Course C
Course C was developed for students in and around the second grade. It uses a limited understanding of shapes and elementary math concepts.
Students will create programs with loops, events, and conditionals. They will translate their initials into binary, investigate different problem-solving techniques, and discuss how to respond to cyberbullying. By the end of the course, students will create interactive games that they can share. Each concept in Course C is taught from the beginning, graduating toward experiences that allow for growth and creativity to provide all students a rich and novel programming experience.
Journaling
The lessons in this course include journaling prompts. Journals are also useful as scratch paper for building, debugging, and strategizing. Journals can become a fantastic resource for referencing previous answers when struggling with more complex problems.
Debugging
From beginners to professionals, debugging is an essential yet often underrated practice. It is likely that your students will find most of their "coding" time is actually spent fixing bugs! To encourage students to take ownership of this practice, we provide this handy reference they can use while coding. Please consult the "Debugging" section of our CS Fundamentals Curriculum Guide for more information on this, as well as other debugging facilitation strategies for your classroom.
Digital Citizenship
Lesson 2: Powerful Passwords
Unplugged | Online Safety
- Warm Up (10 min)
- Main Activity (30 min)
- Wrap Up (5 min)
- Assessment (5 - 10 min)
In this lesson, you'll learn about how passwords protect your information, and how to make a good password.
Teacher Links: Assessment Answer Key | Website Student Links: Worksheet | Assessment
Sequencing
Lesson 3: My Robotic Friends Jr.
Unplugged | Sequencing
- Warm Up (5 min)
- Activity (30 min)
- Wrap Up (10 min)
In this lesson, you'll pretend your classmates are robots and program them to build patterns of stacked cups.
Student Links: Emotion Images | Cup Spacing | Symbol Key | Unplugged Video | Cup Stacking Ideas | Paper Trapezoid Template
Lesson 4: Programming with Angry Birds
Skill Building | Sequencing
- Warm Up (4 min)
- Bridging Activity - Programming (10 min)
- Previewing Online Puzzles as a Class (3 min)
- Main Activity (30 min)
- Wrap Up (5 - 10 min)
- Extended Learning
Learn about sequences and algorithms with Angry Birds.
Student Links: Puzzle Manipulative (PDF) | Manipulatives
Lesson 5: Debugging in Maze
Skill Building | Sequencing
- Warm Up (15 min)
- Main Activity (30 min)
- Wrap Up (5 - 10 min)
- Extended Learning
Find problems in puzzles and practice your debugging skills.
Teacher Links: Lesson Recommendations Student Links: Student Video
Lesson 6: Collecting Treasure with Laurel
Skill Building | Sequencing
- Warm Up (5 min)
- Bridging Activity - Programming (10 min)
- Main Activity (30 min)
- Wrap Up (5 - 10 min)
Write algorithms to help Laurel the Adventurer collect lots of gems!
Student Links: Manipulatives
Lesson 7: Creating Art with Code
Skill Building | Sequencing
- Warm Up (10 min)
- Main Activity (30 min)
- Wrap Up (10 - 15 min)
- Extended Learning
Create beautiful images by programming the Artist.
Student Links: Student Video | Student Video | Student Handout
Binary
Lesson 8: Binary Bracelets
Unplugged | Binary
- Warm Up (15 min)
- Main Activity (20 min)
- Wrap Up (5 min)
- Assessment (15 min)
- Extended Learning
Create your very own binary bracelet and learn how computers remember information!
Teacher Links: Lesson in Action Video | Assessment Answer Key Student Links: Student Video | Unplugged Video | Worksheet | Assessment
Loops
Lesson 9: My Loopy Robotic Friends Jr.
Unplugged | Loops
- Warm Up (10 min)
- Activity (30 min)
- Wrap Up (5 min)
- Extension Activities
In this lesson, you'll program your classmates again, but using loops you'll be able to solve bigger and more complicated problems.
Student Links: Cup Stacking Ideas | Cup Spacing | Symbol Key | Paper Trapezoid Template
Lesson 10: Loops with Rey and BB-8
Skill Building | Loops
- Warm Up (5 min)
- Bridging Activity - Loops (10 min)
- Main Activity (30 min)
- Wrap Up (5 - 10 min)
- Extended Learning
Help BB-8 through mazes using loops!
Student Links: Student Video | Manipulatives
Lesson 11: Harvesting Crops with Loops
Skill Building | Loops
- Warm Up (5 - 10 min)
- Main Activity (30 min)
- Wrap Up (10 min)
- Extended Activity
Let's use loops to help the harvester collect some veggies!
Lesson 12: Looking Ahead with Minecraft
Skill Building | Loops
- Warm Up (15 min)
- Main Activity (30 min)
- Wrap Up (15 min)
- Extended Learning
Avoid the lava! Here you will start to learn about conditionals in the world of Minecraft.
Lesson 13: Sticker Art with Loops
Application | Loops
- Warm Up (15 min)
- Main Activity (30 min)
- Wrap Up (15 min)
In this lesson, loops make it easy to make even cooler images with Artist!
Events
Lesson 14: The Big Event
Unplugged | Events
- Warm Up (15 min)
- Main Activity (15 min)
- Wrap Up (10 min)
- Assessment (10 min)
- Extended Learning
Play a fun game to learn about events.
Teacher Links: Assessment Answer Key Student Links: Unplugged Video | Event Controller | Assessment
Lesson 15: Build a Flappy Game
Skill Building | Events
- Warm Up (10 min)
- Bridging Activity - Events (10 min)
- Main Activity (30 min)
- Wrap Up (10 - 15 min)
- Extended Learning
Build you own Flappy Bird game however you like, then share it with your friends!
Student Links: Event Controller | Manipulatives
Lesson 16: Chase Game with Events
Skill Building | Events
- Warm Up (10 min)
- Main Activity (30 min)
- Wrap Up (15 min)
- Extended Learning
It's time to get creative and make a game in Play Lab!
Student Links: Manipulatives
Data
Lesson 17: Picturing Data
Unplugged | Data
- Warm Up (5 - 10 min)
- Activity (35 min)
- Wrap Up (5 min)
Data can be used to help students understand their world and answer interesting questions. In this lesson, students will collect data from a Play Lab project and visualize it using different kinds of graphs.
Teacher Links: Worksheet
End of Course Project
Lesson 18: End of Course Project
End of Course Project
- Warm Up (10 min)
- Main Activity (25 min)
- Wrap Up (10 min)
Get those hands ready for plenty of coding! It's time to start building your project.