Computer Science Curriculum!

Throughout my time in the CEL program we have worked a lot with the computer science curriculum code.org. Having never been exposed to coding prior to working in CEL, I found its curriculum could teach all different levels of coding. Code.org does an excellent job providing both teachers and students with multiple ways to learn how to code. This curriculum is something that I would definitely consider using in my future classroom.

One of my favorite aspects of code.org is the videos that it provides throughout the stages. The videos include software engineers to pop culture figures. They are easy to understand and provide a great overview of the topic that is going to be covered in that stage. They provide students with great visuals of how information moves throughout the internet and also provide insight into how some specific concepts are used in things that we utilize in our day to day life like spottily, Instagram and Facebook. Below is a great example of a code.org video.

Code.org also does an excellent job providing teachers with unplugged activities to help their students understand some of the abstract concepts that are involved in coding. The website has a section for teachers that offers unplugged activities and lesson plans to assist teachers during their lessons. I plan on using some of the games and methods that are included in the Conditionals unplugged activity for an upcoming lesson I am teaching to fifth graders. The unplugged activities include videos on how to explain the concepts to students and also how to teach them the activity they will be doing. The activity that I will be using about conditionals includes a game that uses a deck of cards. If a student draws a black card they get one point, or else (if they draw a red card) they will loose a point. For the lesson plan I am doing I am going to modify this game and use M&M's making a different conditional for each of the five colors it includes. The unplugged activities that code.org offers are a great way to get ideas on how to teach lessons about coding and give teachers further insight on how to engage students and teach them in an effective way.

An example of an unplugged activity provided by code.org

Here is an example of a lesson plan provided by code.org

For students, code.org provides an easy way for them to access videos and information to assist them with their homework.  This curriculum does a great job starting a stage with a page of terms and explanations of what the students are going to be learning. From here they are usually given a video to watch about the subject and are asked follow up questions. I really appreciate this aspect of code.org because it forces the students to be active readers and listeners to answer the questions. Students are then given blocks in which they have to write code to solve a certain problem. Students can test their code and the website will run it and if they code it correctly then they will move to the next puzzle, however if it is not right it will give them the opportunity to try again and offer a hint. I really like this concept of being able to see your code run because it may help students figure out what line of code they need to keep/take away or add.

Here is an example of what students see in the code lab.

Overall, I think code.org is a great resource and curriculum for teachers to have in their classroom. Not only does code.org teach students how to code but it inspires them to use what they are learning in their day to day life. It is a great way for students to learn both unplugged activities and have actual experience writing lines of code. I hope that in my future classroom I will have the opportunity to utilize this resource while teaching computer science.