Unplugged to Plugged Computing

This site provides access to an introductory computer science unit that was collaboratively designed by two 5th grade teachers in Utah (Megan Jeffrey and Danielle Bingham) and a team of researchers at Utah State University. This project was funded by the National Science Foundation.

In this seven-week unit, students first play a fun tabletop board game, Code on the Brink, that highlights several fundamental computing concepts (for example, procedures, abstraction, conditionals, loops). Students then play the same board game implemented in the block-based programming language, Scratch. Finally, students program their own game levels and challenge other students to play them.

By locating the introduction to computing concepts in a familiar context, board game play, we hope to invite a broad range of students in seeing how programming can be a fun and creative process. Early evaluation finding suggest that this unit provides a unique and effective way to introduce youth to computing. The unit shows alignment to CSTA K-12