You have been offered a job with NASA as an astronomy assistant. Your first task is to create a digital model and fact sheet about the Earth, moon and sun for future fourth graders at Sealston Elementary. Your audience is current third grade students, and you will be hired to share at a Universe Fair based upon your successful completion of the task.

This is a performance task where students explore CS concepts, pseudocode, and flowcharts through the lens of order of operations on day 1 and design a math homework helper app on day 2.

Get a Job! Students will use their persuasive messaging skills to research and promote various computer science fields in the unit.

Information Technology is a broad field to learn about. Within IT there are many careers. This lesson is designed to help engage the students in the IT field where they will be able to research and discover various jobs they are interested in. Students will discover the education requirments, possible benefits of different jobs, salary, hiring demad, and growth potential in the field.The activities include: brainstorming, compare and contrast, research, writing,  and using software either in Google or Microsoft.

Students will determine what type of data is needed to answer a question and will use Google Sheets to find patterns. These data skills are needed in many career and academic fields. In addition, students will use input output tables in their daily lives through the use of vending machines, banking, and taking trips to new places. This Performance Task allows them to practice these skills through real-world scenerios. 

Students will analyze a provided math problem with an incorrect answer (bug). Students will demonstrate their understanding of the process by identifying the error, solving the problem correctly and providing an explanation. Math problem solving directly correlates with the step by step process that computer science debugging requires. The purpose of this experience is to provide a jumping off point for a deeper understanding of the Computer Science SOLs. This could be the first time your students are exposed to the vocabulary (algorithm, bug, debugging) and can provide a good foundation of the understanding of the vocabulary in a concrete, low-technology way.

This performance task has the students working as bookkeepers for a P.P.E. Manufacturing Company to see how many P.P.E. they sold by adult and children sizes over a 2-3 month period of time and if their price of production vs cost for consumers to buy was enough that they made a profit or if they needed to make adjustments. This performance task has the students using PEMDAS to better understand how Algorithms and Programming are used in our everyday lives. 

Students will create a flowchart to demonstrate order of operations. They will use the flowchart to be able to solve a mathematical problem. 

You are planning a special trip to a place you have always wanted to visit. You will need to know the weather trends for a specific time of year so that you will know what to pack. Students will create a presentation to organize their packing that should include a line graph included with data collected about local weather and communicate what they should pack and why based on their findings. Students will need to get feedback from peers if their conclusions for they need to pack align with the weather observed.  Students will use either a digital format or print format to predict what to pack for a trip of their choosing for two weeks. Students will choose a location, make a prediction, collect weather data, and analyze their results with a graph. Lastly, they will present to classmates to convince them to travel to their location and what to pack. 

Students will create an artifact using computing systems to model the attributes and behaviors associated with a concept (e.g., day and night, animal life cycles, plant life cycles). Students are scientists (botanists, zoologists), who just found a new plant/animal in their chosen ecosystem. Their job is to introduce their new plant/animal to the scientific world! They will create a stop motion video to show their new plant/animal's life cycle.

In this performance task, students will have the opportunity to demonstrate the use of flowcharts in Google Draw and then create their own flowchart to show their understanding of the Order of Operations. 

Your task as an astronomer is to model the solar system using technology.  You and your crew are just one group that have been asked by NASA to chart the solar system in order to create a simulation model for future astronauts. After you have accomplished this, you will present your model to the Director of NASA. They have given you several requirements for the simulation. Your simulation should include a map of the solar system that shows the appropriate distance, location, size and relation to the sun amongst the eight planets. You and your team can use a variety of options to complete your simulation. These include Google Suite tools (such as Google Slides, Google Docs, Jamboard, or any equivalent tool such as Microsoft Office), Coding resources (Scratch.edu, tynker.edu) or 3D printing software (Tinkercad) to present. Your map should also include a short descriptive paragraph for each planet explaining its distance, location, size, and at least 3 facts about the planet. If creating a video, you will still want to include descriptions for the planets as well as the three facts.  Presentation to “NASA Directors” must answer the question: how does this simulation/model help future scientists?

The space industry has been creating innovative technologies for decades. Students in this lesson will explore the world of space technologies and how they play a role in our everyday life.

Students will create a flowchart showing the evolution of a specific technology including failed attempts at advancement. This task includes research and understanding the iterative process. Easily differentiated. 

This performance task combines a computer science standard with both history and math standards. Students will "discover" an older version of a moden technology currently used. Students will collect data to determine which techonology has been most impactful on society. Students will graph and analyze that data. 

Students will participate in multiple hands on activities with states of matter over several days.

Challenges students to think outside of the box to find examples of government around their school campus. All areas of the curriculum are covered and students have to defend their answer.

 Your friend asked you to enter a texting/typing competition but have months to practice. We know practicing something makes you better at it.  You will be given your current speed and how well you improve over each month.  It is your job to find your texting/typing speed given a number of months that you have practiced.  You are also to look over other student’s work to see if they made an error and if so, where. 

This performance task is designed for third grade and up to teach the importance of using strong passwords.  This would be helpful to use at the beginning of the year to review password safety with upper elementary school students to refresh their memory.  This includes an instructional slide show and a student handout.