In the last few years, new social media platforms have sprung up and especially over the last year people have been migrating to new platforms like bluesky and threads. The STEMcoding project has had an account on instagram for many years but recently we decided to create accounts on facebook, bluesky and threads.

Here are some links to our new accounts:

http://facebook.com/stemcodingproject

 https://bsky.app/profile/stemcoding.bsky.social

  https://www.threads.net/@stemcoding

We hope you engage with us on these new platforms!

Earlier this year we also created an account on mastodon:

https://mastodon.social/@stemcoding

The feed that you see on the right of this page is from our mastodon account, so feel free to follow us there if you prefer!

An interesting fact is that mastodon and threads are designed to allow users to follow each other from both platforms. So one could in principle create a mastodon account and follow as many accounts on threads as you want and vice versa.

Last but not least, all of our videos are available on our youtube channel which you can find here:

  http://youtube.com/STEMcoding

Please feel free to engage with us there, especially on the “community” posts. Thanks for your attention!

High school math teachers! We are excited to invite you to participate in a two week, one hour per day summer online professional development experience where we will talk about different data science activities that we have developed and how they can be integrated into your classroom. More information about the STEMcoding data science initiative is available on this page.

The trainings are free and open to high school math teachers and other interested educators (like curriculum coaches and after school educators).

There are NO STRINGS ATTACHED for this training. There are no commitments to use any of the activities in your classes in the fall or to participate in a research study.

If you are interested please fill out this interest form

Article by Wayne Rowe (OSU Marion communications)

The Ohio State University Office of Outreach and Engagement recently recognized the STEMcoding initiative, led by Associate Professor of Physics, Dr. Chris Orban and Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Dr. Scott Zimmerman from Ohio State Marion, as 1 of 18 programs university-wide for excellence in engaged scholarship.

The STEMcoding project exists to re-imagine introductory STEM courses with computer science in mind. The project involves three things: (1) fun, interactive coding activities designed for high-school physics, and eventually math and chemistry, (2) professional development to science & math teachers, especially in Ohio, (3) “and partnerships with existing camps to offer “Physics of Video Games” activities for high school students in Columbus, Marion and other parts of Ohio (including the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio).

The goal of recognizing these programs is to support and promote high impact engaged scholarship.  The Office of Outreach and Engagement instituted a process to certify programs of excellence in engaged scholarship. The certification process seeks to identify and certify projects annually that demonstrate excellence in community-engaged scholarship and meet the criteria of high-impact engaged scholarship. Congratulations to the 2024 Programs of Excellence in Engaged Scholarship!

According to Orban, The STEM coding program lowers barriers to engagement by creating activities that are free and relevant to schools that serve less affluent student populations.

“Although there are sophisticated tools that could be used to teach data science, the schools we work with appreciate that we are building our curriculum around spreadsheet skills which are valuable for a wide variety of careers,” said Orban.

Zimmerman shared that the most important thing for the STEMcoding project is that as many students as possible should have access to coding and programming skills throughout a variety of subjects. “A student’s education shouldn’t be limited by the number of licensed computer science teachers their district employs or their school’s ability to purchase expensive software suites,” said Zimmerman.

A key strength of the program, Orban shared, is the way that it bridges university and K12 education culture. “Rather than dictate what we think should happen in a K12 classroom,” he said, “we try to do the opposite. Sometimes this involves attending K12 conferences or sitting in on classes.”

“It sometimes also involves completely redesigning an activity based on one teacher’s feedback,” Orban added.

“As university professionals, none of us have direct experience teaching in K12 but our relationships with educators have helped us to stay competent and relevant to the K12 sphere,” he said.

To learn more about the STEMcoding project or to reach out to Professors Orban and Zimmerman please see the contact form for the STEMcoding project at: https://u.osu.edu/stemcoding/contact/.

Students who take part are often a part summer camp programs at Ohio State Marion often have the opportunity to participate in STEMcoding activities, visit:  https://osumarion.osu.edu/academics/majors/biology/stem-summer-camp to learn more.

