Curriculum & Resources
Curriculum & Resources
Suggested Process & Considerations:
Who in the district decides on curriculum?
As much as possible, involve teachers who will be using it
Identify any district timelines or processes that need to be followed
Define criteria, including constraints
How it meets your districts CS learning goals, scope-and-sequence, fills a gap, etc.
Costs for materials, including how frequently they will need to be replaced
Costs per student -- how many students will use the materials each year?
Talk to your district IT about any permissions, security concerns, etc.
Other district constraints on purchasing
Identify potential options -- see below
Evaluate options: Use a tool to vet (i.e. avoid picking the first available or easiest)
Identify any internal district processes that need to be followed
Use the Teacher Accessibility, Equity, and Content (TEC) Rubric from Canon Lab: Northern Lights staff can help districts use to vet CS curriculum
Try the material/curriculum first if possible before committing to purchasing at scale (ask the group to borrow)
Select then purchase and implement
Northern Lights will issue stipends directly to educators for:
PLN meeting attendance - at the end of each school year in June (deadline by when we need this -- May 1st)
PD offered by Northern Lights (see below) -- deadline determined by each PD
Information needed:
Submit form with your information so we can set you up as a supplier
W-9 form and email to nlcollaborative@umn.edu with subject line "K12 CS Pathways W9"
Stipends are estimated at $50 / hour. If a set amount is being issued for a PD opportunity, it will be communicated with the opportunity.
Click here to view a brief three minute overview video of considerations for purchasing materials through the grant
The Northern Lights Collaborative staff offers free PD to participating districts in areas aligned with the grant outcomes, including:
Indigenous CS Lessons
Strategies to connect Indigenous knowledge to CS
Specific Lessons: Sugarbush, Three Sisters, Constellations & Seasons, and others will be developed in the future
K-8 CS Integrated Lesson Repository
A curated, searchable, and filterable repository of curricular resources to integrate CS into K-8 subject areas
Special community or family events can be great ways to build interest in your computer science program and get others involved. There are many factors to consider when planning for a special event, which may feel overwhelming and act as a barrier to hosting a computer science related event for your community. The Northern Lights Collaborative for Computing Education has put together a resource to help work through the planning process for a computer science night. While this is by no means an exhaustive list, it was compiled through discussions with various schools and districts who have experience hosting similar events. Use this resource as a way to get started planning for your event, and feel free to reach out to nlcollaborative@umn.edu if you have any questions or could use any support!
Elementary School (grades K-5)
Scratch Action Fractions - (3rd & 4th grade math)
Experience CS (Raspberry Pi Foundation)
Act 1 is for students in grades 4-6
Encore has PD and is for students in grades 5-8
CS+Elementary (Art Lopez, Beth Simon, UCSD) -- 3rd, 4th, 5th grades
CS Unplugged (topics for ages 5-10)
Middle School (grades 6-8)
CS Unplugged (topics for ages 11-14)
Code.org CS Discoveries (grades 6-10)
High School (grades 9-12)
Code.org CS Discoveries (grades 6-10)
CS Principles - AP (College Board endorsed providers) or CITS through SMSU
CS A - AP (College Board endorsed providers) or CITS
Other
Events / Organizations:
EDC - I think there's more here, but this is an initial link
Minnesota:
Graduate courses:
Teaching AI
Teaching Cybersecurity
Teaching Data Science
Teaching Quantum