Reconceptualizing games for integrating computational thinking and science as practice: collaborative agent-based disciplinarily-integrated games

ABSTRACT

This paper situates a critical review of studies that we have conducted within the broader research literature to analyze the affordances of integrating modeling within disciplinarily-integrated games from computational thinking and science as practice perspectives. Across the studies, the analyses pursue two themes: (a) the role of agent-based modeling as a synergistic local practice around which we can integrate computational thinking and scientific modeling within digital games and (b) the role of collaboration in leveraging those synergies. We then present a design of a disciplinarily-integrated game that integrates these themes to demonstrate one such possible instantiation of the themes. Finally, we discuss the implications for design and praxis with a particular focus on learning in classrooms across the curriculum. Specifically, we first explore the implications in terms of connecting to teachers’ views of practice by framing computational modeling and computational thinking as mathematization. We then explore the implications of shifting from a focus on single players to communities of practice in terms of computational participation as science as practice. We close by exploring the pragmatic and pedagogical affordances of shifting from stand-alone single-topic games to flexible agent-based environments in terms of student development across the curriculum.

KEYWORDS:

• Computational thinking
• science as practice
• science education
• modeling
• disciplinary integration
• digital games

Acknowledgements

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Douglas B. Clark is the Werklund Research Chair of Design-Based Learning and professor of Learning Sciences with University of Calgary’s Werklund School of Education. His research focuses on students' conceptual change processes, computational thinking, modeling, argumentation, and use of representations in these environments. Doug has been awarded multiple funded grants from the US National Science Foundation, Department of Education, and the US National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation.

Pratim Sengupta is the Research Chair of STEM Education and associate professor of Learning Sciences with University of Calgary’s Werklund School of Education. He invents and designs programming languages, and immersive computing environments for science education in schools and public spaces. Pratim received the US National Science Foundation’s NSF Career Award in 2012.

ORCID

Douglas B. Clark http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4757-8446

Additional information

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1119290.