INSTANCES: incorporating computational scientific thinking advances into education and science courses

The conceptual framework and initial steps taken by a project that aims to incorporate computational scientific thinking into the university-level classes taken by preservice and in-service teachers (education majors) are described. The project is called INSTANCES, an almost-acronym for incorporating computational scientific thinking advances into education and science courses, and is supported by National Science Foundation as part of their Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program. The overall goal of the project is to provide an introduction to scientific thinking with computation. Mathematics, programming, algorithmic thinking, and computing accuracy are explicit elements of the science education curriculum, and they are included as integral elements in modules that walk teachers through various examples of computational scientific thinking. Brief descriptions of the modules and their use are presented. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.