I’m attending TeacherCon in June so I can teach CSD next school year, BUT I have to get all the scheduling done now. The course description says that the course can be taught over a semester or a full year, but when I look at the lesson plans I see a number of weeks provided to teach each unit. The total for the 6 units is 33 weeks. Our classes are 45 minutes long. Is it really possibly to teach this course to middle schoolers in 1 semester? Thanks!
If you are doing it for a semester, you can do Units 1-3. That is what I am doing.
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I would just clarify that the course is designed to be taught as a full year course or as two separate semesters. Some schools that have less time only offer units 1-3 as Kathy mentions above. In other cases, students have the opportunity to take Units 1-3 one year, and 4-6 later on. The units are meant to be taught in order which means everyone will be starting CSD with Unit 4 (or anything but Unit 1 really).
If you have the option of scheduling a full year, definitely go for it!
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So is part 1 a prerequisite to part 2? Or can a student start in Unit 4 without having Units 1-3?
Kammie,
Ideally students will do Units 1-3 because thy lay the foundations for the course with Problem Solving, student choice, markup language to instantly see how powerful coding can be, and then using Game Lab and getting comfortable with it. With all that said, it is a free open sourced curriculum - so you could do 4-6, I would just HIGHLY suggest that you check out some of the lessons in 1-3 to eave in as an introduction and support for later lessons because the curriculum is built assuming students have had some experience.
Let me know if you have additional questions.
Brad
It is a prerequisite.