Elementary
Project Lead the Way
In a 2016 district-wide survey, responding parents overwhelmingly told us that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs should be a top priority in Tahoma school district elementary classrooms. New for the 2017-18 school year, we are implementing the well- regarded Project Lead the Way Launch program to bring computer science into the classroom for every student in Kindergarten through grade 5 .
Tahoma has made great strides in addressing the need for solid STEM instruction at the elementary level. Our new science curriculum fulfills the STEM science and engineering focus, and our math program addresses our mathematics needs. The new PLTW Launch program fills in the last STEM gap. Annual review of progress in all the STEM areas will allow us to highlight and continue successes and build on areas for impovement.
The PLTW Launch curriculum website provides an overview of all the available STEM modules.
Kindergarten--Animals and Algorithms--Students explore the ways people control and use technology, as well as program their own digital animations. Students explore the nature of computers and the ways humans control and use technology. Starting with an unplugged activity, students learn about the sequential nature of computer programs. Students work in small groups of independently to design and program a simple digital animation about an animal in its habitat.
1st Grade --Animated Storytelling--Students develop the ability to create digital animated stories on a tablet. Students explore the sequential nature of computer programs through hands-on activities both with and without a computer. Applying skills and knowledge learned from activities in this module, students design and program a simple digital animated story that interacts with the reader.
2nd Grade--Grids and Games--Students learn about the sequence and structure required in computer programs and work in teams to build tablet games. Students investigate numerical relationships while learning about the sequence and structure required in computer programs. Starting with computer-free activities and moving to tablet-based challenges, students apply addition and subtraction strategies to make characters move on a grid. Using skills and knowledge gained from these activities, students design and develop a game in which a player interacts with objects on a tablet screen.
3rd/4th Grade--Programming Patterns--Students are introduced to important computer science concepts such as abstraction and modularization. These are computer science terms that mean breaking big problems down into smaller ones. One way to break programming problems down is to use functions to handle processes that are easy to separate out from the larger program. Students will also uncover the power of putting information into containers called variables and revisit last year’s work with looping using repeat blocks. Applying skills and knowledge learned from this module, students will design interactive games on their iPads using the Hopscotch app.
5th Grade--Robotics and Automation--Students explore how robots impact society and the environment today. Students learn about a variety of robotic components as they build a testbed and learn how the inputs and outputs of the system work through hands-on testing. Using iPad directions, students construct a chassis as they work towards designing a mobile robot that can remove hazardous materials from a disaster site. Finally, students test their mobile robots in various disaster site configurations and record their test site data while improving their robot designs to solve the design problem.