Page 67 - Getting the Picture Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computer Science Education

Defining and Observing Modeling and Simulation in Computer Science
3.1 Introduction
Following the increasing availability of computers in schools, several initiatives
have been employed to support students’ learning in various disciplines through
the use of computer models (Blikstein & Wilensky, 2009; Pfefferova, 2015; Taub et
al., 2014). Caspersen and Nowack (2013b) argue why they „believe understanding
and creating models are fundamental skills for all pupils as it can be characterized
as the skill that enable us to analyze and understand phenomena as well as
design and construct artifacts.” Wilensky argues, “Computational modeling has 3 the potential to give students means of expressing and testing explanations of
phenomena both in the natural and social worlds” (Wilensky, 2014). Granger
claims: „Modeling is the new literacy” (2015). This belief is also expressed in the
fact that as of 2019, modeling and simulation (together called Computational
Science), will be included in the new Dutch secondary education CS curriculum,
described by the following high level learning objectives: “Modeling: The candidate
is able to model aspects of a different scientific discipline in computational terms”
and “Simulation: The candidate is able to construct models and simulations, and
use these for the research of phenomena in that other science field.” Modeling
itself will be a part of the compulsory core curriculum, described as “Modeling:
The candidate is able to use context to analyze a relevant problem, limit this to a
manageable problem, translate this into a model, generate and interpret model
results, and test and assess the model. The candidate is able to use consistent
reasoning.” (Barendsen & Tolboom, 2016)
Modeling and simulation can be viewed as aspects of Computational Thinking (CT) (Wing, 2006) as they involve decomposition of open-ended problems and the construction and evaluation of models that simulate the nature of these problems in order to be able to provide solutions to those problems.
Prior to this study, we refined the CSTA definition of CT (Grgurina, 2013), explored teachers’ PCK (Grgurina et al., 2014a, 2014b); and made an initial exploration of the computational modeling process (Grgurina et al., 2015).
3.1.1 Aim of the Study
In this study, we focus on CT skills related to modeling and simulation and we explore highly cognitively complex set of students’ activities related to modeling, in particular as an aspect of CT rather than as an aspect of e.g. mathematics (Maaß, 2006). Our primary goal is to establish an operational description of the
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