For Researchers

While we were developing The Science Behind Pixar, we also conducted a research project funded by the National Science Foundation (CNS 1339244) to learn how we could best support novice learners understand computational thinking. This research focuses specifically on exploring how to design educational experiences to cultivate the skill of problem decomposition. Problem decomposition is a problem-solving strategy used by computer scientists that involves figuring out how to break challenges and their solutions down into parts that can be communicated to and carried out by a computer.

The six educational experiences that were developed for The Science Behind Pixar to specifically cultivate problem decomposition skills were:

• Pixar’s Modeling Challenge
• Pixar’s Sets Challenge
• Lighting Effects Basics
• Surface Appearance Workstation
• Crowd Simulation Workstation
• Programming Natural Variety

For more information about this research, please see the following documents:

• Project overview
• Cahill & Mesiti (2015). Exhibits for Computational Thinking. Presented at RESPECT 2015, Charlotte NC.
• Final summative report: The Science Behind Pixar summative report
• ASTC Poster: Building Computational Thinkers poster presented at the Association of Science and Technology Centers
• Article in Exhibition
• Article in the Journal of Museum Education