Gateway MST Middle School Computer Science Syllabus Mrs ...

Gateway MST Middle School Computer Science Syllabus Mrs. McCartney & Mr. Herron

Connie.McCartney@ Michael.Herron@ 314-241-2295 gatewayms

Course Description: Kids in middle school love to game, whether by themselves or online. As a parent or teacher, gaming may seem a distraction from schoolwork, unless, of course, it becomes an educational opportunity. In this semester course, students will begin to learn the basics of coding through programs like "Looking Glass" and "Scalable Game Design." Both of these programs teach the fundamentals of coding through Computational Thinking (CT).

CT is a problem-solving process that includes (but is not limited to) the following characteristics:

? Formulating problems in a way that enables us to use a computer and other tools to help solve

them

? Logically organizing and analyzing data ? Representing data through abstractions, such as models and simulations ? Automating solutions through algorithmic thinking (a series of ordered steps) ? Identifying, analyzing, and implementing possible solutions with the goal of achieving the most

efficient and effective combination of steps and resources

? Generalizing and transferring this problem-solving process to a wide variety of problems

? 2011. Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CNS-1030054.

Grading: Students will be completing projects in this class. Each project will have its' own grading procedures including several portions of the project with specific due dates as well as the final project.

Creativity and Innovation

Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students: ? apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes:

? design and develop games ? design and develop computational science models ? create original works as a means of personal or group expression. ? design original games ? model you local environment, e.g., ecology, economy ? use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues. ? model scientific phenomena, e.g., predator / prey models ? and create visualizations ? identify trends and forecast possibilities. ? build predictive computational science models, e.g., how the pine beetle destroys the Colorado

pine forest ? build live feeds to scientific Web pages (e.g, weather information), process and visualize

changing information

Resources Coding - Code Stars -

Student Name: ______________________________________________________ Student Signature: ___________________________________________________ Parent Signature: ____________________________________________________

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