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Tough as Nails project: a K-8 coding pathway research-practice partnership in Kentucky Appalachia

Design · All designs
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 theoretical), q1 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description

Tough as Nails, Nimble Fingers is an NSF-funded research-practice partnership (grants #1923314 and #2219401) creating a K-8 Computational Thinking Pathway in Floyd County and Pikeville Independent Schools by applying South Fayette School District's model and training 75+ teachers over 3 years. Its research studies "what it takes to make this happen and sustain it, what the pathways looks like, what impact it might have." Activities include pathway visioning, teacher training, CT lesson design, curriculum maps, and constant reflection.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

  • A research-practice partnership with local districts and a partner district with an existing pathway
  • Sustained collaboration among local educators, districts, and researchers, with continuous attention to local vision, goals, priorities and processes

Constraints

  • The pathway work is specific to two Kentucky districts, Pikeville Independent and Floyd County Schools

Target Learners

  • PreK-8 students in Eastern Kentucky districts
  • K-8 students in Eastern Kentucky

Learning Goals

  • Computational thinking and coding integration across K-8
  • Computational thinking pathway development

Claims

Examples

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Key Sources

  • Finding kinship in a far away land: The relevance of Japanese cultural perspectives to education research in Eastern Kentucky. (2022). https://bit.ly/TANrefs
  • Iwatani, E., Tackett, T., Tackett, K., Arnett, N., & May, P. (2021). Leveraging Community Cultural Wealth to Support K-8 CT Education in Kentucky Appalachia. IEEE. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org. doi:10.1109/respect51740.2021.9620610
Page metadata
Field Value
type design
id tough-as-nails-project
aliases tough-as-nails-k8-ct-pathway-rpp
title Tough as Nails project: a K-8 coding pathway research-practice partnership in Kentucky Appalachia
description Tough as Nails, Nimble Fingers is an NSF-funded research-practice partnership (grants #1923314 and #2219401) creating a K-8 Computational Thinking Pathway in Floyd County and Pikeville Independent Schools by applying...
status review
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-09
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 2 — finding-kinship-in-a-far-away-land-the-relevance-of-japanese-cultural-perspectives-to-education-research-in-eastern-kentucky-2022, iwatani-2021

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