Making A Plan

The SEPjr Curriculum provides meaningful content that builds off the computer science perspectives, practices, and concepts.

CS Perspectives

The CS Perspectives can help to identify where students are in their understanding of computer science. They look at how students can progress in that understanding through the computing concepts and practices. SEPjr curriculum focuses on the Explorer and Creator perspectives.

CS Practices

The CS Practices, Analyzing, Prototyping, and Communicating, are the intertwined methods by which computer science is studied and applied. Each practice has a set of skills students can demonstrate in day to day activities.

CS Concepts

The CS Concepts, Abstraction, Algorithms, Programming, Data and Networks, are a framework for what computers can and cannot do. Each concept can be broken down into sub-concepts for deeper understanding.

STEPS TO Implementing Elementary SChool CS

Step One: School Assessment

Before implementing an Elementary School Computer Science Program schools should assess their current capacity to implement computer science education. Schools should take into account what teachers, resources, and hardware are available for teaching computer science. This will influence what units will be most successful and hat additional resources may be needed.

Step Two: Student Outcomes

Once a school has determined capacity for computer science education, schools should begin to map out what student outcomes will be taught during which grade level. The expectation being that Explorer Outcomes are reached by the end of 2nd Grade and Creator Outcomes by the end of 5th Grade.

Step Three: Content Areas & Units

The school will select units aligned with the student outcomes selected for each grade level. Content areas may vary based on access to materials and resources. In addition, combination of different content area units can be used to reach student outcomes.

Step Four: Scheduling Options for CS Units

There are several recommendations for scheduling class time for computer science.

  • Scheduled into the weekly schedule of a class, twice a week
  • A combination of classroom and coverage/cluster teacher, twice a week
  • Replace a unit or units in other content areas
  • Integrated into other units where practices and concepts are identified

Computer science is often taught in clubs or after school program, however they are limited in the number of student participation and depth of understanding. Similar to events, such as CS Ed Week, clubs and after school programs should be seen as a way to support a computer science class and build school culture.