Natural science has come to recognize and study phenomena that recur at multiple scales of space and time. This recognition has allowed fundamental principles to be exhibited in full universality and has helped energize cross-disciplinary work in the sciences. The team at Northern Kentucky University conjectures that a similar energizing of cross-disciplinary work in the informatics domain can be accomplished by likewise focusing on computational phenomenon occurring at multiple scales. They propose to develop, deploy, disseminate, and assess a curriculum model that is based on this notion. Seen from a computational perspective, the range of scales is vast. From elementary particles to the planet itself, computation occurs at many levels. This way of organizing computational phenomena across distinct scales is an alternative way of addressing the ?principles? approach to computing pedagogy. NKU will explore and assess the effectiveness of this alternative approach. Encouraging students to see computation operating on many scales can deepen their appreciation for computational thinking (CT) across wide variety of disciplines. This can help combat the insular pull of computer science pedagogy that can arise from a narrow focus on code and technology for its own sake. This project uses the College of Informatics at Northern Kentucky University to implement a model based on this vision. The College was formed in 2005, bringing together three departments: Communication, Computer Science, and Business Informatics (formerly Information Systems). The model deploys computational thinking in the curriculum at two levels of resolution. All students who have majors in the college (about 1100 students with majors ranging from Journalism to Information Technology) will enroll in a Principles of Informatics course that exposes them to computational thinking at many scales. Majors in Computer Science go beyond this to work through a full curriculum that has been reframed and extended to reference the multiple scales model. The dissemination of an accessible and appealing curriculum framework, one that motivates such students to apply computational thinking to a wide range of workplace situations, should provide a rich set of resources upon which other metropolitan universities, each with their distinctive sets of cross-disciplinary expertise, may build.
We developed a new model to organize a computing curriculum with a focus on cross-disciplinary connections. Use of the term "informatics" in the United States is still young, and the model that we established provides one avenue by which one can establish an intellectually-rich operational definition of that term. Our model focused on the concepts of informatics thinking, a combination of computational and critical thinking skills, a set of fundamental principles of informatics, and the idea of informatics at multiple scales. We created a transdisciplinary course titled Principles of Informatics to introduce students from both traditional computing disciplines and from other disciplines to our model. This course taught a broad range of informatics skills, focusing on the application of computational and critical thinking to evaluate the impact of information communication technologies on individuals and societies. Course materials consist of a set of modules, some of which focus on core topics such as Information and Encoding, Communication, and Computation, while others focus on applications of informatics, such as Pandora's Genome or Health Informatics. There are more than enough modules to cover a 16-week semester. The course is designed so that instructors can pick and choose from the optional modules to teach courses that focus on particular applications of informatics. The course has been offered five times at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) to approximately 180 students, including both computer science students and students from other majors such as communication. The course has been a general education pilot and is in the process of becoming a general education course, which will enable students from any major to fulfill degree requirements by taking the course, and thus should expand both the numbers and types of students who learn about computational thinking and its impact on our society. In Spring 2014, the course will be offered at both NKU and at Bluegrass Community College, which will expand the reach of this project to other educational institutions.
