The pilot curriculum is now available

Hello educators!

The pilot curriculum is now available. This pilot is for potential changes to the 20-21 version of the course, but we’re giving people a sneak peek for early feedback and multiple rounds of revisions. I’m very excited about these changes, and ready to hear from you how we can make this better.

Before the pilot starts, I will be holding two live Q&A sessions in the next week. These will be posted on the forum and open to all educators interested in the potential changes to the curriculum. The first session will be today (Thursday) at 8ET/5PT, about the same time we release the online progression (Code Studio) part of the pilot material. The meeting will be held on the zoom platform at the link https://code.zoom.us/j/9196067526. We will hold the second next Tuesday at 6ET/3PT. In both sessions, I will give an overview of the changes and screencast some of the new features.

Currently, we have released the lesson plans for Unit 1: Problem Solving, Unit 2: Web Development, and Unit 3: Animations and Games. We will release the lesson plans for Unit 4: What is a Computer? on September 1.

You can find the lesson plans at https://curriculum.code.org/csd-20/.

The Code Studio progression will be locked to teachers who are participating in the pilot and students in their classes. Others will be able to view the materials by joining a pilot review “Class section”, but will not be able to assign it to students. Teachers who would like to assign this course should contact me for more information.

The pilot curriculum features the following changes:

Unit 1: Problem Solving

  • Three alternate activities for “Aluminum Boats”
  • Digital versions of the Word Search and Seating Chart problem to reduce printing
  • Change from “Field Trip” to “Rearrange the Classroom” in response to teacher feedback
  • “What is a Computer” chapter moved to after the programming units to allow students to get on the computer faster
  • (alternate activities for Word Search/Seating Chart/Rearrange Classroom) will be available in September)

Unit 2: Web Development

  • New Bubble Choice feature that allows students and teachers to choose one or more programming activities/challenges/puzzles from a list
  • CSS (colors/styles) moved up to Chapter 1 to increase student engagement and make the first chapter project more fulfilling on its own
  • A separate of the first and second chapter projects
  • Removing or making optional non-essential content (lists, RGB colors)
  • Moving links/multi-page websites to the second chapter
  • Focusing the second chapter on collaboration, teamwork, and impacts of computing
  • More focus on debugging and using resources

Unit 3: Animations and Games

  • New Bubble Choice feature that allows students and teachers to choose one or more programming activities/challenges/puzzles from a list (note that some choices may not be available until September 1)
  • Restructuring of the first half of Chapter 1 to make lessons shorter so they can fit into one class session

The second half of The Problem Solving unit has been broken out into “What is a Computer?”. This unit will now fall after the Animations and Games unit. It is revised for alignment between the objectives, activities, and unit project. This unit will be available on September 1.

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Hi @elizabeth_admin - would it be possible for me to join the Pilot and have access to the pilot Code Studio progressions for my classes? Thanks.

Hi, I have sent you a private message with details.

Elizabeth