Virginia Middle School Computer Science Elective
- Level Middle School
- Contact Hours 30
- Timeframe Quarter
This course teaches the basics of Python. Tracy is a turtle that can be instructed with the use of various commands to draw scenes on a canvas. Students learn Python commands, functions, and control structures by solving puzzles and writing creative programs for Tracy to follow.
To view the entire syllabus, click here or click to explore the full course.
MODULES - 6
Students learn about careers in computer science and learn about the world Tracy lives in and how to form commands that she will understand!
Students build on the commands they've learned to instruct Tracy around all parts of her world.
Explore useful ways to break down large problems to write readable and successful programs.
Students learn about the history of computers. They also learn to use variables and user input to control their Tracy commands.
Students use if-else statements and while loops to instruct Tracy to make decisions based on conditions.
Students put together all they've learned to create more advanced programs!
Explore programs that your students will build throughout this course!
Here are a few examples of teacher resources and materials to use in the Virginia Middle School Computer Science Elective course
| Standards Framework | Alignment |
|---|---|
| Virginia Middle School Elective Computer Science 9 Weeks | 45% View |
| Virginia MS CS Elective | 42% View |
Create and organize Assignments in any CodeHS course that you're teaching. You can even add custom assignments to pre-existing CodeHS courses.
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Python, through Tracy the Turtle. Students draw with Tracy to pick up commands, variables, decisions and abstraction rather than starting from syntax.
About 30 contact hours, built to run as a quarter-long elective. It is the shortest course in the Virginia set by a wide margin.
CodeHS places it at 8th grade in the Virginia Middle School Computer Science pathway, and lists it for grades 6 through 8 in the broader Virginia state pathway.
No. The course opens with an introduction to computer science and Tracy's world, then builds up from moving Tracy around the screen.
The history of computers, designing and communicating solutions, and a maths crossover unit on categorising triangles.
Yes. A Tracy Challenges unit and a supplemental challenges unit sit alongside the core sequence, which matters in a 30-hour course where pacing varies.
This course maps to Virginia's computer science standards, covering 76% of the standards addressed by the Mix and Match Middle School course.
