central nervous system injury in children and science education. He
is the principal investigator on a National Institutes of Health Science
Education Partnership Award that has developed a curriculum (Biomedi -
cineWorks) that introduces evidence-based medicine to advanced high
school biology classes and a National Science Foundation ITEST (Infor-
mation Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers) grant that has
developed a computer simulation-focused curriculum (EcoScienceWorks)
to teach ecology and introductory computer programming in Maine’s
seventh- and eighth-grade laptop-equipped classrooms.
Paulo Blikstein is an assistant professor at Stanford’s School of Educa-
tion, he has a courtesy appointment in the Computer Science Department.
OCR for page 149
149
APPENDIX B
His research focuses on computational literacy, low-cost educational tech-
nologies for students in low-income settings, and STEM education. His
work cuts across age groups, and he has worked extensively with inner-
city students in developing countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Senegal, and
Costa Rica, but also with undergraduates in elite U.S. institutions. His
research tries to bring the most cutting-edge computational tools to the
classroom, creating environments for students to engage authentically in
advanced, deep scientific inquiry. He completed his Ph.D. at the Center
for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling at Northwestern
University, earned a B.S. in metallurgical engineering and an M.Sc. in
digital systems engineering from the University of São Paulo, Brazil (1998,
2001), and obtained an M.Sc. from the MIT Media Lab (2002), where he
was also a visiting scholar (2003).
Derek Briggs is chair of the Research and Evaluation Methodology Pro-
gram at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he also serves as
an associate professor of quantitative methods and policy analysis. His
research agenda focuses on building sound methodological approaches
for the valid measurement and evaluation of growth in student achieve-
ment. Examples of his research interests in the area of educational mea-
surement include (1) characterizing the gap between validity theory and
practice in the context of high-stakes standardized testing and (2) devel -
oping and applying psychometric models to assess learning progressions.
He holds a B.A. in economics from Carleton College and a Ph.D. in educa-
tion from the University of California, Berkeley.
Idit Harel Caperton is a pioneer in using new-media technology for
cultivating creative learning, innovation, and globalization through con -
structionist learning theory. She founded the World Wide Workshop in
2004 to leverage her unique blend of award-winning research, social
entrepreneurship, and leadership in new-media learning projects around
the world. In 2006 the foundation launched the Globaloria.org network
to implement ways of using social media technology and Web 2.0 tools
to teach innovative game making to and build computational creative
capacities in youth worldwide. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Caperton
conducted breakthrough research at the MIT Media Lab that led to pub-
lishing the book Constructionism with Seymour Papert. Her book Children
Designers received the 1991 Outstanding Book Award from the American
Educational Research Association. In 1995, she founded MaMaMedia
and launched MaMaMedia.com, ConnectedFamily.com, and Papert.org.
Pioneering kids’ Internet media activities, MaMaMedia established global
distribution and advertising partnerships and won numerous honors,
OCR for page 150
150 PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING
including the Computerworld-Smithsonian Award (1999), the Internet
industry’s coveted Global Information Infrastructure Award (1999), and
the 21st-Century Achievement Award from the Computerworld Honors
Program (2002). In 2002, she was honored by the Network of Educators in
Science and Technology and MIT “for devotion, innovation, and imagina-
tion in science and technology on behalf of children and youth around the
world.” In 2007-2008 MaMaMedia activities were reprogrammed for One
Laptop per Child (OLPC). Caperton has served on numerous advisory
boards (for Harvard University, MIT, CU-ATLAS, CUNY, PBSKids, TIG,
MEET, and Saybot), and she has been an adviser to commercial, govern-
mental, higher education, and not-for-profit organizations on inventing,
developing, and harnessing technology and innovative programs to trans-
form education. Caperton holds degrees from Tel Aviv University (B.A.,
1982), Harvard University (Ed.M., 1984; CAS, 1985), and MIT (Ph.D.,
1988).
Mike Clancy has been on the University of California, Berkeley, computer
science faculty since 1977. He is an active member both of the U.S. com-
puter science education community and of the community of research-
ers who study the psychology of programming. In 2009 he received the
ACM SIGCSE award for lifetime contributions to computer science edu -
cation. His work, in collaboration with Marcia Linn in Berkeley’s School
of Education, spans a spectrum from exploration of student misconcep -
tions through development of curriculum components and programming
environment features to support integration of programming knowledge.
