Computational Thinking: A Vital Component of Modern K-12

Though the needs and standards of states and communities can dictate what’s taught in the classroom, it is vital for
learning to adapt and evolve.

The Need their students exceed them in certain skills. In fact, that is the
overriding goal.
The job skills market is changing rapidly with new
categories of jobs emerging, partly or wholly displacing Computational thinking requires the use of processes to pose
others. And the continuing impact of technology will and solve problems or prepare programs for computation.
not stop redefining jobs and skills needed for tomorrow. It teaches how to recognize and make use of repeating
In fact, many of tomorrow’s jobs have yet to be even patterns: abstracting data into representations that can be
easily understood. It is the foundation for most any endeavor
thought of yet. What skills will a nano-medical engineer
requiring logic and algorithmic thinking, and can be
need? What combination of science, math, and food
immensely useful for every single student, in any career.
skills will a 3D food printer biochemist need?
Computational thinking is often mistaken for coding or
According to Code.org, 90% of U.S. schools don’t teach
programming. Coding is rather like learning a new language
computer science as part of their curriculum. This is especially
whereas computational thinking describes a way of thinking
exasperating in that Code.org also reports that there will
at multiple levels of abstraction, not only the ability to
be more than 1.4 million computer jobs by 2020, yet only
program. It’s an important skill set for most anyone looking to
400,000 students will go on to study computer science in
succeed in their field, not only those working with computers.
college.
Computational thinking allows someone to break down
So while computer science is a primary driver of the problems into smaller pieces so that they can be tackled
U.S. economy, it has yet to play a significant role in K-12 step-by-step.
education: with only 27 states allowing computer science
courses to count toward high school graduation.

In a world of Internet searches, is the traditional method of

lectures, rote memorization and testing the correct path? Or
is it better to teach how to learn rather than what to learn?

21st Century Problem Solving

Computational thinking pushes students to be more actively
involved in their education. It’s a less passive and more
innovative approach that has teachers and students learning
together. Much like how a coach provides the structure and
practice for players to become—ultimately—better than
they, a computational thinking teacher isn’t intimidated if
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 and evaluating. New solution ideas can lead to a
deeper understanding of the problem, and trigger
more solution ideas.
• Digital Content Creation: Consider how much
formal and informal education goes on through
YouTube videos. Interactive learning, too, is
mainstream across industries to more effectively
teach a new skill or concept and assess the learning
of the learner. Digital content creation is taking a
new meaning with emerging virtual and augmented
realities and the closing gap of human-machine
interface.
Skills for Innovation • Computational Thinking: Computers only do what
Computational thinking is one of six key skills that they’re told or learn to do. Computational thinking
Intel® believes will best support today’s students teaches students to think like a computer program
to help them evolve their skills in preparation for so it can be designed efficiently.
tomorrow’s workforce. All of these key skills can overlap and work
synergistically with one another. For instance,
• Simulation and Modeling: In industry, nearly
programming and coding technology can be used to
everything is simulated and designed and
sometimes 3D printed before it is built. In support computational thinking through the creation
science—when it’s too expensive, impractical, of applications that represent problems and their
or impossible to perform experiments—we use solutions; the use of AI and Machine Learning tools;
simulation and modeling. Most of our deepest and solving complex problems by applying the Design
insights into space, physics, and chemistry come Thinking process.
from simulation and modeling.
Simulation and modeling technology could also be
• AI/Machine Learning: AI/machine learning are used to support computational thinking by abstracting
emerging technologies being applied to many
problems in the form of models; creating virtual
industries: autonomous vehicles, manufacturing
representations of real-world processes or systems;
systems, and quality check systems, just to
and creating immersive 3D visual models.
name a few. AI will continue to move toward the
mainstream and become a significant component The Right Technology
of human life.
Engaging students by actively working with various
• Data Science: Data science looks for information
types and levels of technology—such as computers
hidden in data. Analytics, AI, and machine learning
and programming languages, virtual labs, design
all begin with insights derived from data science.
and simulation labs, artificial intelligence projects,
Understanding and gaining insight out of data is
3D modeling, data science and others—will put their
essential to Industry 4.0.
creative, math, and science skills in a living context.
• Design Thinking: Successful products and
For technology to truly support computational
concepts are designed, not born. The design
thinking, it must be used to develop key skills such
thinking process includes problem-finding,
as the four C’s (collaboration, communication,
decision-making, creativity, sketching, prototyping
critical thinking, and creativity) and the technology-

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based competencies associated with modeling
and simulation, digital content creation, artificial
intelligence, computational thinking, and many others.

Not Just for Higher Grades

Computational thinking can be easily differentiated
across grade levels since the problem complexity,
for which computational thinking is applied, can
be proportional to the grade. Activities to develop
computational thinking could begin as early as
elementary school, with simple projects such as
growing plants from seeds and creating treasure maps.
In middle school, this could evolve into designing
mazes and creating surveys while— in high school—
projects building computational thinking skills could
include designing a robot to drive along a track and to
predict the weather based on sensor data.

Computational Thinking and its

Connection to Industry 4.0 It’s a must-have skill for students to succeed in the
Industry 4.0 is a term often associated with the 21st century: sparking divergent thinking, creativity,
manufacturing industry and the concept of a “smart problem-solving skills, and inquiry-based learning,
factory” where cyber-physical distributed systems collaboration, and persistence.
monitor both autonomous and manual processes,
Definitions
create virtual representations of the physical world,
and then make real-time, decentralized decisions The following are definitions of the major aspects of
orchestrated by data and machine learning. Industry computational thinking:
4.0 competencies also apply across most, if not all,
Abstraction: The fundamental concept of object-
modern industries.
oriented design and programming, and further
Computational thinking is a key competency includes the concept of encapsulation where each
associated with Industry 4.0 as it is used to decompose element of a system is represented by an interface
complex problems, identify patterns, and then that describes inputs and outputs, and the underlying
design algorithms. It can help develop higher-order details are not visible at the interface. Abstraction can
thinking skills and change the way students think also be applied to the solution.
about problem solving. And the ubiquity of digital
Algorithm: A list of steps that can be followed to carry
technology is positioning computational thinking as
out a task. Algorithms includes the concept of data
the new literacy.
flow in which data flows through a system, and the
concept of data states, in which data changes state
according to set conditions.

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Automation: Controlling a process by automatic
means, reducing human intervention to a minimum. “Every kind of industry that a student
will go into as a contributing participant
Computer science: The study and use of computers
and computational thinking to solve problems.
in our economy and our society—every
sector of our economy—is underpinned
Decomposition: Breaking a problem down into by technology now. And if you understand
smaller, more manageable parts. The idea is that a the underpinning of computing, you will
problem may not be seem solvable in its aggregate, be more likely to succeed, as opposed
but once reduced can be more easily solved. Once to someone who is simply ‘receiving’
each piece is solved, then the solutions can be computer science”
integrated or aggregated into a solution that solves
the original, larger problem. —Jane Krauss, co-author of Computational
Thinking and Coding for Every Student: The
Pattern matching: Finding similarities between items Teacher’s Getting-Started Guide.
as a way of gaining extra information.

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Copyright © 2019 Clarity Innovations, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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