This document outlines expectations to guide the instruction of the 2017 Computer Science Standards of Learning.

In this lesson, students will learn about compound conditionals by playing the “Boole Says” game. Then, students will apply their knowledge as they predict, run, and investigate compound conditional structures written in Twine.

Students use pair programming to trace, annotate and debug a prewritten Twine story. Students then add modifications to the existing code and extend the story.

In this activity, students will use a model of a computer, taking the form of a sort of board game, to explore writing programs that include input, output, variables, and arithmetic. Students will read, write, and debug pseudocode as they work on solving simple programming problems using manipulatives. This lesson is part of the ECS+Python lesson set, providing supplemental Python curricular material for the Exploring Computer Science curriculum.

In this lesson, students engage in a historical jigsaw activity focused on westward expansion. The lesson ends with a coding project where students create “postcards” by coding with Twine, expressing the perspectives of different groups experiencing the effects of westward expansion.

Open Educational Resource (OER) LMS course to support the computer science instructional efforts at the middle schools. Teaching resources include video lessons, practice activities, and assessment that are  organized and aaligned to the 6-grade computer science standards of learning. 

Cross curricular lesson plan integrating Computer Science and English Standards CS 3.13, 3.6 ELA 3.6 g and h

With digitization, we see biosecurity, cybersecurity, and physical security begin to overlap. This overlap started a new discipline, cyberbiosecurity. This educational resource is part of a project to support formal and non-formal agricultural educators in integrating cyberbiosecurity topics and research-based strategies for engaging middle-school-aged girls in STEM into their educational programs. Cyberbiosecurity is an emerging field that focuses on creating security measures for digital aspects of our food and agriculture systems, creating a structure and opportunity for a safe food system that can meet the large needs of a growing population and world. Our long-term aim is to use this novel disciplinary space to spark STEM career interest in middle school-aged youth in rural communities, with an emphasis on girls, to build new pipelines into cyberbiosecurity careers. This work is supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Women and Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Fields (WAMS) Grants Program, award #2020-38503-31950.

The goal of this activity is to build critical thinking skills and excitement for Computer Science / Computational Thinking, while laying a foundation of fundamental programming concepts. By scaffolding basic concepts like sequencing and algorithms in an unplugged activity, students who are intimidated by computers can still build a foundation of understanding. In this lesson, students will learn how to develop an algorithm and encode it into a program.By "programming" one another to draw pictures, students experience some of the core concepts of programming in a fun and accessible way. The class will start by having students view a video of a simple program demonstrating how to develop instructions for building a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Students will start with simple shapes, and progress to the coding of a specific drawing that other students will then try to replicate (“running the program”). If there is a desire to have a more of a Math slant on the lesson, the drawing could take place on graph paper. Students would then use the coordinates to complete the drawing. 

piggy backing on lesson number 1, this allows students the opportunity to try to record their code with arrows, paying close attention to the sequence.

Cross curricular lesson plan integrating Computer Science and English Standards CS 4.4-5, 4.7 English 4.2a, 4.3, 4.6b

Cross curricular lesson plan integrating Computer Science and Social Studies Standards CS 6.1-4 Social Science USI.5 e, USI6 a, b, c, d 

Cross curricular lesson plan integrating Computer Science, Science, and English Standards  CS 4.5 Science 4.3 English 4.4a, 4.8a

This cipher was invented for the Hebrew alphabet, but it can work with any alphabet.  Many people believe it was used in the Bible and is older than Hieroglyphics! It was later adopted by other cultures, such as the Greeks and Romans, and used to encode messages in their respective languages. This lesson leads students the basics of cryptography.

This video explores autonomous cars with a research scientist, engineer, and team lead at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI).

This lesson is designed to engage students in a meaningful and fun coding experience. Students will experience binary code as they write their name using 0s and 1s in the binary code alphabet.

This lesson combines ELA story elements and coding on a student-friendly BrainPOP Jr. Platform. Students can take a book they have read and use the BrainPOP Jr. platform for a variety of story map to demonstrate their comprehension of the material chosen.

Students will practice their use of dialogue by creating a thrilling story.  They will use Scratch to create sprites and a setting that drives their story with an emphasis on writing proper dialogue.