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Computer Science

"You would never send your child to a school that didn’t teach math. In the 21st century, computer science is as important as biology. Understanding photosynthesis or H2O or electricity is just as foundational as understanding how the internet works or what an algorithm is. These things are impacting our daily lives. We need future lawyers and doctors and politicians to all understand it. We’re not trying to prepare kids for jobs. We’re trying to prepare kids for life." - Hadi Partovi, Founder of code.org

Why Computer Science (CS)?

Computer science drives job growth and innovation throughout our economy and society. Computing occupations are the number 1 source of all new wages in the U.S. and make up over half of all projected new jobs in STEM fields, making Computer Science one of the most in demand college degrees. And computing is used all around us and in virtually every field. It’s foundational knowledge that all students need. (code.org)

COLORADO COMPUTER SCIENCE FACT SHEET

 

How We Teach CS?

Students drawing
Integration is: 

  • Using Computer Science as an instructional tool to explain, explore, or assessment content knowledge

  • Drawing connections and making relevancy for your students

  • Thinking about how students can create and make within the content standards

  • Applying computational thinking to problem solve in any classroom setting

Computational Thinking is:

  • Decomposition - Breaking a problem into smaller parts (the details)

  • Pattern Recognition - Seeing repetition or similarities

  • Abstraction - Taking the detail out of the problem (the big picture)

  • Generalization - Using a solution from one problem to solve another problem (transfer)

  • Algorithms - Ordered steps to solve a problem

Third grade students with dash
CS integration in a classroom engages students in:

  • Planning

  • Creating procedures

  • Explaining “how to”

  • Building

  • Testing

  • Finding and fixing errors

  • Improving

  • Innovating

  • Analyzing

  • Visualizing + utilizing data

  • Designing for an audience and purpose

  • Creating computational artifacts with Programming, Robots, and Physical devices

 

 

CS in Music

CS in Visual Arts