Welcome & Resources
Description
Our Philosophy
We believe that programming is an inherently creative act. Therefore all our coding lessons attempt to inspire students and many of our ‘assignments’ give students freedom of content to pursue their creativity. As such, we have chosen the languages of Processing and P5.js precisely because of how quickly students can produce interesting and varied visuals.
A side effect of giving students choice and creativity is that Computer Science is FUN TO TEACH. We encourage you to improvise and have fun with the lessons provided. Be playful in your examples and your students will follow you.
Of course, Computer Science is not just programming. Learning about how computers work, emerging tech and the ethical implications of technology is crucial to a good high school Computer Science program. We encourage you to integrate these ‘theory’ ideas into the entirety of your course.
How to Use this Resource Package
This package is designed to be supported by our CodeTra.in professional development sessions. For ease of use and to get the most value from these resources, please contact us for our low or no cost in-person and online PD options.
This document contains lessons and activities for 78 classes of approximately 80 minutes, totalling 103 hours of instruction. Not all lessons have a full 80 minutes worth of content so that you can add your own local curriculum requirements, show one of the suggested videos in Unit Zero, or catch up when falling behind.
It can be treated as a complete Introductory Computer Science course or, with the provided AP Extension Lessons, can be used to fulfill the requirements of the AP CS Principles (CSP) course. See the next section for a description of the AP CSP course.
Note that the AP Exams take place in May but that many Canadian school jurisdictions run classes through June. If you are intending to use this resource package for an AP course and if your course is full year or takes place only in the second semester, then you likely will need to adjust the timing to finish the AP content before May.
It is a resource package created for teachers to help them build a successful and exciting Computer Science program. It is not intended to be used directly by students.
Note that CodeTrain also produces a 2-Year Lesson Plan that uses Processing in Year 1 and Java in Year 2. In our resources folders and links (below), you may find references to documents that are housed in folders originally created for the 2 Year program.
Programming Bootcamp for Teachers
If you are new to programming or new to Javascript, we recommend you check out our video series called the Programming Bootcamp for Teachers. It will not cover everything in these lessons in detail but does give you a crash course on the basics.
The Bootcamp can be found on Youtube at this link.
Companion Materials Required
CodeTrain Resources Summary Doc - This link will take you to our leaping off point for all our companion resources. It includes links and explanations for both our 1-Year and 2-Year programs.
Within that Summary Doc are links to the following types of resources that you will need to proceed through these lesson plans. All the important links are also included within this Lesson Plan document at the start of each unit for easy access.
- The Lesson Plan docs themselves (including this document)
- CodeTrain Shared Activities Folder - This folder contains student handouts, exams, etc for use in your classroom. It is subdivided by unit and where applicable, by year.
- Fully Coded In-Class Teaching Examples and Starter Code
- Student Work Examples - These links provide example student work for most of the formal assignments discussed in the lesson plans.
CodeTrain Shared Activities Folder - Assignments and other resources required by the lesson plans
CodeTrain In-Class Teaching Examples - Link to a downloadable folder of all the code examples discussed in the lesson plan docs (in Processing)
Classroom Resources Required
No textbooks are required but having programming reference books available may be helpful.
As of 2020/21, I began using replit.com with my students at all levels. Replit.com supports over 50 languages and is fully online, allowing students to seamlessly transition between home and school. The free version of replit.com would give your students full coding capabilities.
I have chosen to use the paid service known as replit.com Teams that gives me access to a suite of Teaching Tools that we have come to appreciate over the last few years. At the time of writing, the replit.com Teams tool was reasonably priced in my opinion.
However, I want to start the course with the simplest, easiest to use interface possible. I therefore use the online editor made for P5.js with my students for some or all of the first unit: https://editor.p5js.org/. It is free and, truth be told, has better error messages than replit.com which in some ways makes it easier to use. However, the teacher tools and the fact that it can be used with other languages has turned me to replit.com for the remainder of the course.
What is AP Computer Science Principles
The AP CS Principles Course and Exam Description can be found here. It is organized into 5 Big Ideas:
- BI 1: Creative Development
- BI 2: Data
- BI 3: Algorithms and Programming
- BI 4: Computing Systems and Networks
- BI 5: Impact of Computing
The Big Ideas form overarching goals that are integrated throughout rather than covered in a linear fashion.
Using the Resource Package to Fulfill AP Computer Science Principles
In order to ensure all of the AP outcomes are met, many are listed directly in the lessons and are in separate bullet items in 9pt font.
Many schools offer the AP CS Principles course in a single year. This lesson plan document is designed for a 1 year CSP program.
However, we at CodeTrain feel a 2 year program allows time for students to show their creativity and get a deeper understanding of the concepts. If you have the opportunity to offer a 2 year (or even 3 year) computer science program, we encourage you to look at our 2 year lesson plan package.
Using AP Classroom
Teachers/schools that go through the AP Audit process have access to AP Classroom. AP Classroom gives teachers access to ‘Topic Questions’, practice exams and other resources that will help your students succeed on their AP Create Task and the AP Exam. Occasional references will be made to AP Classroom in our lesson plans and we will give a more detailed explanation of AP Classroom in our PD sessions.
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