Choosing your own adventure: Engaging the new learning society through integrative curriculum design

Abstract

In our increasingly data-driven society, it is critical for high school students to learn to integrate computational thinking with other disciplines in solving real world problems. To address this need for the life sciences in particular, we have developed the Bio-CS Bridge, a modular computational system coupled with curriculum integrating biology and computer science. Our transdisciplinary team comprises university and high school faculty and students with expertise in biology, computerscience, and education.Our approach engages students and teachers in scientific practices using biological data that they can collect themselves, and computational tools that they help to design and implement, to address the real-world problem ofpollinator decline.Our modular approach to high school curriculum design providesteachers with the educational flexibility to address national and statewide biology and computer science standards for a wide range of learner types. We are using a teacher- leader model to disseminate the Bio-CS Bridge, whose components will be freelyavailable online.