THE HUMAN CODE Computational Thinking in Learning Pam

THE HUMAN CODE: Computational Thinking in Learning

Pam Carr ■ Assistant Principal, Seacoast School of Technology ■ Teaching Lecturer, Plymouth State University ■ Classroom teacher for 22 years – high school computer science, middle school computer technology, high school business ■ BS Marketing, MS Business Education, CAGS Educational Leadership

Earn Grad Credit for This Workshop ● Earn 3 graduate credits for attending CMTC http: //lmseti. plymouthcreate. net/LMS/about/home/cmtc/ ● Register by Jan 15: http: //lmseti. plymouthcreate. net/LMS/wpcontent/uploads/2017/07/CE-5560 -CMTC-Literacies-Registration-PSU. pdf ● Final artifacts due March 9 ● Contact: Pam Harland pcharland@plymouth. edu Twitter @pamlibrarian

What is computational thinking? Using a set of techniques and approaches to help solve problems.

Four Cornerstones of Computational Thinking ■ Decomposition – break a problem down into smaller pieces ■ Pattern recognition – finding similarities between things ■ Abstraction - Pulling out specific differences to make one solution work for multiple problems ■ Algorithm design - A list of steps that you can follow to finish a task

Other Important Concepts ■ Data – variables, types of data, databases ■ Query – search, conditional, Boolean ■ Iterations – loops, recursion ■ Decision making – branching, conditional statements

It’s not as complicated as you might think…

Look at what you already do… ■ Most people already do many of these things in the classroom ■ Focus on the computational thinking by shifting your assessment of the activity – Come up with some comments/feedback that value computational thinking – Help students make connections to computational thinking through the activity and the directions you give for the activity. – Use the terminology with your students

You don’t need computers to develop computational thinking

Some of my favorites ■ Legos ■ Mad Glibs – abstraction ■ Move it – algorithims ■ Logic puzzles

But sometimes you will use a computer ■ Online logic puzzles like this one: https: //www. mathsisfun. com/games/towerofhanoi. html ■ Use electronic planning tools with your students – like Mindomo, Storyboardthat, or Gliffy ■ Use the CODE. org site and have students explore activities that interest them. ■ Explore coding with beginner programming languages like Scratch (drag and drop) and Python

Failure is learning

Additional Resources ■ https: //code. org/curriculum/unplugged ■ http: //csunplugged. org/ ■ https: //computationalthinkingcourse. withgoogle. com/unit ■ https: //scratch. mit. edu/ ■ https: //www. python. org/

Contact Me ■ Pam Carr pcarr@sau 16. org ■ Twitter @pammcarr