This is my first year teaching CS Discoveries. I am at a small private school and only see my students three days a week and we have a shortened school calendar. This year I am teaching a 6th-grade Discoveries course and a 7th/8th grade combined Discoveries course. Because I was new this year, I taught both classes using the same units. We started with Unit 1 and then moved to Unit 3.
Looking forward to next year, I would like to split the course up so that those who took the course in 6th grade could choose to take it again in their 7th/8th-grade year. To do this I would need to have the classes cover different topics. Because of our shortened calendar and only seeing them three days a week, this shouldn’t be a problem.
My question is, does anyone have any advice on which units would group well together to do this? Which units would work well with 6th grade and which units would be best saved for the 7th/8th-grade class?
Because I only have experience with unit 1 and unit 3, I don’t know much about the other units, so I’m looking for advice from those who have. Thanks in advance!
I’m sure there are others who have opinions and who will hopefully respond. I like grouping it to teach units 1-3 in the first year and 4-6 in the 2nd year. Since you skipped unit 2, you could always use that next year and start with that if you wanted. I think it is pretty engaging and a useful skill (web development).
There is also a new unit (unit 7) that could be used that teaches about artificial intelligence. It would work well with the older class, I’m sure. It could be used instead of unit 5 or unit 6, although if you have access to the Circuit Playgrounds, unit 6 is a fun one for students.
Did you take the summer 5 day workshop? If not, you could look at this online training that would expose you to the different units and let you get a feel for them on your own.