In spite of the importance of science and technology in nearly every aspect of our daily lives, current K-12 education in the United States struggles to develop a diverse STEM workforce prepared with the skills and dispositions necessary to face the challenges of the modern world. This recent realization for workforce needs to maintain global competitiveness and innovation is resulting in a push toward integrated STEM education. My research takes a connected and comprehensive approach to learning STEM in the context of understanding the real world, and then applying the learned knowledge to solve relevant, current problems. Establishing close connections between science and computer science concepts and practices and their application to real-world problem solving are supported by computational modeling and data analysis tools that introduce students to technologies and skills of particular relevance to the 21st century workplace. From analyzing the impact of climate change on coral reefs to defending robots against cybersecurity attacks, I aim to provide innovative, engaging curricula that inspire students to dive into computer science as a career path.

Relevant Publications

1. Hutchins, N., Biswas, G., Wolf, R., Chin, D., Grover, S., & Blair, K. (2020; in press). Computational thinking in support of learning and transfer. In Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Nashville, TN, USA.
2. Yett, B., Hutchins, N., Stein, G., Zare, H., Snyder, C., Biswas, G., Metelko, M., & Ledeczi, A. (2020). A Hands-On Cybersecurity Curriculum Using a Robotics Platform. In Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) Annual Meeting, Portland, USA.
3. Hutchins, N., Shi, C., & Biswas, G. (2019) A High School Computational Modeling Approach to Studying the Effects of Climate Change on Coral Reefs. In Proceedings of the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada.

Resources

Check out our NSF STEM For ALL Video or our Cybersecurity Camp Recap!

Nashville Zoo App - A group of students I co-mentored in the news!