Solar Weather, Simulation, and AI in Middle School: Developing a Case StudyK12
In today’s rapidly changing technological landscape, it is becoming increasingly evident that solar weather, simulations, and artificial intelligence (AI) are topics that can be and should be integrated into middle school education. Solar weather events can create massive problems with climate, communication and technology, problems that can be alleviated by prediction. These events also generate massive amounts of data that AI machine learning can use for this prediction. These topics can be introduced through simulations. How can we integrate solar weather data and simulations with AI-driven models to create interactive and educational software? This paper will review lessons and pedagogical approaches used to teach about solar weather, AI and incorporate the use of simulations to integrate computer science concepts into other middle school subject areas. The research supports year one of a three-year project. The length of the project allows time to develop a progression to introduce CS concepts and the development of a simulation that can be used in a variety of middle school classrooms.