A Framework for Integration

Extend

New lessons or sequences of lessons that extend the disciplinary concept as a basis for CS exploration, often involving programming activities.

• Extended lessons make explicit links between the discipline and computer science.
• They often use technology, and may include block programming in later grades.
• They can be delivered by technology teachers or specialists.

Example

We extended the Populations and Habitat unit to view a more complex spreadsheet-based model built to reflect the same rules they used in the Oh Deer! game. Simulations run using this model produce charts that demonstrate fluctuations in any number of deer and resources over 100 years. The model provides an example to young students of how a computer can be used to simulate the game they physically acted out.

In addition, by performing multiple simulations using this model, students can see different outcomes, allowing them to abstract the common relationships and patterns that emerge over more than one run of the simulation. The two graphs below demonstrate two different runs of the simulation. The data are quite different, yet the same key patterns, initially discussed with students’ own data, emerge.

This extension builds on the enhancement of the unit, using the same tools they already were familiar with. The spreadsheet model also replicates the same rules of the game they played, so the underlying concepts are consistent. By exposing them to this model, they not only can develop a greater understanding of how computer-based simulations can provide more flexibility to study phenomena, it also gives them more data to analyze to reinforce the patterns the unit intends to explain.