Are you a K-5 educator looking for insight into computing education? Check out this series of engaging podcasts produced by Emily Thomforde from Reach University, Jordan Williamson, Emily Nelson, and Monica McGill from the Institute for Advancing Computing Education (IACE). Emily leads the discussion groups, and Jordan, Emily, and Monica create, modify, and review the podcasts and briefs. 

These podcasts and their corresponding practice briefs offer educators valuable research insights for classroom application and prompt researchers to reflect on how teachers interpret research within their classroom contexts. 

Here is the list of podcasts and a brief description:

Series opening 

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This is the first and opening episode of the 2024 Computer Science (CS) Teacher Talk series. In this episode, the featured guests and the host frame the series, which is focused primarily on K-5 educators and exploring the latest research and evidence-based practices. 

K-5 Computing: Design in Action (Abstraction)

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Read the practice brief 

This podcast presents an engaging discussion among teachers on how to teach abstraction in K-5 CS classrooms. During the episode, the hosts highlight the work from “Waite, J. L., Curzon, P., Marsh, W., Sentance, S., & Hadwen-Bennett, A. (2018)” and include a feature from guest speakers!

Making Computing Meaningful to All Students

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This podcast episode presents a discussion among teachers on how to incorporate relevant teaching for students, specifically those who are underrepresented in tech. During this episode, the podcast highlights research from “Centering Minoritized Students’ Perspectives: What Makes CS Learning Consequential” and features guest speakers who assist in understanding and unpacking the topic!

Integrating Computing into Literacy and Math

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Listen to this podcast episode for an engaging discussion among teachers on how to integrate computing into literacy and math instruction. The podcast and the featured guests highlight research from “Understanding the Link between Computer Science Instruction and Reading & Math Performance.”

Parsing Parsons Problems for Teaching K-5 Computer Science

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Join an engaging discussion among teachers discussing Parsons problems and their usage when teaching computer science to K-5 students. In this episode of CS Teacher Talk, the hosts highlight research from Bender, Jeff, Bingpu Zhao, Alex Dziena, and Gail Kaiser entitled “Integrating Parsons puzzles within Scratch enables efficient computational thinking learning.” 

Integrating CS into Other Subjects

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In this episode, listen to an engaging discussion on emerging practices for integrating computer science into various subjects for K-5 students, spotlighting the podcast’s featured guests. The podcast highlights research from “Emerging Practices for Integrating Computer Science into Existing K-5 Subjects in the United States.” 

Physical Computing for K-5 Students 

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Are you interested in discussing emerging practices for integrating computer science into various subjects for K-5 students? This episode unpacks this topic with featured guests and highlights research from “Physical computing: A key element of modern computer science education.”

Series closing

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This final episode closes out the first podcast series covering research on teaching computer science to K-5 students.

Engage with the 2024 CS Teacher Talks for insights from the CS Teacher Talks hosts.  This podcast has been made possible thanks to the support of the ACM SIGCSE Special Projects Grant, Amazon Future Engineer, and the Siegel Family Endowment.