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CHANGING LANDSCAPE

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PRE-COMPUTER SCIENCE INITIATIVE

PAC dabbled in Computer Science off and on in the Makerspace environment as well as in a few classrooms when it tied to curriculular content.  PAC always participated in the Hour of Code where we used the Code.org resources. We were very limited in resources beyond the websites we utilized.  Therefore, computer science was lightly introduced, but nothing was consistent and our activities weren't purposefully tied to the CSTA Standards.

CURRENT CS REALITY

Computer Science instruction is taught to our Prep - 6th grade students once a week for 30 minutes. The Technology Integrationist and each classroom teacher collaborate on a time that "fits" in their schedule for CS instruction.  This classtime is consistent the entire school year. The Technology Integrationist plans and prepares the weekly CS lessons and goes into Prep- 4th grade classrooms and models CS foundational skills, vocabulary, computational thinking strategies, and activities.  Each classroom teacher is present during the CS lessons to learn and build background knowledge so they can successfully transfer these skills in their regular classroom setting. These CS lessons give classroom teachers a lot of great ideas on how they can tie the standards/concepts and vocabulary to core instructional performance tasks as well.  

 

Each grade level has a 30 week CS Scope and Sequence where the lessons/activities are alligned to the CSTA Standards.

 

This year (2021-2022) 5th and 6th grade CS classes were onboarded.  These classes also meet once a week for 30 minutes, but they are in a special rotation.  Therefore, the classroom teachers are not present during this instructional time. 

FUTURE CS

We are excited about the future of computer science at PAC.  We have full support from our building administrator to maintain and sustain our efforts to teach K-6 computer science foundational skills.  We will continue to seek out professoinal development opportunities like (ITEC, CSTA National Conference, local AEA professional development, and collaboration with our partner and area schools). We have applied for several CS and STEM grants from the Iowa Scale-Up Program and our local county foundation grant.

 

As our elementary CS knowledge expands, we are challenged with continuing this growth in our middle and high school environments.  In the Fall of 2022, new courses have been added to our Course Offering Handbook.  These courses include 7th grade Computer Science and Honors Computer Science Python Fundamentals. In 9-12, Principles of Computer Science, AP Computer Science A (Java), and AP Computer Science Principles will be offered.

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