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Nebraska Introduction to Computer Science and Technology (1 year)

Description

In this lesson, students are introduced to coding with turtle graphics. Students will begin to recognize programs as sequences and groups of commands. Students will learn a few basic commands and then apply them right away by writing their first program.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Define programming/coding
  • Use basic Tracy commands
  • Write their first program
Description

In this lesson, students will be introduced to the layout of Tracy’s grid world and will learn how to use coordinate pairs to locate Tracy on the coordinate plane. They will add to the list of commands they know and can use to create Tracy graphics.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Locate Tracy on the coordinate plane
  • Use the penup(), pendown(), and backward() commands in their programs
Description

In this lesson, students will learn how to use the left and right commands in order to move Tracy to more locations on the canvas. They will now have many commands that can be used to have Tracy create more complex graphics.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Use the left and right commands in order to move Tracy around her grid world
Description

In this lesson, students are introduced to for loops. They learn how for loops simplify the process of making small changes to a program and help avoid repeating code. For loops are written like this:

for i in range (4):
    // Code to be repeated 4 times
Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Create for loops to repeat code a fixed number of times
  • Explain when a for loop would be a useful tool
  • Utilize for loops to write programs that would be difficult / impossible without loops
Description

In this lesson, students are introduced to the ability to turn Tracy at any angle. With this feature, Tracy can now draw diagonal lines which opens up the possibility to draw multiple shapes that weren’t previously available.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Use angles inside turning commands
  • Turn Tracy at angles in conjunction with for loops
Description

In this lesson, students are introduced to functions. They start with the basics of defining a function and why we need them and will revisit a program they coded earlier in the unit to rewrite it using functions.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Define a function
  • Call a function
  • Explain why functions are used
Description

In this lesson, students are able to add some flair to their turtle graphics programs by controlling color, pensize, and fill. These new commands are added to the list of commands that have been already practiced in order to allow for more creativity in student programs.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Use the extended circle() command to draw different shapes
  • Use the color(), pensize(), begin_fill(), and end_fill() commands to add more creativity to their programs
Description

In this lesson, students are introduced to the concept of Top Down Design. Top Down Design is the process of breaking down a program into functions or smaller parts to avoid repeated code and to make our programs more readable.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Break a large problem down into smaller pieces
  • Write functions to solve each smaller problem
  • Solve a complicated problem using Top Down Design
Description

In this lesson, students will learn about abstraction. Abstraction is the act of managing complexity by dissociating information and details in order to focus on relevant concepts.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Understand abstraction as the different levels of detail and complexity
  • Understand the importance of abstracting away complexity to solve problems more efficiently
Description

In this lesson, students will learn about a fundamental aspect of every programming language: Variables. A variable is something that stores information in a program that can be used later.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Describe what variables are
  • Discuss why variables are used in our programs
Description

In this lesson, students will learn how to incorporate user input into their programs. Students will learn how to request user input as both strings and integers, where the input is stored, and how to convert strings and integers.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Incorporate user input into their code in order to customize their programs
Description

In this lesson, students will dive deeper into the concept of functions by exploring how to use parameters to customize their code.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Incorporate parameters into their functions in order to adapt their functions to multiple situations
Description

In this lesson, students will learn how to use If Statements which will allow them to use conditions to determine how their code should run.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Use if statements in order to tell Tracy how to make decisions
Description

In this lesson, students will learn how to expand on If Statements by including a way to have Tracy make decisions between multiple scenarios.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Use if/else statements in order to have Tracy make decisions between multiple scenarios
Description

In this lesson, students will learn that while loops allow code to be executed repeatedly based on a condition. They will also be warned that infinite loops are created if the exit condition of the while loop is never met, causing the code inside the while loop to repeat continuously which causes the program to crash.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Effectively use while loops in their programs
  • Identify infinite loops
Description

In this lesson, students review content with a 25 question End-of-Unit Quiz.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Prove their knowledge of control structures and coding concepts through a multiple choice quiz