Clancy and Linn have focused in particular on the use of case studies in
programming instruction and on issues arising from teaching LISP in
introductory courses. Among the results of their efforts were successful
NSF grant proposals, numerous research papers, and two textbooks of
case studies. More recently, Clancy has explored “lab-centric” instruction,
a technique that swaps lecture and discussion time for supervised hands-
on computer lab work. He and his Berkeley colleagues have developed
several courses based on this approach. He currently has NSF support to
build a community around lab-centric instruction. Results are promising,
and research is ongoing.
Christine Cunningham is a vice president at the Museum of Science,
Boston, where she oversees curricular materials development, teacher
professional development, and research and evaluation efforts related to
K-16 engineering and science learning and teaching. Her projects focus
on making engineering and science more relevant, understandable, and
accessible to everyone, especially marginalized populations such as
women, underrepresented minorities, people from low socioeconomic
OCR for page 151
151
APPENDIX B
backgrounds, and people with disabilities. She is particularly interested
in the ways that the teaching and learning of engineering and science
can change to include and also benefit from a more diverse popula-
tion. Cunningham’s projects span the elementary to college educational
continuum. Principal among these is Engineering is Elementary (EiE), a
project she founded in 2003. EiE is creating a research-driven, standards-
based, and classroom-tested curriculum that integrates engineering and
technology concepts and skills with elementary science topics. Connec-
tions are also made with literacy, social studies, and mathematics. EiE
also helps elementary school educators enhance their understanding of
engineering concepts and pedagogy through professional development
workshops and resources. A research and assessment effort is studying
how children and their educators engage with engineering concepts and
skills. As the director of EiE, Cunningham is responsible for the vision,
strategy, and funding for the project. She received her B.A. and M.A. in
biology from Yale University and her Ph.D. in science education and cur-
riculum instruction from Cornell University.
Jan Cuny has been a program officer at the National Science Foundation
since 2004, heading the Broadening Participation in Computing Initiative.
Before coming to NSF, she was a faculty member in computer science at
Purdue University, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of
Oregon. Cuny has been involved for many years in efforts to increase the
participation of women in computing research. A longtime member of the
Computing Research Association’s Committee on the Status of Women
(CRA-W), she has served among other activities as a CRA-W co-chair, a
mentor in its Distributed Mentoring Program, and a lead on its Academic
Career Mentoring Workshop, Grad Cohort, and Cohort for Associated
Professors projects. She was also a member of the advisory board for the
Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, the leadership team of
the National Center for Women in Technology, and the executive com-
mittee of the Coalition to Diversify Computing. She was program chair
of the 2004 Grace Hopper Conference and the general chair of the 2006
conference. For her efforts with underserved populations, she is a recipi -
ent of one of the 2006 ACM President’s Awards and the 2007 CRA A. Nico
Habermann Award. Cuny earned a B.A. in computer science from Princ-
eton University, an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D.
from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Jill Denner is the associate director of research at Education, Training,
Research (ETR) Associates, a non-profit organization in California. She
does applied research, with a focus on increasing the number of women
and underrepresented minorities in computing. She has developed
OCR for page 152
152 PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING
several after-school programs, and her research on these programs has
contributed to an understanding of effective strategies for promoting
youth leadership, building youth-adult partnerships, increasing girls’
confidence and capacity to produce technology, and engaging girls in
information technology. Her current focus is on how students learn while
creating computer games, and the development of computational think -
ing. As part of a long-standing commitment to bridge research and prac-
tice, her research is designed and conducted in collaboration with schools
and community-based agencies. Denner has been a principal investigator
on several NSF grants, written numerous peer-reviewed articles, and
co-edited two books: Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives
on Gender and Gaming, published by MIT Press in 2008, and Latina Girls:
Voices of Adolescent Strength in the US, published by New York University
Press in 2006. She has a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Teachers
College, Columbia University, and a B.A. in psychology from the Univer-
sity of California, Santa Cruz.
Danny C. Edelson is vice president for education at the National Geo-
graphic Society and is executive director of the National Geographic Edu -
cation Foundation. In these positions he leads the National Geographic
Society’s efforts to improve public understanding of geography and
related disciplines through both formal and informal education programs.
