Cultivating Tipping Points: Network Science in Teaching

2018 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM)Current education systems continue to be based predominantly on reductionist mindsets in which teaching is conducted on a subject-by-subject and module-by-module basis. Improvement is planned and implemented using a linear, causal, independent- problem-to-solution approach, with very little consideration given to the interconnectedness among the various components and ideas involved in these complex knowledge systems. This situation presents a need to think about how understanding these connections can improve the learning of complex ideas. It also constitutes an opportunity to provide a multifaceted intervention for communities of learners, which would, itself, be a coordinated network of collaborative efforts to develop a network literate populace. In this paper, the authors describe addressing these issues through a multi-phase, multi-year approach to professional development with formal and informal educators; the outcomes of this work; and next steps

NiCE Teacher Workshop: Engaging K-12 Teachers in the Development of Curricular Materials That Utilize Complex Networks Concepts

Our educational systems must prepare students for an increasingly interconnected future, and teachers require equipping with modern tools, such as network science, to achieve this. We held a Networks in Classroom Education (NiCE) workshop for a group of 21 K-12 teachers with various disciplinary backgrounds. The explicit aim of this was to introduce them to concepts in network science, show them how these concepts can be utilized in the classroom, and empower them to develop resources, in the form of lesson plans, for themselves and the wider community. Here we detail the nature of the workshop and present its outcomes – including an innovative set of publicly available lesson plans. We discuss the future for successful integration of network science in K- 12 education, and the importance of inspiring and enabling our teachers