Using Debugging as a Platform for Transdisciplinary Learning

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the types of knowledge used by six middle school students as they engaged with a debugging task designed to integrate ideas from computer science, mathematics and science. Our findings show that the computational thinking practice of debugging is a rich source of opportunities to integrate these different disciplines. The analysis illustrates how the types of knowledge the students did and did not use at each step of the debugging process were related to their ability to succeed at each step. Our work contributes to theory and practice by uncovering implications for studying debugging through two refined frameworks and for designing debugging tasks to support transdisciplinary learning.

Acknowledgements

The data presented, statements made, and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the authors. We would like to thank our earth science colleague Jay Singh for his help in the design of the rock cycle module. The rock cycle diagram used in the George’s Life simulation includes a sediment image from Michael C. Rygel’s "Ripples" photo found on Wikipedia in October 2018. All other images used in the diagram are public domain found on Wikipedia in October 2018. Scratch is developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. See http://scratch.mit.edu. We would also like to thank the editor Pratim Sengupta and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable and constructive feedback in earlier versions of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation [#1742125].