Throughout his career Edelson has conducted educational research and
development, with a primary focus on environmental science and geog-
raphy. The products of his research and development include My World
GIS, a geographic information system (GIS) designed for educational use;
Investigations in Environmental Science: A Case-Based Approach to the Study of
Environmental Systems, a technology-integrated high school environmental
science textbook; and Earth science units for two comprehensive, middle
school science programs. He has also developed professional develop-
ment programs for teachers in middle school through college and has led
several large-scale instructional reform efforts in urban public schools.
Edelson has written extensively on motivation, classroom teaching and
learning, educational technology, and teacher professional development,
drawing on research conducted with colleagues and students. Prior to
joining National Geographic, Edelson was a faculty member in education
and computer science at Northwestern University for 13 years, where
he founded and directed the Geographic Data in Education (GEODE)
Initiative. He is an author on more than 50 papers in journals, edited
books, and conference proceedings, including The Cambridge Handbook of
the Learning Sciences, The International Handbook on Science Education, Jour-
nal of the Learning Sciences, Journal of Research on Science Teaching, and The
OCR for page 153
153
APPENDIX B
Science Teacher. Edelson received his Ph.D. in computer science (artificial
intelligence) from Northwestern University and his B.S. in engineering
sciences from Yale University.
Jeri Erickson is the ScienceWorks for ME outreach education coordinator
at the Foundation for Blood Research. She is a genetic counselor whose
interest in promoting science education and understanding led to her
involvement with ScienceWorks for ME, an innovative program designed
to offer scientific equipment and professional expertise to Maine’s sci -
ence teachers and their students. She is the project director of both the
NIH-funded high school biology curriculum project BiomedicineWorks,
and the NSF-funded ITEST project, EcoScienceWorks. She has an M.S. in
human genetics from Sarah Lawrence College and a B.A. in biology from
Wellesley College.
Louis J. Gross is the James R. Cox Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology and Mathematics and director of the Institute for Environmental
Modeling at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is also director
of the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, a
National Science Foundation-funded center to foster research and edu-
cation at the interface between math and biology. He has been a faculty
member at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, since 1979. His research
focuses on applications of mathematics and computational methods in
many areas of ecology, including disease ecology, landscape ecology, spa-
tial control for natural resource management, photosynthetic dynamics,
and the development of quantitative curricula for life science undergradu-
ates. He has led the effort at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to
develop an across-trophic-level modeling framework to assess the biotic
impacts of alternative water planning for the Everglades of Florida. He
has co-directed several courses and workshops in mathematical ecology
at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, and
has served as program chair of the Ecological Society of America, as
president of the Society for Mathematical Biology, as president of the the
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Faculty Senate, and as chair of the
National Research Council Committee on Education in Biocomplexity
Research. He is the 2006 Distinguished Scientist awardee of the American
Institute of Biological Sciences and is a fellow of the American Associa -
tion for the Advancement of Science. He currently serves on the National
Research Council Board on Life Sciences and on the board of directors
of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. He completed a B.S. in
mathematics at Drexel University and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics at
Cornell University.
OCR for page 154
154 PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING
Peter Henderson is co-founder of the math thinking discussion group
(www.math-in-cs.org), which advocates the importance of mathematics
and mathematical reasoning in computer science and software engineer-
ing education. He retired in 2007 as the chair and founder of the Depart -
ment of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Butler University,
and he is currently the editor of two educational columns, “Software Engi-
neering Education” in the ACM Special Interest Group Software Engi-
neering Notes, and “Math CountS” in the ACM Special Interest Group
on Computer Science Education InRoads. In addition, he has conducted
workshops and given numerous presentations on the role of mathematics
in computer science and software engineering education. Henderson has
been instrumental in formulating recommendations on the mathemati -
cal needs of undergraduate computer science and software engineering
programs for the Mathematical Association of America’s Committee on
the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics, and he has been active at
various mathematics and computer science education conferences pro-
moting mathematical thinking. He received his B.S. and M.S. in electri -
cal engineering from Clarkson University. He holds a Ph.D. in electrical
engineering from Princeton University and taught computer science and
software engineering at SUNY Stony Brook and Butler University from
1974 to 2007.
