The purpose of this unit is to build students’ knowledge and skills in the foundations of Computer Science (CS).  Students who were with us for Kindergarten and 1st Grade will have had exposure to CS through their work with the kid-friendly robot called the Beebot, where they explored the sequential nature of computer programs by programming the Beebot to move across number lines and rectangular arrays in specific ways to solve “challenges.”

In previous years, students had experience designing animations using the programming language Scratch Jr.  This unit will build upon those experiences by teaching students how to create more complex programs, specifically programs that are interactive (games) rather than passive (animations). Students will start by creating a night/day animation to review what they learned in previous years. Then, through a series of design challenges, they will learn how to create buttons to control characters, trigger win/lose screens, make characters with movement loops, etc. They will use each of these elements in their final project: to design their own video game!

In this unit, students learn how living on the moon is different from living on Earth -- humans have to plan for all the ways they will get the things they need to survive, such as oxygen, food, water, and exercise! They design and then prototype their very own moon base, showing how it meets the needs of the astronauts who will live there. In the process, they also learn how to program a task in order to automate it to help the astronauts survive and thrive!

In this unit students explore various forces (pushes, pulls, gravity, magnetism, and friction) in order to build a strong understanding of how forces interact to cause objects to move, stay still, or change course.  The unit is framed around explaining how a maglev train can actually float on air as it goes cruising down a track at high speeds.  Over the course of the unit, understanding and explanations are developed through hands-on experiences, discussions, reading informational text, and writing detailed scientific explanations.  The unit is focused on building students’ ability to develop models (physical models and force diagrams), construct explanations (written, verbal, and visual), and obtaining and evaluating information (through reading a variety of texts).