PAST Projects & Research

Part of the Computer Science for All movement, which focuses on providing all students, including those with special needs, with computational thinking (CT) and computer science learning opportunities, the CodePlay project was a Researcher Practitioner Partnership (RPP) between Braintree Public Schools (BPS) and EdGE at TERC. The shared purpose of this RPP was to build a strong foundation for the teaching and learning of CT in upper elementary and middle schools throughout BPS, and in doing so, to inform a scalable and generalizable model of personalized CT education for a broad audience of diverse learners in grades 3-8 with cognitive differences.

The RPP implemented and observed CT practices in select classrooms, as part of designing and developing CodePlay—a suite of teacher resources, activities, digital tools, assessments, and professional development experiences that infuse CT into existing curriculum in grades 3-8 across the district.

CodePlay developed activities and materials immersed within science, math, language, and other existing disciplinary content, including but not limited to project-based learning using coding tools such as Scratch and BlocksCAD (for 3D printing).

CodePlay also included the development of NumberFactory, a game that brings together math, especially place value concepts, and CT and that is extensively designed for differentiation to best meet a wide variety of learners’ needs and strengths.

The project conducted a multi-year longitudinal study of all BPS students in grades 3-8 to examine changes over time in their tool usage, CT self-efficacy, CT practices and its application in STEM and English Language Learning classes. This study also surveyed all BPS teachers about their CT instructional practices with survey questions aligned with the MA Digital Literacy and Computer Science standards. This information was combined with teacher participation in the CodePlay RPP and student demographics to examine the impact of the CodePlay project on teacher instructional practices and student outcomes.