John R. Jungck is vice president of the International Union of Biological
Sciences, president of the IUBS’s Commission on Biology Education, and
chairperson of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences’ National Commit -
tee of the IUBS. He is the Mead Chair of the Sciences at Beloit College, the
principal investigator (PI) and founder of the BioQUEST Curriculum Con-
sortium, the PI of BEDROCK (Bioinformatics Education Dissemination:
Reaching Out, Connecting, and Knitting-together), PI of the SELECTION
Working Group of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent),
and PI of a subcontract for NUMB3R5 COUNT! (Numerical Undergradu -
ate Mathematical Biology Education). He is the editor of Biology Inter-
national and is on the editorial boards of several journals, including the
Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, Evolutionary Bioinformatics, and Life Science
Education. Formerly, he was editor of both the American Biology Teacher and
Bioscene: Journal of College Biology Teaching, was president of the Associa-
tion of College and University Biology Educators, and was chairperson of
the Education Committee of the Society for Mathematical Biology for 14
years. He serves on numerous boards such as for the National Electron-
ics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) in Thailand, the Alan C.
Wilson Center for Molecular Evolution in New Zealand, and the National
Institute for Mathematical Biology Synthesis Center (NIMBioS) in the
United States, and he is on the revision committee of the College Board
OCR for page 155
155
APPENDIX B
Advanced Placement Biology program. He is an international leader in
biology education reform, a mathematical molecular evolutionary biolo -
gist, and a computer software developer of biological simulations, tools,
and databases. His research interests include the origins of genetic codes,
patterns in nature, and evolutionary analysis of complex data sets. His
awards, honors, and offices include AAAS Fellow, an honorary doctor-
ate from the University of Minnesota, American Institute of Biological
Sciences Education Award, Fulbright Scholar to Chiang Mai University
in Thailand, Mina Shaughnessy Scholar of the U.S. Department of Educa -
tion, and a National Science Teachers Association Gustav Ohaus Award
for Outstanding Innovations in College Science Teaching. Jungck earned
a B.S. in biochemistry and an M.S. in genetics and microbiology from
the University of Minnesota. He received his Ph.D. in evolution from the
University of Miami.
Deanna Kuhn is a professor of psychology and education at Teachers
College, Columbia University. She was previously a faculty member at
the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has published widely in
psychology and education, in journals ranging from Psychological Review
to Harvard Educational Review. She has written three major books: The
Development of Scientific Thinking Skills, The Skills of Argument, and, most
recently, Education for Thinking (Harvard University Press, 2005). She is
editor of the journal Cognitive Development, a former editor of the journal
Human Development, and co-editor of the last two editions of the Cogni-
tion volume of the Handbook of Child Psychology. In recent years, her work
has focused on developing inquiry and argument curricula for middle
schoolers. Her Ph.D. is from the University of California, Berkeley, in
developmental psychology.
Cathy Lachapelle, director of research and evaluations for the Engineer-
ing is Elementary (EiE) project at the Museum of Science, currently leads
the assessment and evaluation efforts for the EiE curriculum, designing
assessment instruments, piloting and field-testing them, and conducting
research on how children use the EiE materials. She has worked on a
number of research and evaluation projects related to K-16 engineering
education. She has worked in numerous classrooms studying children’s
learning of science, mathematics, and engineering content and processes.
She received her S.B. in cognitive science from MIT and her Ph.D. in psy-
chological studies in education from Stanford University.
Joyce Malyn-Smith is strategic director of the Workforce and Human
Development Program for the Education Development Center, Inc.’s
Learning and Teaching Division. Her unique combination of experience
OCR for page 156
156 PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING
includes more than 10,000 contact hours as a K-12 classroom teacher and
13 years as a public school administrator responsible for curriculum and
professional development in more than 30 career and technical educa -
tion programs in 15 high schools. Her EDC projects help expert workers
articulate their skills and knowledge and develop systems and tools to
integrate these into programs and curricula for K-20. With ongoing inter-
ests in youth who are power users of technology, Malyn-Smith is a PI for
NSF’s ITEST Learning Resource Center, serving more than 160 ITEST proj-
ects, and leads its working group on computational thinking. She is also
a PI for the NSF-ATE IT Across Careers (I-III). She led the U.S. Education
Department’s IT Career Cluster Initiative in creating the national career
cluster model and curricular framework used in 49 states. She developed
national voluntary skill standards for bioscience, human services, and
chemical process industries and co-authored Making Skill Standards Work
(U.S. Department of Labor). She led the development of scenario-based
assessments for New York and rubrics for NSF’s ITAC projects and the
U.S. Department of Energy’s Real World Design Challenge (2008-2010).
