This course will help teachers to introduce their students to computer programming concepts using a mixture of direct teaching, exploration, and tutorials from the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 Software and Programming app.

The course is designed to take the teachers through 30+ hours of content, lessons, and robotic building that they will use with their own students. The goal is to immerse the teacher as the student in the course so they can better help their students in the classroom.

We will use the 7 units from LEGO Education https://education.lego.com/en-us/lessons/ev3-robot-trainer

Each unit has been given 4 hours of outside of class time to build the proper robot, complete the challenge as a student, document proof of robot and code showcasing silver or higher on the rubric, and applying how unit can be used in the classroom.

Weekly Zoom calls will be focused on troubleshooting, teaching the concepts, thinking about classroom management ideas, etc.

• Participants will need to have access to a LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Kit

• Participants will need to have access to LEGO Mindstorms software

Outcome/Objective #1:

Build capacity to teach the Engineerign Design Principles

Outcome/Objective #2:

Build capacity to teach the Engineerign Practices of NGSS

Outcome/Objective #3:

Build capacity to teach the CSTA standards

Computer science has become a basic skill in today’s economy, which is why Iowa has set a goal that every student will graduate from high school having had computer science instruction.

This goal stems from Senate File 274, which former Gov. Branstad signed into law in 2017 that encourages computer science in every Iowa school, establishes voluntary computer science standards and creates a computer science professional development incentive fund.

School districts are encouraged to allow computer science courses that meet state computer science standards and include math content to count as math credits for students who have completed other courses covering the required state math standards. In addition, a computer science course may fulfill a math requirement for graduation if the course meets state academic standards in math (for example, an integrated Algebra II/Computer Science course). Source: Iowa Computer Science Education Work Group Report, endorsed by Gov. Kim Reynolds.