He vist al Journal of Chemical Education un interessant article que m’ha recordat el llibre A New Kind of Science, de Stephen Wolfram: The Development of Computational Thinking in a High School Chemistry Course. El resum de l’article ja és informatiu:
Computational thinking is a component of the Science and Engineering Practices in the Next Generation Science Standards, which were adopted by some states. We describe the activities in a high school chemistry course that may develop students’ computational thinking skills by primarily using Excel, a widely available spreadsheet software. These activities were classified as (i) the use of simulation and modeling, (ii) experimental data analysis, (iii) coding or programming, (iv) algorithmic reasoning, and (v) statistics and probability.
i una mica adreça un assumpte que fa temps que detectem: al nostre ensenyament secundari, i al nostre universitari, no s’adquireix la competència de saber program, de saber analitzar dades, de saber criticar constructivament o rebre crítiques, o d’entendre probabilitat. Pot haver-hi casos particular en que sí que es treballi, però en general, per exemple, no s’aprèn a programar.
Aquest article del J. Chem. Educ. parla de química (una simulació d’una neutralització àcid-base), i de fer servir el Visual Basic del Microsoft Excel, d’escriure les fòrmules apropiades a les cel·les del full de càlcul… I ho fa per a un curs preuniversitari. Tal com diu l’article,
In coding or programming activities, students write formulas or use Excel functions, but they do not write Excel VBA commands, since it is much easier to teach students to write a formula or use a function than to teach them VBA commands and there is minimal marginal benefit to students in using VBA commands in the context of analyzing their experimental data or developing a simulation. On the other hand, as mentioned in the earlier section on simulations, from a teacher’s perspective, using VBA in the development of a simulation is valuable.
La simulació i el modelatge no haurien de limitar-se a entorns com el nostre de recerca a l’IQCC, sinó que haurien d’estar més extesos. Plantejar i elaborar models, i dur a terme simulacions, és una forma normal de fer bona ciència.
Però hi ha més coses encara a dir:
While this article focuses on the use of computational thinking, mathematics, and models, which is a part of the NGSS science and engineering practices, the remaining components in the science and engineering practices(3) are involved in these activities. Specifically, these are (i) asking questions, (ii) planning and carrying out investigations, (iii) analyzing and interpreting data, (iv) constructing explanations, (v) engaging in argument from evidence, and (vi) communicating information. Therefore, the activities described in this article provide an opportunity for students to develop all of the skills described in the NGSS science and engineering practices.The NGSS assessments could involve simulations(49) and animations. Although the use of animation is not mentioned in this article, we believe that our simulations may prepare students for the NGSS assessment.