A Case Study of Elementary Teachers' Enactment of an NGSS-Aligned Computer Science Lesson: Verbal Support of Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science Integration

National frameworks for science, technology, engineering, math- ematics, and computer science (STEM+CS) education aim to inte- grate CS within K-12 science classrooms. However, the ways that elementary teachers verbally support CS integration during classroom enactment of STEM+CS projects has rarely been considered in research. This paper uses a descriptive, single case study methodology in the bounded context of a public elementary school to explore how two fifth-grade science teachers implicitly and explicitly support the integration of STEM+CS disciplines within a CS-focused lesson through verbal supports that were either planned in the STEM+CS project curricular materials or added by the teachers. Data sources included transcripts of all whole-class discussions that occurred while the two fifth-grade science teachers co-taught a CS lesson that spanned three fifty-minute class periods to two different classes. Two researchers team coded instances of teachers' verbal support of STEM+CS integration, wrote memos for each instance, and graphed the instances on a four-quadrant, analytic framework which was divided along an axis of explicit or implicit verbal support and an axis of planned or added verbal support. The researchers then grouped their memos by quadrant and used pattern coding to look across instances for emerging themes. Findings include that most instances of verbal support for STEM+CS interdisciplinary integration were added by the teachers and implicitly articulated how disciplinary practices related to each other. Implications include recommendations for ways to help teachers to explicitly support the integration of STEM+CS through CS-focused activities within elementary science classrooms.