In partnership with the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) we will be offering a summer online course for high school physics and physical science teachers.

There will be a “beginner” course from June 26 – July 9. The course will meet over zoom in the afternoons (eastern time). We will cover some of the “physics of video games” activities, especially activities without trigonometry that can work even in 9th grade classes. We will also go over the STEMcoding Object Tracker which is part of our Data Science initiative.

Following the beginner course there will be an “intermediate” level course from July 10 – July 21 where we will go over physics of video games activities that do include trigonometry. In that sense the intermediate course is aimed at non-AP physics and above.

Here is a link with more information and to sign up for the courses:
https://www.aapt.org/K12/Online_Courses_for_Grad_Credit_and_CEUs.cfm

There is an option to take the courses for grad credit but that is not required and you can receive CEUs instead.

Please consider signing up for the course or contacting teachers that you know about the opportunity!

In January 2023, the STEMcoding Data Science team had the opportunity to try out some of our new activities with 9^th and 10^th grade students at Metro Early College High School in a two-week course we called “The Art of Data”. College of Education grad student Jessica Kulp and OSU actuarial science student Gowrav Mannem worked with Prof. Chris Orban and a teacher from Metro to deliver the course.

Prof. Chris Orban and grad student Jessica Kulp discuss good figures vs bad figures as part of a short course on “The Art of Data” at Metro Early College High School. Image Credit: Gowrav Mannem

To introduce the course, we spent a couple days discussing what makes figures ‘good’ or ‘bad’, how to represent data effectively, and the purpose of visualization. The ideas distilled from this discussion then guided students in creating their own visualizations throughout the course. Below is an example of a bad figure:

Example of bad figure. Students pointed out the confusing bin labels, lack of title, and questioned the appropriateness of a bar graph.

Students pointed out the confusing bin labels, lack of title, and questioned the appropriateness of a bar graph. This is ‘bad’ because the purpose of the visualization is unclear.

Students then completed our updated Air Pressure Activity, and a new Solar Panel Activity

Sample data from Air Pressure activity (using Excel). Pressure measurements are taken using the Arduino Science Journal app, which reads from the sensors built into most smartphones and tablets. We took pressure measurements at regular increments while walking up a flight of stairs.

The students’ data did not turn out as clearly linear as our sample data, as they had a limited height range to work with (one flight of stairs). However, this led to a discussion about how to assess the fit of a trendline and how to treat outliers, which were not originally planned topics for this activity.

The Solar Panel activity asks students to investigate whether the efficiency of a solar panel has declined over time. The dataset used contains daily measurements of energy produced over the course of five years. This activity gives students experience working with a large, messy dataset to build essential spreadsheet skills, such as sorting data into columns and using functions to sum and average.

Scatter plot of the solar panel data. There are clear seasonal variations within each year, but also a subtle downward trend from year-to-year. Students must take a closer look at each year in terms of summed or average energy produced.

Students also briefly explored probability through two activities: Free throw probabilities, and weighted dice.

We borrowed the free throw activity from Tap Into Teen Minds. Students worked collaboratively to determine the likelihood of three different outcomes of a real basketball game: Win, tie (overtime), or lose. Students had to think critically about what the probability is for making a given shot. Is it a 50/50 change of making the shot? Should they consider the player’s free-throw percentage from this game, or from the whole season?

A weighted or loaded dice is one which is unfairly weighted to land more often on some sides than others. We asked students to formulate a plan for how they would investigate a suspicious die. Groups of students came up with a variety of ways to collect and analyze data from dice rolls using spreadsheet software. In reality, none of the dice students tested were intentionally unfairly weighted, but all groups found an average roll value of 3.7. This was surprising, as we expect an average of 3.5 for a fair die. This led to a valuable discussion about sample size and sources of error.

We couldn’t fit all the STEMcoding Data Science activities into this short course, but some of our other activities (Earth Day and Night Sky activities) are demonstrated here in the data science playlist on the STEMcoding YouTube channel.

