The Computer Science K-12 Express
Issue #4, November 17, 2017
Your weekly resource to discover what is happening in K-12 computer science around the district and the world. Feel free to use any of the ideas or resources in these newsletters as you prepare your computer science lessons that will be shared at the end of the Computer Science: Building a Foundation for Student-Choice course on February 7, 2018.
News You Can Use
Molly Prach, a 3rd grade teacher at Grandview Elementary School shared a Science lesson plan with us earlier this week that had students using computer science in learning about Tadpoles/Froglets and their life cycle. We wanted to share it with you, as it might be helpful to see one example of how computer science might be used in a student-led, student-centered activity. She also explains how paired programming was used to help facilitate the lesson. Check it out here.
Connected Coding
Cam Collins from Vidcode shared a free hour of code project with our district. Feel free to pass them on to any teacher who might be interested in trying coding for a culminating project or if it would help facilitate learning in a content area. Science, media or journalism/literature teachers might find it intriguing. That's right, it is what the name implies, coding video! Check out the links below!
- Link to project: https://app.vidcode.io/project/hourofcode-science
- Teacher guide: https://app.vidcode.io/hourofcode/science-teacher-guide
- Student guide: https://app.vidcode.io/hourofcode/science-student-guide
This week in Computer Science
Did you know that Trinket.io can be embedded into any website or the Canvas Learning Management System's assignments, discussions, or quizzes. It can be a great way to introduce a computational thinking skills challenge. Below is a link to a block code trinket that has a challenge below it. See if you can use your computational thinking skills to solve the challenge. Be sure to click the "Run/View the Result" button in order to see the program run.
Shoutouts
This week we would like to give a shoutout to Molly Prach, 3rd grade Grandview Elementary, for sharing her Froglet lesson plan with us.