Maryland Computer Science: 3rd Grade
- Level Elementary School
- Number of Lessons 32
- Grade 3rd
This course is designed to provide computer science and technology instruction for Maryland 3rd Grade students. Students learn programming and technology concepts, including: computing systems, networks and the Internet, data analysis, algorithms and programming, and impacts of computing.
See the full syllabus for all topics and activities, or explore the course to try it out.
UNITS - 7 (32 lessons)
Students get oriented to the CodeHop platform, learn to identify parts of a computing system and troubleshoot simple problems, and apply computational thinking to design an obstacle course.
Through the sequential Scout's Programming Expedition story, students learn basic programming commands, sequencing, loops, and events to move and animate sprites, and use drawing tools to customize sprites and backdrops.
Students build more advanced sequencing and event skills by creating parallel sequences, using broadcast messages between sprites, animating an original story, and learning to responsibly remix and credit others' programs.
Students learn to use and compare different types of loops, debug loop and event errors, and introduce if/then and if/then/else conditionals to control program logic in projects like a falling-objects animation and a balloon game.
Students learn to create and manipulate variables, use comparison operators as conditions, work with lists in an I-Spy style game, and write functions to organize their code.
Students apply design thinking to improve a tool's accessibility and complete an inquiry-based project that visualizes survey data as a bar graph.
Students build digital literacy skills including online research with attribution, evaluating data reliability, understanding file storage and digital footprints, modeling network communication, and examining the impacts of technology and culture on each other.
Explore a sample lesson from this course!
3rd grade students build programs in CodeHop Blocks using parallel sequences, events, broadcasts, loops, conditionals, variables, lists, and functions, with projects like a falling objects game, a balloon game, and an I-Spy game with lists, and use design thinking to improve a tool. They also complete a survey bar graph project, learn about digital footprints and responsibility, manage files, model how data travels across a network, and learn to credit online sources.
The course includes 36 lessons, each about 45 minutes long, providing a full year of instruction when taught once a week. Every lesson is built in a ready-to-teach format, with step-by-step videos that walk students through the lesson. Lessons are designed to be teacher-led using an "I do, we do, you do" format, and a self-paced option is also available.
No. There are no prerequisites, and the course is designed to support all learners regardless of prior computer science experience. The Getting Started and Programming Introduction lessons introduce CodeHop step by step before students move into more advanced concepts.
Maryland Computer Science: 3rd Grade is aligned to the Maryland K-12 Computer Science Standards. Lessons required to fully meet the standards are labeled in the course syllabus with the standards they address, and all Digital Literacy lessons are required because they cover essential non-programming computer science concepts.
