Purpose

Our purpose is to design and deploy the guaranteed and viable curriculum aligned to the Wyoming Computer Science Performance Standards and Performance Level Descriptors to ensure quality instruction assessment and in critical thinking and inquiry-based problem solving to build a strong foundation in Computer Science.

Rationale

Computer Science standards were adopted in Wyoming in March of 2018 when Governor Matt Mead signed SEA 48, requiring the addition of Computer Science Standards and changes to the Basket of Goods in W.S.21-9-101(a)(i). These standards emphasize depth of computational thinking and content knowledge of five domains of computer science:

• Computing Systems

• Networks & the Internet

• Data Analysis

• Algorithms & Programing

• Impact of Computing

The Wyoming Performance Standards for Computer Science define that there are seven computer science practices that are to be embedded in the curriculum and instruction. Therefore, the computer science proficient student engages the following practices when demonstrating computer science content knowledge:

• Practice 1 - Fostering an Inclusive Computing Culture

• Practice 2 - Collaborating Around Computing

• Practice 3 - Recognizing and Defining Computational Problems

• Practice 4 - Developing and Using Abstractions

• Practice 5 - Creating Computational Artifacts

• Practice 6 - Testing and Refining Computational Artifacts

• Practice 7 - Communicating About Computing