In partnership with the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) we will be offering a summer online course for high school physics and physical science teachers.

There will be a 1.0 grad credit “beginner” course from June 27 – July 8. Although you do need to register a free account with AAPT to sign up for the course, you do NOT need to be a national member of AAPT to take the course (even though there are lots of great reasons to be a national member!).

The course will meet over zoom in the afternoons (eastern time). We intend to cover some of the “physics of video games” activities, especially activities without trigonometry that can work even in 9th grade classes. We will also go over the STEMcoding Object Tracker which is part of our Data Science initiative.

Here is a link with more information and to sign up for the course:
https://www.aapt.org/K12/codingintegration.cfm

The cost is $120 per grad credit plus a $20 lab fee and, if this is the first AAPT grad course you have taken, there will be a $80 administrative fee. This administrative fee is a one time fee so if you take ANY other AAPT-affiliated online courses you will NOT need to pay the $80 fee again.

Please consider signing up for the course or contacting teachers that you know about the opportunity!

The STEMcoding Project is partnering with the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in Dayton, Ohio to offer a summer teacher fellowship during summer 2022. We are looking for a computationally-interested high school math teacher from Ohio to work with us over 6-9 weeks to collaborate in the creation of innovative new classroom activities that incorporate relevant computer science and mathematics concepts. Prof. Chris Orban from Ohio State University and CDR Royce James, Ph.D. at AFIT will oversee the project.

Funding for this fellowship is provided by Department of Defense High Performance Computing (DOD HPC). Supercomputing is an important tool for solving defense-related scientific and engineering problems. The goal of the fellowship is ultimately to broaden and diversify the “pipeline” of students who go on to develop these skills. Currently, only about 1 in 2 high schools have a computer science teacher. Math teachers are well positioned to meet this need, either by integrating computer science into their curricula, or by becoming credentialed to teach computer science classes.

Position Summary

Requirements: Currently employed high school mathematics teachers in Ohio who are US citizens. Teachers must be interested in integrating computation into their curriculum. Prior coding or computer science experience is not necessary.
Time: 6 – 9 weeks during summer 2022 (exact duration is negotiable)
Where: Virtually with occasional visits to the Air Force Institute of Technology in Dayton, Ohio.
Compensation: $1000 per week plus funds to present at a national or regional education conference in fall 2022.
Projects: Creating innovative classroom activities that mix computer science and mathematics concepts.
Deliverables: 1. A final report outlining activities during summer 2022 2. A final PowerPoint presentation in Dayton in late July or early August.
Other perks: Getting a tour of supercomputer facilities at Wright Patterson Air Force Base

Program Priorities

We especially value applications from teachers who are leaders in their local professional networks who may be able to impact other teachers with the skills they gain. Likewise, we also value teachers who have a leadership role in their districts regarding curriculum. We are especially committed to this “fellowship” supporting professional networks with high impacts in diverse learning communities that can demonstrate equitable and inclusive outcomes.

The exact duration of the summer fellowship is negotiable (between 6 and 9 weeks) but we may need to prioritize teachers who are able to spend closer to 9 weeks with us for the position. These do not all need to be consecutive weeks, however a main requirement is to be ready to give a formal presentation on the project during the last week of July.

Interest or experience with education research (broadly defined) is a plus. Our hope is that the final summer report will ultimately be published in a periodical for teachers.

Math teachers click here to apply for the summer fellowship!

In celebration of Black History month, the STEMcoding Project led by Prof. Chris Orban teamed up with Jahmour Givans from the OSU Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics (CCAPP) to develop a tutorial that helps to explain the science and math behind the calculations that Katherine Johnson and other African American women did for NASA as part of Project Mercury. The contribution of these women was celebrated in the 2016 movie Hidden Figures.