Malyn-Smith served on the ETS International ICT Literacy Panel ( Digital
Transformation: A Framework for ICT Literacy). She currently serves on Cer-
tiport’s Global Digital Literacy Council and other project advisory boards.
A USOE Fellow in Bilingual Education, Malyn-Smith holds a doctorate
from Boston University, a master’s degree from Boston State Teacher’s
College, and a B.S. from Universidad InterAmericana, Puerto Rico.
Taylor Martin joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in
2003. Her primary research interest is how people learn content in com -
plex domains from active participation, both physical and social. She is
cooperating with local elementary schools to improve tools for assessing
young children’s learning of mathematics and to examine how learning
is affected by hands-on activities, and she is investigating the develop -
ment of adaptive expertise through cooperation with the Vanderbilt–
Northwestern–Texas–Harvard (VaNTH)/MIT Engineering Research Cen-
ter in Bioengineering Educational Technologies. Martin received a B.A. in
linguistics and an initial teaching certification from Dartmouth College
in 1992, an M.S. in psychology from Vanderbilt University in 2000, and a
Ph.D. in education from Stanford University in 2003.
Robert Panoff is founder and executive director of the Shodor Eduation
Foundation, a non-profit education and research corporation dedicated
to the reform and improvement of mathematics and science education
through computational and communication technologies. As PI on several
National Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S. Department of Education
grants that explore interactions between technology and education, he
OCR for page 157
157
APPENDIX B
develops interactive simulation modules that combine standards, cur-
riculum, supercomputing resources, and desktop computers. In recogni -
tion of Panoff’s efforts in college faculty enhancement and curriculum
development, the Shodor Education Foundation was named as an NSF
Foundation Partner for the revitalization of undergraduate education.
Shodor established the Shodor Computational Science Institute, which
was expanded with NSF funding to become the National Computational
Science Institute. Shodor’s Computational Science Education Reference
Desk was funded as a Pathway portal of the National Science Digital
Library. Panoff consults at several national laboratories and is a frequent
presenter at NSF workshops on visualization, supercomputing, and net -
working. He has served on the NSF advisory panel for the Applications of
Advanced Technology program, and he is a founding partner of the NSF-
affiliated Corporate and Foundation Alliance. Panoff received his M.A.
and Ph.D. degrees in theoretical physics from Washington University in
St. Louis, with both pre- and postdoctoral work at the Courant Institute of
Mathematical Sciences at New York University. Wofford College awarded
Panoff an honorary doctor of science degree in recognition of his leader-
ship in computational science education.
Mitch Resnick, a professor of learning research at the MIT Media Lab,
develops new technologies to engage people (especially children) in cre -
ative learning experiences. His Lifelong Kindergarten research group
developed the “programmable bricks” that were the basis for the LEGO
Mindstorms robotics kits, and he co-founded the Computer Clubhouse
network of after-school learning centers for youth from low-income com-
munities. Resnick’s group recently developed a programming language
and online community called Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu), which
enables children to create their own interactive stories, games, animations,
and simulations—and share their creations online. In the process, children
learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.
Resnick earned a B.S. in physics from Princeton University and an M.S.
and a Ph.D. in computer science from MIT. He worked for 5 years as a
science and technology journalist for Business Week magazine, and he has
consulted around the world on the uses of new technologies in education.
He is the author or co-author of several books, including Turtles, Termites,
and Traffic Jams.
Christina Schwarz is an associate professor of teacher education at Michi-
gan State University. Her research centers on teaching and learning sci -
ence and the role that technology might play in this process. She focuses
specifically on inquiry-oriented and model-centered constructivist learn -
ing environments, particularly at the elementary and middle school lev -
OCR for page 158
158 PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING
els. Her current research involves helping students and teachers develop
an understanding of scientific practices such as inquiry and modeling
and helping them learn how to engage in those practices. Other inter-
ests include teacher and student learning progressions, frameworks for
teaching science, educational technology, science teaching and learning in
urban schools, science curriculum development and evaluation, and the
history and philosophy of science. Schwarz received her Ph.D. from the
University of California, Berkeley.
