The Middle School Computer Science Program

The Middle School CS program focuses on introducing text-based coding to all students. In 6th grade, students will be introduced to the foundation of coding through the CS Discoveries curriculum, which covers simple HTML, CSS, and using the Design Process (identifying a problem, brainstorming a solution, testing the solution and iterating through the process to build a functional computational artifact) in games and apps design. In 7th grade, students will be introduced to JavaScript through the Creative Web curriculum that uses a web-based interface, P5.js. Students will continue to engage in the Design Process to create responsive and interactive shapes using JavaScript. Through projects like creating an expressive emoji and the button game, students will learn how information or applications are displayed on the web by studying hypertext and stylesheets and then learn how to make their own expressive and interactive website using the open source Javascript library p5.js. In 8th grade, students will begin the school year with Unit 3 from Creative Web, which students will learn about working with media files. Then, we will transition to Python Coding on repl.it (Repl.it is a simple yet powerful online IDE/Editor that hosts 50+ programming languages). As students experience various types of coding, utilizing online references and learning from others’ projects, they will understand the openness of the coding community, learn the value of collaboration, and consider how they can contribute to the larger CS community.

Middle School Events Calendar