As discussed in the film and the book, mathematicians played an important role in NASA and in the heat of the space race there was a need to precisely predict where the Mercury capsule would land after reentry. Astronaut John Glenn’s life was in the hands of these women who worked to make sure the rescue boats would be positioned at the right spot to quickly reach the floating Mercury capsule.

It is difficult to find clear explanations of the science and math that Katherine Johnson would have needed to understand and use to perform these calculations. A further need is to convey this information at a level that is appropriate for high school students to understand. The new “Project Mercury” activity meets this need through step-by-step explanations of the calculations on a glass board, and through a coding activity that goes along with it.

The coding part of the activity has an interesting real-world parallel because Katherine Johnson’s task was to double check the prediction of what was then one of the first mainframe computers. Likewise, in the Project Mercury activity, students double check the results of the computer program.

This activity was partly inspired by discussions with Ranthony Edmonds and John Johnson in OSU’s math department. They teach a General Education course at OSU on “Hidden Figures” that focuses on the book and the mathematical tools involved in the calculations that Katherine Johnson and others did (for example the slide rule).

The full playlist for the new Project Mercury video series is available at this link. The step-by-step description of the activity is available here. It is designed for the 9th grade level.

We are excited to announce that the STEMcoding Data Science Initiative has been selected for the 2021 American Institute of Physics Meggers Project Award!  This award is given every other year and the projects must all benefit high school teachers, especially physics and physical science teachers.

A total of $12,500 will be split between Ohio State University (lead Prof. Chris Orban) and The University of Mt Union (lead Prof. Richelle Teeling-Smith).  These funds will be used to create new high school level data science activities with a physical science, earth science (including astronomy) and environmental science theme.

An earlier post describes the STEMcoding Data Science: Earth Day activity  that we recently submitted to hourofcode.com.  Another data science activity that we created is an astronomy activity called Night Sky Simulator that involves a mix of javascript programming and spreadsheet data analysis.

The goal of the STEMcoding Data Science Initiative is to create a year-long high school level data science course. Similar to our existing data science activities these will involve a mix of javascript programming and spreadsheet data analysis with either Google Sheets or Excel. Unlike other high school data science initiatives we will leave extra room at the end of the year to allow students to study for the industry credential exam for Excel. We think the connection to the Excel credential will be of interest to high schools serving socioeconomically underprivileged student populations.

To get updates on the STEMcoding Data Science Initiative please add yourself to the STEMcoding email list or follow us on instagram or twitter @STEMcoding  Prof. Chris Orban also posts updates to facebook

We are also very happy to mention that the other 2021 Meggers Project Award winner is an initiative led by our friend Prof. Brian Lane of the Let’s Code Physics youtube channel!

The Ohio Department of Education issues guidelines on which topics need to be covered in various math and science courses and they also provide instructional supports and resource lists to provide quality materials for teaching those courses. A series of meetings with dozens of science educators took place in 2017-2018 to update these documents. These meetings produced the revised Ohio Science Standards, which were released about a year ago. And they produced an updated list of instructional supports for various subjects but the release of these documents were delayed. This month the updated instructional supports for physical science were published on the Ohio Department of Education’s website.

STEMcoding activities are listed in three places in the new instructional supports for physical science. A reference to our first hour of code activity is mentioned in the section talking about velocity and acceleration.

There is also a reference to our fluid mechanics interactives in the section that talks about phases of matter.

And there is a reference to our wave interference activity. In 2017-2018 when the meetings happened to update the documents, our wave interference activity was one of the few HTML5 compliant wave interference interactives on the web (meaning that it works on Chromebooks and most other operating systems). PhET had not yet migrated their wave interference interactive from a Java applet to HTML5 which prevented it from working on Chromebooks and newer computers. A frequent topic of discussion at the meetings in 2017-2018 was issues around Java applets and flash media that teachers had been relying on but were not working any more on Chromebooks and recent computers.

We are proud and excited to be listed officially as an instructional support for physical science in Ohio! We anticipate that our activities will also be referenced when the instructional supports for physics are released later this year.