Computer Science Standards

The SCC Middle School curriculum focuses on the following computing concepts and practices, aligned to the Foundations of Computer Programming (FoCP) and Foundations of Interactive Design (FoID) from the Middle School Computer Science Standards & the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) Level 2 Standards.

GA FoCP Standards

GA FoID Standards

CSTA Standards

Design

In each unit students create their own “Design Visions” which focus on defining their audience for their digital product, identifying the goal that the product is meant to achieve and the resources necessary to achieve that goal, and specifying why their product is relevant to that audience. In the process, students grapple with issues of stereotypes, the implications of how problems are represented, and who gets included/excluded when audiences and products are being considered.

Problem/Product Decomposition

Students move from their Design Vision to creating a storyboard, and then to translating their story or narrative into code. Each step requires that students break the problem or product into smaller subproblems that they can tackle individually. In addition, each steps requires different set of skills (research, visual representation, storytelling, coding) which provides students with multiple ways of thinking and representing their problems.

Pattern Recognition

The curriculum explicitly addresses pattern recognition in various forms. For example, during the music coding units, students identify musical rhythm patterns, and then translate these musical patterns into repetitious code patterns to create their musical compositions using the EarSketch platform.

Algorithms, Programming and Debugging

Using the browser-based EarSketch platform, students learn to code in Python or JavaScript using a multi-track digital audio workstation. In these units students compose unique music, they manipulate loops, compose beats, remix sounds, apply effects, and debug their products. Later in the app design units, they create games, learn about conditionals and logical operators.

Abstraction

In the app design units, students are charged with designing an information playlist and quiz game related to their previously selected problem that engages the user, highlights important aspect(s) from their previously made website, and represents their problem without potential bias or deficit perspectives. Students engage in data abstractions as they define essential information for the user while applying event centered programming with conditionals to execute the user's selections.

Networks and the Internet

Students investigate the nature of the internet and networks as they post their webpages. They “take a look under the hood" of the computer system and computing networks, examining how their inputs become a web page on Google's server, and how their web page on Google's server becomes displayed onto their client computer.

Impacts of Computing

Students in Computing Explorations explore the impacts of computing as they research how search engines select and present information, how different engines have the power to influence culture around them, and the differences between reliable and speculative information on the web. They also explore the impact of computer games by experiencing and reflecting on a civics game where the game player campaigns for a community issue, learns how to organize a movement around the issue, and engages community and elected leaders to raise awareness and support for the issue.

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