Washington Tech Apps and Coding

In this lesson, students are introduced to coding with turtle graphics. Students will begin to recognize programs as sequences and groups of commands. Students will learn a few basic commands and then apply them right away by writing their first program.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to the layout of Tracy’s grid world and will learn how to use coordinate pairs to locate Tracy on the coordinate plane. They will add to the list of commands they know and can use to create Tracy graphics.

In this lesson, students will learn how to use the left and right commands in order to move Tracy to more locations on the canvas. They will now have many commands that can be used to have Tracy create more complex graphics.

In this lesson, students are introduced to for loops. They learn how for loops simplify the process of making small changes to a program and help avoid repeating code. For loops are written like this:

for i in range (4):
    // Code to be repeated 4 times

In this lesson, students are introduced to the ability to turn Tracy at any angle. With this feature, Tracy can now draw diagonal lines which opens up the possibility to draw multiple shapes that weren’t previously available.

In this lesson, students learn how to use comments to describe their programs. Comments are helpful because they allow programmers to leave notes about the programs they are writing. Students will also learn about the different types of comments that can be used and the benefits of using them.

In this short lesson, students will be introduced to the rules for naming elements in their code. Variables and functions that are used inside their programs will be named by students, so the following guidelines should be obeyed to be sure that the programs written are readable and successful.

In this lesson, students are introduced to functions. They start with the basics of defining a function and why we need them and will revisit a program they coded earlier in the unit to rewrite it using functions.

In this lesson, students are able to add some flair to their turtle graphics programs by controlling color, pensize, and fill. These new commands are added to the list of commands that have been already practiced in order to allow for more creativity in student programs.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the concept of Top Down Design. Top Down Design is the process of breaking down a program into functions or smaller parts to avoid repeated code and to make our programs more readable.

In this lesson, students will learn about a fundamental aspect of every programming language: Variables. A variable is something that stores information in a program that can be used later.

In this lesson, students will learn how to incorporate user input into their programs. Students will learn how to request user input as both strings and integers, where the input is stored, and how to convert strings and integers.

In this lesson, students will dive deeper into the concept of functions by exploring how to use parameters to customize their code.

In this lesson, students will expand their knowledge of for loops. They are aware that for loops execute the same lines of code a given number of times but will learn that i is actually a variable that can be used to control commands inside the loop as it is running.

In this lesson, students will learn the extended parameters that can be used to control the value of i in for loops. They will then be able to use the variable i to control much more of their code by setting specific values.

In this lesson, students will learn how to use If Statements which will allow them to use conditions to determine how their code should run.

In this lesson, students will learn how to expand on If Statements by including a way to have Tracy make decisions between multiple scenarios.

In this lesson, students will learn that while loops allow code to be executed repeatedly based on a condition. They will also be warned that infinite loops are created if the exit condition of the while loop is never met, causing the code inside the while loop to repeat continuously which causes the program to crash.

In this lesson, students will put together all the concepts they’ve learned thus far. They will be able to use top down design and to write programs that will solve complex problems.

In this lesson, students learn about game mechanics and the importance of collecting user data to refine a game’s mechanics. Students go through the data collection and analysis process as they add game mechanics to their Guess a Number 2.0 program.

In this lesson, students review content with a 25 question End-of-Unit Quiz.

When was the first computer made? What did it look like, and what was it used for? In this lesson, students will explore the creation and evolution of computing machines that now permeate our day-to-day life.

How are computers organized? What are the main components of a computer?

In this lesson, we will explore how different organizational structures of computers interact with each other to make computers functional.

What kinds of software do computers use and need?

In this lesson, the topic of software is broken down into types of software, how they interact, and the specific functions of the different types of software.

What is hardware? How does hardware work?

In this lesson, hardware is broken down into the different physical components of computers and how they contribute to the function of the computer as a whole.

Where is computing headed? What is Artificial Intelligence and what are the potential impacts that this might have on our world?