Jim Slotta, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for
Studies in Education, teaches a graduate-level course titled “Special Top-
ics: Doctoral Level: Technology, Cognition and Instruction.” He has been
involved in a group research project to encourage school district partners
to use technology in classrooms. He is a recipient of the IBM Faculty
Award for e-Learning Design, 2003. Slotta has received a variety of grants
from public and private organizations. Currently, he is co-principal inves -
tigator of several funded research projects, including a 3-year NSF-funded
project titled “Partnership Model for Integrating Technology, Curriculum,
and Professional Development in Response to New Science Assessments,”
a 5-year NSF-funded project titled “The Educational Accelerator Center:
Technology-Enhanced Learning in Science (TELS),” and a 2-year German
DFC-funded research project titled “NetCoIL: Scientific Network for Col-
laborative Inquiry Learning.”
Matthew Stone is an associate professor in the Department of Com-
puter Science and Center for Cognitive Science at Rutgers University. He
received his Ph.D. in 1998 in computer and information science from the
University of Pennsylvania. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Rutgers from
1998 to 1999 and joined the faculty in 1999. From 2005 to 2006 he was a
visiting fellow in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh.
He serves on the editorial board of the journals Computational Linguistics
and Artificial Intelligence and just served as program co-chair for the 2007
North American Association for Computational Linguistics Human Lan-
guage Technology Conference. His research is funded by the NSF.
Robert Tinker has, for 30 years, pioneered research on innovative
approaches to education that exploit technology. The initial develop -
ment of probeware for learning based on real-time measurements was
performed in his group. His team at TERC was the first to develop “net-
work science” for dispersed science investigations. The initial result of
this work was the NGS Kids Network, a groundbreaking curriculum
that was the first to make extensive use of student collaboration and data
sharing. Fifteen years ago he founded the non-profit Concord Consortium
OCR for page 159
159
APPENDIX B
to concentrate on innovative applications of technology in education.
The Concord Consortium developed some of the earliest professional
development based on online courses. This led to the establishment of
the Virtual High School, a fully accredited high school that has a unique
low-cost cooperative design. Current work focuses on sophisticated simu-
lations in science, probeware, and handhelds, and applications of these
technologies to pressing educational issues, with a particular focus on
underrepresented students. A current focus is applying technology to
monitoring student progress and to supporting diverse learners. The
open-source, free technologies emerging from the Concord Consortium
are being integrated into learning modules that offer a glimpse of what
inquiry-based education could look like in a few years. Tinker earned his
Ph.D. in experimental low-temperature physics from MIT and has taught
college physics for 10 years. His focus on education developed as a result
of teaching at Stillman College, a historically African American college
in Alabama.
Stephen Uzzo is vice president of technology at the New York Hall of
Science, where he focuses on a number of projects related to science, tech-
nology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning; sustainability;
and network science, including “Connections: the Nature of Networks,”
a public exhibition on network science that opened in 2004. He was also
the local organizer for the 2007 International Conference and Workshop
on Network Science. In addition to his work at the Hall of Science, Uzzo
serves on the faculty of the New York Institute of Technology Graduate
School of Education, where he teaches STEM teaching and learning. Dur-
ing the 1980s, he worked on a number of media and technology projects.
In 1981, he was part of the launch team for MTV and was appointed chief
engineer for video/computer graphics production and distance learning
networks for the NYIT Video Center in 1984. Other projects during that
period included the first all-digital satellite television transmission, best
practices group for the NBC Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, and a
team of scientists and engineers at the Space Studies Institute at Princeton
to develop and test lunar teleoperations simulators. During the 1990s,
Uzzo served on numerous advisory boards for educational institutions,
as well as facilitating major technology initiatives among K-12 public/
private schools, higher education, and government to improve STEM
literacy. His work on various projects important to conservation includes
ecosystems studies that were instrumental in blocking offshore oil drilling
in New York waters and a cross-sound bridge in Oyster Bay, as well as
cleanup planning for Superfund sites. He has worked on preservation and
open space projects on Long Island and the San Francisco Bay Peninsula.
He holds a Ph.D. in network theory and environmental studies from the
Union Institute.
OCR for page 160
160 PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING
Michelle Williams is an assistant professor of science education in the
Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. Her
research focuses on both teaching and learning in science and technology
education. She recently received a National Science Foundation Faculty
Early Career Development Award titled “CAREER: Tracing Children’s
Developing Understanding of Heredity over Time.” Williams’ current
work explores how upper elementary and middle school students develop
coherent understandings of genetic inheritance and related ideas within
and across successive grades using the Web-based Inquiry Science Envi -
ronment. She earned a B.B.A. in marketing from the University of Texas at
Austin in 1992 and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in development in mathematics
and science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2001 and 2004.
