About ADST
The Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST) curriculum is an experiential, hands-on program of learning through design and creation. It builds on students’ natural curiosity to foster the development of the skills and knowledge that will support students in developing practical, creative, and innovative responses to everyday needs and challenges. It harnesses the power of learning by doing, and provides the challenging fun that inspires students to dig deeper, work with big ideas, and adapt to a changing world.
What is Computational Thinking?
At St. Ann's, we are excited to bring computational thinking into our classrooms through everyday tasks and computer lessons! We believe this will give our students the skills they need to excel in an ever-changing world.
Computational thinking skills allow people to solve problems in a logical way. There are 4 main skills involved:
- Abstraction - looking at the big picture.
- Pattern Recognition - finding familiar or consistant patterns.
- Decomposition - breaking the problem into smaller steps.
- Algorithm Design - creating a set of steps that will solve the problem.
What is Design Thinking?
Design thinking is the process we use to design solutions to problems. It involves the ability to combine an empathetic understanding of the context of a challenge, creativity in the generation of insights and solutions, and critical thinking for analyzing and fitting solutions to context. This approach helps studets gain understanding of how to apply their skills to finding challenges, solving problems in creative ways, and using appropriate technologies for the task at hand.
Grades K-3
Grades 4 - 5
Grades 6-9
Why All Students Should Learn to Code
Coding is a fun way to learn computational and design thinking skills! It gives students a safe environment in which to fail and develop resiliency. Everybody makes mistakes when coding. When a piece of code fails, it is quick to see the result, make changes, and iterate until the desire result is achieved.
