Ways To Improve Computational Thinking.

 

Last week, we looked at what computational thinking is and today, we'll look at it in general first, then specifically for math since both are important.  This is especially true if you work with teachers of other subjects so that you can work on it across the curriculums.

The first part of computational thinking is decomposition of the task, or breaking it down into smaller tasks.  One way to do this is to ask students to write a set of instructions on how to do a basic task such as mashing potatoes, planting a potato, or putting on your socks.  My English teacher did this to us in high school.  Although we did it in English, she chose a mathematical topic. She had us write the instructions on drawing a square.

We were given the activity in class but she let us work on it at home for a couple of evenings.  On the due date she collected all our instructions and set about following each and every word to determine who had the best set.  We laughed hysterically because people forgot to give a direction on the lines so she'd head off the paper or start in the middle of the page and she had fun.  I admit, I had a great set of directions because I wrote them and had my parents try to follow them so every time the directions messed up, I rewrote them until they were 100 percent correct.  This is an activity I do in my math classes and it is awesome.

Next is pattern recognition.  In foreign languages, it would be discussing the patterns used for the endings of verbs depending on the verb and tense.  It might also be dividing words up into piles based on if they have long or short vowels. It might be sorting words in science or math so the words associated with certain concepts end up in the same group.  Other possibilities for math include dividing equations into slope (positive, negative, horizontal, or vertical), how any steps needed to solve it - such as one, two, or multipole step equations.  When you do a sorting activity, have students explain the criteria they used to sort the items so they are sharing their thinking.

Let's look at ways to learn more about abstraction.  Have the students write down what they know on a topic but give them a final word count because this helps teach them to get rid of the irrelevant details. You'd start with a nice word count like 100 words and then cut it down to 90. then 80 so they learn to work with fewer words.  Another activity is to read a passage, looking for very specific information.  In English, you might have students read a description of a house and then have them find the details a house buyer might want before having them reread the description looking for details a housebreaker needs. For math, give a paragraph on quadrilaterals and ask them to read it looking for the details for squares, or rectangles, or other shape.  

Finally, is the algorithm which is one of those wonderful things we see a lot in math but in other topics such as English, it is asking students to write the instructions to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. In math, it might be asking students to explain how to solve a type of problem, prove something, and they could do it via a video or written poster.  

This site has some great lesson plans for algorithms for K to 8.  The lessons come with everything you need but they are more general activities than math specific.  I simply tell my students that they need to communicate using English so they need to do this.  On the other hand, this place has lessons specifically designed to teach computational thinking in all subjects including math however, they do not have a ton of lessons available.  

I have to have some things for the first week that do not start them fully in math, so this topic is great for that time.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.