In this lesson, students learn about Artificial Intelligence and how the landscape of computing might change in the future. Students will discuss how these future developments might impact our society.

In this lesson, students learn about troubleshooting methodology and go through the process of solving an issue with a printer.

In this first lesson, students will be introduced to their micro:bit device and the MakeCode editor, where they will build and test programs throughout the course. They will also be guided through the process to download programs from the editor to their device and will learn a few basic commands to get started writing micro:bit programs.

In this lesson, students will take a deeper look at developing, testing, and running programs on the micro:bit simulator and on their devices. They will learn how the 5x5 grid system is laid out and will utilize more commands to light specific LEDs on the screen.

In this lesson, students will learn about comments and pseudocode, why they are important, and how they help organize and plan programs. They will also learn the basic difference between analog and digital components and how to use the plotBrightness and clearScreen commands in their programs.

In this lesson, students will build their first physical circuit using their micro:bit devices. They will learn to use variables to control components, along with the analogWritePin and digitalWritePin commands.

In this lesson, students review content with a 15 question Unit Quiz.

In this lesson, students understand how they can control and protect their footprint. As students use the Internet, they are building their digital footprint. This includes social media posts, emails, picture and video uploads amongst other online activities.

In this lesson, students will learn about and discuss cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is the use of electronic communication to harass or target someone. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else.

In this lesson, students will learn to recognize online predatory behavior and strategies on how to avoid and respond to it. The Internet is a great place to socialize, but it is important to be aware of risks. Common sense and following safety guidelines can help students stay safe online.

In this lesson, students will discuss and examine policies regarding privacy and security. Using best practices like setting strong passwords, reading privacy policies, and using https can help in staying safe online.

Now that students have learned about digital citizenship and cyber hygiene, they will take what they have learned and create a PSA to inform members in the community about a topic!

In this lesson, students complete a summative assessment of the unit’s learning objectives.

In this lesson, students will learn how basic encryption and decryption works. There is a need for secrecy when sending and receiving personal information. Encryption and decryption are used to protect personal information.

In this lesson, students will learn the history of cryptography. Humans have always had reasons to hide information, and throughout history they have used crypto systems of varying complexity to keep information safe.

In this lesson, students will learn and practice using the Caesar Cipher. The Caesar Cipher is an encryption method that predates computers in which each letter of the message is shifted by a certain amount, called the key.

In this lesson, students will practice using brute force and letter frequency to crack the Caesar Cipher. The Caesar Cipher is an encryption method in which each letter of the message is shifted by a certain amount, called the key. Cracking the Caesar Cipher with brute force (trying every combination) is a trivial matter for modern computers.

In this lesson, students will learn and use the Vigenère Cipher. The Vigenère Cipher consists of several Caesar ciphers in sequence with different shift values based on a keyword, so brute force and letter frequency analysis do not work.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to HTML: the language for building web pages. Students will discover why HTML is important and how it works in order to start building their own web pages.

In this lesson we upgrade from simple tags to full HTML documents. We learn some new tags that let us put information in different places on the web page, and we learn about the nested tree structure of an HTML document.

In this lesson, students learn about formatting tags that let them modify the appearance of text and make their web pages look clear and aesthetically pleasing.

In this lesson, students learn how to add hyperlinks to their web pages using the <a> tag.

In this lesson, students learn how to add images to their own web pages using the <img> tag!

In this lesson, students will learn what copyright laws are and how to avoid copyright infringement. They will explore why copyright laws are important and how they protect the creators. They will practice finding and citing online images.

In this lesson, students learn how to add lists to their web pages and practice making different kinds of lists.

In this lesson, students learn how to create and add tables to their web pages!

In this lesson, students learn what a URL is and what happens when they visit a URL.

In this lesson, students will create a personal homepage and host it at their own custom domain.

In this lesson, students will use HTML styling to make their pages visually appealing and unique.

In this lesson, students will begin using CSS to add styling to their HTML pages.

