Background
There have been increasing calls for integrating computational thinking and computing into school science, mathematics, and engineering classrooms. The learning goals of the curriculum in this study included learning about both computational thinking and climate science. Including computer science in science classrooms also means a shift in the focus on design and creation of artifacts and attendant practices. One such design practice, widespread in the design and arts fields, is critique. This paper explores the role of critique in two urban, heterogenous 8th grade science classrooms in which students engaged in creating computer games on the topic of climate systems and climate change. It explores and compares how practices of critique resulted from curricular decisions to (i) scaffold intentional critique sessions for student game designers and (ii) allow for spontaneous feedback as students interacted with each other and their games during the process of game creation.

Results
Although we designed formal opportunities for critique, the participatory dimension of the project meant that students were free to critique each other’s games at any time during the building process and did so voluntarily. Data indicate that students focused much more on the game play dimension of the design than the science, particularly in those critique sessions that were student-initiated. Despite the de-emphasis on science in spontaneous critiques, students still focused on several dimensions of computational thinking, considering user experience, troubleshooting, modeling, and elegance of solutions.

Conclusions
Students making games about science topics should have opportunities for both formal and spontaneous critiques. Spontaneous critiques allow for students to be authorities of knowledge and to determine what is acceptable and what is not. However, formal, teacher-designed critiques may be necessary for students to focus on science as part of the critique. Furthermore, one of the benefits to critiquing others was that students were able to see what others had done, how they had set up their games, the content they included, and how they had programmed certain features. Lastly, critiques can help facilitate iteration as students work to improve their games.



中文翻译：

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“我打破了你的游戏！”：在设计有关气候变化的计算机游戏的中学生中的批评

背景
将计算思维和计算集成到学校科学，数学和工程教室的呼声越来越高。本研究中课程的学习目标包括学习计算思维和气候科学。将科学科学课堂中的计算机科学包括在内，也意味着将重点转移到设计和创建人工制品以及附带的实践上。批评是一种在设计和艺术领域广泛使用的设计实践。本文探讨了批判在两个城市，异质八年级科学教室中的作用，在该教室中，学生们从事有关气候系统和气候变化的计算机游戏的创作。

结果
尽管我们为批评提供了正式的机会，但该项目的参与性意味着学生可以在构建过程中随时自由地互相批评对方的游戏，并且自愿这样做。数据表明，与科学相比，学生更多地关注设计的游戏玩法维度，尤其是在那些由学生发起的评论会议中。尽管在自发的批评中不再强调科学，但学生仍将注意力集中在计算思维的多个维度上，考虑了用户体验，故障排除，建模和解决方案的优美性。

结论
制作有关科学主题的游戏的学生应有机会进行正式和自发的批评。自发的批判允许学生成为知识的权威，并确定什么是可以接受的，什么是不可以接受的。但是，对于学生而言，正式的，由老师设计的评论可能是必要的，以便学生将注意力集中在科学上。此外，批评他人的好处之一是，学生能够看到他人的所作所为，他们如何设置游戏，包含的内容以及如何编写某些功能。最后，批判可以帮助促进迭代，因为学生正在努力改善自己的游戏。