Computational Thinking & Block Programming in K-12 Education

Want to make a game that ends when you "catch" an object by clicking on it? Or maybe you get points based on how close you came? You'll do that in this class! This class teaches the concepts of conditional loops and if/else statements. For each concept, we'll start by helping you connect real-world experiences you are already familiar with to the programming concept you are about to learn. Next, through a cognitively scaffolded process we'll engage you in developing your fluency with problem solving with repeat until loops, while loops, and if/else statements in a way that keeps frustration at a minimum. Along the way you will learn about the common challenges or "bugs" students have with these concepts as well as ways to help them find and fix those concepts. You'll also be guided in running classroom discussions to help students develop deeper understanding of these concepts. Finally, you'll learn how to support interactive learning experiences among your students with Peer Instruction. Additionally, you will create a resource for your classroom to support an equitable classroom.

How could you program a complex "choose your own adventure" game? How can your soccer game determine goals, balls out of bounds, and corner kicks? You'll learn to do both of these in this course! This class teaches the concepts of nested if/else statements and compound Boolean conditional expressions. For each concept, we'll start by helping you connect real-world experiences you are already familiar with to the programming concept you are about to learn. Next, through a cognitively scaffolded process we'll engage you in developing your fluency with problem solving with nested if/else statements and compound conditionals in a way that keeps frustration at a minimum. Along the way you will learn about the common challenges or "bugs" students have with these concepts as well as ways to help them find and fix those concepts. You'll also be guided in running classroom discussions to help students develop deeper understanding of these concepts. Finally, you'll prepare classroom resources to help your students to develop debugging skills. Additionally, you will create resources to help educate your students about the impacts of lack of equity in K-12 CS instruction.

How do gamers cause things to happen when they hit buttons on their controller? How does the computer keep track of gamer's scores? This class teaches the concepts of nested loops, events, and variables. For each concept, we'll start by helping you connect real-world experiences you are already familiar with to the programming concept you are about to learn. Next, through a cognitively scaffolded process we'll engage you in developing your fluency with problem solving with nested loops, events, and variables in a way that keeps frustration at a minimum. Along the way you will learn about the common challenges or "bugs" students have with these concepts as well as ways to help them find and fix those concepts. You'll also be guided in running classroom discussions to help students develop deeper understanding of these concepts. Finally, you'll learn how to develop low-frustration learning experiences for learning programming via Parsons' Problems., Additionally, you will create an email to either a counselor, administrator or parent organization to help them understand the value of all students taking computer science.

How can students learn about abstraction by creating a movie scene? Or make an interactive map using lists? You'll learn (and do it yourself) in this course! This class teaches the concepts of abstraction (methods and parameters) and lists. For each concept, we'll start by helping you connect real-world experiences you are already familiar with to the programming concept you are about to learn. Next, through a cognitively scaffolded process we'll engage you in developing your fluency with problem solving with abstraction and lists in a way that keeps frustration at a minimum. Along the way you will learn about the common challenges or "bugs" students have with these concepts as well as ways to help them find and fix those concepts. You'll also be guided in running classroom discussions to help students develop deeper understanding of these concepts. Finally, you'll learn about the importance and logistics of assigning creative, student-designed programming projects. Additionally, you will create a personal plan for increasing your skills in supporting a culturally responsive learning environment in your classroom.

In this capstone project course, you will learn to support your students in successfully completing the Advanced Placement Principles Create Task -- however this task can be useful for any course as a culminating, student-designed final programming project. You will learn to interpret and practice applying to real sample student work the Create Task rubric and have the option to modify it for your own setting. You'll prepare resources to help students through the challenges that come with doing an open-ended project that still needs to meet certain specifications. Finally, you'll complete your own Create Task assignment including writing about the ways in which you designed algorithms, used abstraction, and struggled with a challenge while completing the task. You'll be prepared to help students do well on the Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles Create Task!