In this lesson, students use CSS tag selectors to select all elements of the same kind (<table>, or <h1> for example) and give them all the same style.

In this lesson, students learn to use CSS class selectors to apply CSS styling to all HTML elements that share a specified class which allows students to be more specific when applying their styling.

In this lesson, students will use CSS Selectors by ID to select a single element to format on a webpage.

In this lesson, students will apply CSS styling to their personal HTML homepages.

In this lesson, students learn the basics of Design Thinking. Design Thinking is a step by step process that helps developers and entrepreneurs develop their products while considering their end-users and testing out products before releasing them.

Throughout the module, students will use the design process to develop a web page that provides a solution to a community issue. In this lesson, students will brainstorm and choose their topic.

In this lesson, students learn in more depth about the first principle of Design Thinking: Empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, and is the most important tenet of Design thinking. Students will practice building empathy by interviewing classmates and evaluating the accessibility of existing web pages.

In this lesson, students will take the information that they gathered in their interviews with peers to define a specific problem that needs to be solved. Students will create Point of View statements and composite characters to make a profile of the users who are in need of a fix to the problem that students define.

In this lesson, students will learn strategies to help them ideate solutions to the problems they have been exploring throughout the Design Thinking module. Students will spend class time brainstorming with classmates, and encouraging one another to come up with out of the box solutions.

In this lesson, students learn the basics of prototyping. Students will create a prototype based on ideas they came up with for their design project, and present prototypes to classmates for critiquing.

In this lesson, students will test one another’s prototypes and provide constructive feedback about its usability and aesthetic appeal. Students will also ask thoughtful questions of the testers to get a better understanding of their experience interacting with the prototype.

In this lesson, students use all of their HTML and CSS knowledge to build the website they developed throughout the Design Process.

How do computers store and manipulate information? In this lesson, students learn how computers abstract complicated information into manageable chunks that they can then store and manipulate.

In this lesson, students will learn what a number system is, the difference between the decimal number system and the binary number system, and how to convert between decimal and binary.

In this lesson, students will learn what a number system is, the difference between the decimal number system and the binary number system, and how to convert between decimal and binary.

In this lesson, students will learn how computers break down images into concrete values that can be stored. Students will learn how images are represented digitally using pixels.

In this lesson, students will learn about the hexadecimal number system, and how it is useful in storing digital information. They will also learn how to convert numbers from the hexadecimal system to binary and vice versa.

In this lesson, students will learn how the RGB encoding scheme allows us to encode colors as numeric data. It defines the amount of red, green and blue light in a pixel.

In this lesson, students will have a high level discussion about what the internet is and how the internet works. The topics of anonymity and censorship will also be discussed.

In this lesson, we explore the hardware that makes up the internet and explore characteristics of that hardware that define our experience on the internet.

In this lesson, students will explore how internet hardware communicates using Internet Addresses and the Internet Protocol.

In this lesson, students will explore the DNS system and how it maps human readable domain names into actual accessible IP addresses.

In this lesson, students explore how messages get from one address on the internet to another.

In this lesson, students learn about the last piece of the puzzle for how the Internet works: Packets and Protocols. All information sent over the internet is broken down into small groups of bits called packets. The format for creating and reading packets is defined by open protocols so that all devices can read packets from all other devices.

In this lesson, students are presented with different ways that the Internet impacts their lives. The Internet affects the way that people communicate (emails, social media, video chat) and collaborate to solve problems. It has revolutionized the way that people can learn and even buy things. Because the Internet is present in almost every facet of people’s lives, there are severe ethical and legal concerns that derive from the Internet.

In this performance task, students choose an innovation that was enabled by the Internet and explore the effects of this innovation. Students will produce a computational artifact (visualization, a graphic, a video, a program, or an audio recording that you create using a computer) and a written responses to several prompts. This lesson is meant to be a culminating project of students understanding of the Internet and its impact.