Programming: It's for Everyone!   

Connor Bain
Theory Building
1 - 2 hours
Introductory Computer Science
v1
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Overview

These days, we're all constantly bombarded with technological vocabulary. From "AI" to "Machine Learning" to "Neural Networks" to "block chain," we're constantly reminded of tech buzzwords. But perhaps the word we hear most these days is: "code."

What does it mean to code? What is a program? What are its parts? Are they all super complicated? Do you have to read binary?

Although more and more learners are being introduced to programming and computer science in their usual school curricula, there are still pervasive misconceptions about what it means to "code." This lesson is meant to be an introduction to programming in its most basic sense. Learners will interact with various computational tools to gradually build familiarity with both programming vocabulary and practices. While you can't become a programming expert in an hour or two, this lesson aims to prove to you that programming and computation is just another creative tool that you can use to think about the world around you.

 

Note: Page 5 (the last student page) is an "optional" page that you may not have time for. Feel free to come back to it at another time.

Underlying Pages

Standards

Computational Thinking in STEM
  •   Computational Problem Solving Practices
    • Assessing Different Approaches/Solutions to a Problem
    • Creating Computational Abstractions
    • Developing Modular Computational Solutions
    • Computer Programming
    • Troubleshooting and Debugging
    • Preparing Problems for Computational Solutions
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