Jeannette Wing is the President’s Professor of Computer Science in the
Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University. From 2004
to 2007, she was head of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie
Mellon University. From 2007 to 2010 she was the assistant director of the
Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate at the
National Science Foundation. Wing’s general research interests are in the
areas of specification and verification, concurrent and distributed systems,
programming languages, and software engineering. Her current focus is
on the foundations of trustworthy computing, with specific interests in
security and privacy. She published a viewpoint article in the March 2006
issue of Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery entitled
“Computational Thinking.” Wing received her S.B., S.M., and Ph.D. from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ursula Wolz is an associate professor of computer science and interactive
multimedia at the College of New Jersey, is the principal investigator for
the NSF program Broadening Participation in Computing via Community
Journalism for Middle Schoolers, and was the principal investigator for a
Microsoft Research project on multidisciplinary game development. She
is a recognized computer science educator with a broad range of publica -
tions who has taught students including disabled children, urban teach -
ers, and elite undergraduates for more than 30 years. She is a co-founder
of the Interactive Multimedia Program at the College of New Jersey. She
has a background in computational linguistics, with a Ph.D. in computer
science from Columbia University, a master’s degree in computing in
education from Columbia Teachers College, and a bachelor’s degree from
MIT, where she was part of Seymour Papert’s Logo group at the very
beginning of research on constructivist computing environments.
OCR for page 161
161
APPENDIX B
B.3 STAFF
Herbert S. Lin, the study director, is chief scientist for the National
Research Council’s Computer Science and Telecommunications Board,
where he has been a study director for major projects on public policy and
information technology. These studies include a 1996 study on national
cryptography policy (Cryptography’s Role in Securing the Information Soci-
ety), a 1991 study on the future of computer science (Computing the Future),
a 1999 study of Defense Department systems for command, control, com -
munications, computing, and intelligence (Realizing the Potential of C4I:
Fundamental Challenges), a 2000 study on workforce issues in high tech-
nology (Building a Workforce for the Information Economy), a 2002 study on
protecting kids from Internet pornography and sexual exploitation (Youth,
Pornography, and the Internet), a 2004 study on aspects of the FBI’s infor-
mation technology modernization program (A Review of the FBI’s Trilogy
IT Modernization Program), a 2005 study on electronic voting (Asking the
Right Questions About Electronic Voting), a 2005 study on computational
biology (Catalyzing Inquiry at the Interface of Computing and Biology), a
2007 study on privacy and information technology (Engaging Privacy and
Information Technology in a Digital Age), a 2007 study on cybersecurity
research (Toward a Safer and More Secure Cyberspace), a 2009 study on health
care information technology (Computational Technology for Effective Health
Care), and a 2009 study on cyberattack (Technology, Policy, Law, and Ethics
Regarding U.S. Acquisition and Use of Cyberattack Capabilities ). Before his
NRC service, he was a professional staff member and staff scientist for
the House Armed Services Committee (1986-1990), where his portfolio
included defense policy and arms control issues. He received his doctor-
ate in physics from MIT.
Enita A. Williams is an associate program officer with the Computer Sci-
ence and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council.
She formerly served as a research associate for the NRC’s Air Force Stud -
ies Board, where she supported a number of projects, including those of a
standing committee for the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and a
standing committee for the intelligence community (TIGER). Prior to her
work at the NRC, she served as a program assistant with the Scientific
Freedom, Responsibility and Law Program of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, where she drafted the human enhance -
ment workshop report. Ms. Williams graduated from Stanford University
with a B.A. in public policy with a focus on science and technology policy
and an M.A. in communications. She is currently pursuing a law degree
at Georgetown University Law Center.
OCR for page 162
162 PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING
Shenae Bradley is a senior program assistant at the Computer Science
and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council. She
currently provides support for the Committee on Sustaining Growth in
Computing Performance, and has worked with the Committee on Wire-
less Technology Prospects and Policy Options, among others. She for-
merly served as an administrative assistant for the Ironworker Manage-
ment Progressive Action Cooperative Trust and managed a number of
apartment rental communities for Edgewood Management Corporation
in the Maryland/DC/Delaware metropolitan areas. She is in the process
of earning her B.S. in family studies from the University of Maryland at
College Park.
