Resources
All the latest updates, podcasts, tools, and online guides to help facilitate your computer science classroom experience, in-person or online.
CS unplugged or coding classes
In this episode, Jared O'Leary unpacks Bell’s (2021) publication titled “CS unplugged or coding classes? Perhaps a more appropriate question is ‘why not both’?” which argues there’s value in doing both unplugged and coding lessons.
Computing Education Research with Mark Guzdial
In this interview with Mark Guzdial, we discuss the similarities and differences between constructionism and constructivism, think through when to situate and apply learning, discuss contextualized learning, creating multiple pathways for exploring computer science, problematizing subservient relationships with integrated curricula or courses, task-specific and domain-specific languages, using multiple learning theories through a multiperspectivalist approach, changes to public policy that Mark would make to help out CS educators and the field, and much more.
Using Questions That Guide Math
In this episode Jared O'leary discusses some example questions we can ask to encourage students to think deeper about computer science and computational thinking by unpacking two papers on using guiding questions in mathematics education. The first paper paper by Way (2014) is titled “Using questioning to stimulate mathematical thinking” and the second paper by Pennant (2018) is titled “Developing a classroom culture that supports a problem-solving approach to mathematics.”
The Rise of CS Across the Pond with Phil Bagge
In this interview with Phil Bagge, we discuss the rise of CS in UK curricula, the evolution of Phil’s pedagogical approach, how time constraints impact pedagogical approaches, not letting the loudest voices drive instruction, how research informs Phil’s approach for working with teachers new to CS, how to emphasize student agency in teacher professional development, and much more.
The Computer Science Teacher Landscape
In this episode Jared O'Leary unpacks Koshy, Martin, Hinton, Scott, Twarek, and Davis’ (2021) publication titled “The Computer Science Teacher Landscape: Results of a Nationwide Teacher Survey,” which report provides recommendations for the field based on a summary of findings on teacher demographics, current challenges for CS educators, and the state of cultural relevance in CS education.
Other Resources
Integration Studios
In addition to the integration suggestions in our lesson plans and our discussion forum, our Scratch account has several studios that demonstrate the potential for integrating projects with Scratch.
Complete List of Lesson Plans
Use this document to quickly access all of our ScratchJr and Scratch lesson plans and coder resources.
Unplugged Resources
This spreadsheet is a curated list of more than 100 unplugged lesson plans and resources for elementary coders.
Remote Learning Resources
We’ve compiled some resources to help districts, teachers, and families cope with the rise of school closures around the nation.
