Solar Weather, Simulation, and AI in Middle School: Developing a Case Study

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 generate massive amounts of data that AI can use for such 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 reviews lessons and pedagogical approaches used to teach about solar weather, AI and incorporate simulations to integrate CS 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.