Today we’re excited to introduce you to a new program called STEMcoding, which is an effort to reimagine STEM courses with computer science in mind, and two of the people spearheading this initiative, Chris Orban and Richelle Teeling-Smith.
These are two very smart people and passionate educators who are doing a lot to develop computer science-enriched activities for traditional STEM courses like physics, physical science, and math. And in doing so, they’re both teaching skills that will be valuable for our children’s futures and reinforcing existing learning objectives.
Prof. Chris Orban is an assistant professor of physics at Ohio State. He specializes in computational physics and computer science education and he leads STEMcoding. He also served on the advisory board for the Ohio K12 computer science standards in 2018 and on the Ohio science standards revision committee in 2017 and 2018, which were both organized by the Ohio Department of Education. He is also the faculty advisor to the newly-formed coding club at Metro High School.
Dr. Richelle Teeling-Smith is an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Mount Union in Ohio (and she just so happens to have taken a class with Chris in the past). Dr. Teeling-Smith graduated with her B.S. in physics from Kent State University in 2009 and with her M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from the Ohio State University in 2011 and 2015. Dr. Teeling-Smith now studies multi-modal imaging techniques for nanoscale condensed matter and biophysical systems. She is also a physics education researcher who studies the integration of computation into introductory physics courses through the STEMcoding Project.
We unbox:
Why Chris felt the need to start STEMcoding
How computer science was de-emphasized in the 90s, although it used to be a core K-12 subject
How the modules make coding fun to learn – while ALSO reinforcing science and math learning objectives
What students and teachers who have already gone through the modules are saying
How schools, teachers, and clubs can utilize these STEM coding modules
Resources:
Learn more about STEMcoding: u.osu.edu/stemcoding
Start taking modules now on the YouTube channel: youtube.com/c/STEMcoding
Twitter: twitter.com/STEMcoding
You can find more coding activities at hourofcode.com
Connect with Chris: physics.osu.edu/people/orban.14
Connect with Richelle: physics.osu.edu/people/teeling-smith.1
College Credit Plus: www.ohiohighered.org/content/college_credit_plus_about