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Act 3 Curriculum

ACT 3 of the Elementary for ALL curriculum consists of lessons on introducing coding and computational thinking skills in Scratch, teaching environmental science concepts, and creating community-based projects on environmental issues in Scratch projects.

Unit0
Unit 1
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Learning Objectives

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  1. Create and log into a Scratch account.

  2. Import and edit sprites in the Scratch environment.

  3. Define “sequence”, “algorithm”, “program”, “events”, “loops”, and “animation”. 

  4. Code a project with animation. 

  5. Code a project using “broadcast” and “receive” blocks to synchronize elements in their project.

Unit 1: Learning Scratch

Unit Overview

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This unit will introduce your students to the fundamentals of Scratch. At the end of this unit, students will be able to code their own projects with animated characters, add text or voice for narration, import graphics of their choice, and they will be able to time conversations between characters. They will be able to create animated stories and interactive reports on any topic. This unit also briefly introduces students to the computer science concepts of sequence, event, and loop.

Lesson 1.1 Setting Up Scratch Accounts 

Students will create and log into a new Scratch account. Students will be introduced to the Scratch environment. Students will learn about role model Ada Lovelace.

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Duration: 25 minutes

Lesson 1.2: Introduction to Scratch

Students will explore parts of the Scratch environment. They will learn how to add their projects to a Scratch students and how to edit edit and import an image in Scratch.

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Duration: 50 minutes

Lesson 1.3: Scratch Charades

Students familiarize themselves with coding commands, specialfically in the Scratch language, in an unplugged activity acting the scripts out. Students enjoy playing this version of the familiar charades game.

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Duration: 50 minutes

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Lesson 1.4: Coding Concepts 1 - Sequence, Algorithm, Program

Students will be introduced to the concepts of sequence, algorithm, and program. They will learn the difference between the “glide” and “go to” Scratch block. They will debug an existing project. Finaly, they will tinker in Scratch.

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Duration: 50 minutes

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Lesson 1.5: Coding Concepts 2 - Events, Loops, Animation

Students will learn about events, loops, and animation. They will learn that animation is a series of images that are in a loop. They will gain an understanding of the concept from a lecture, from videos, from debugging and from making their own flipbook.

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Duration: 50 minutes

Lesson 1.6: Broadcasting and Receiving

Students will learn how to time interactions in Scratch by using the “broadcast” and “receiving” block. This skill enables students to time interactions between characters when creating a digital story or when including narration or music in a project.

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Duration: 50 minutes

Unit 2
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​Learning Objectives

  • Identify parts of a system and explain how they are inter-dependent on each other.

  • Explain how invasive species distrupt an ecosystem. 

  • Program a connection circle applying the concept of parallelism, initialization, and loops.

Unit 2: Modeling an Ecosystem

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Unit Overview

 

In this unit, students will demonstrate their understanding of how all parts in a system are interdependent by coding a connection circle in Scratch. They will learn about invasive species and how they disrupt an ecosystem. Through discussion, a card game, videos and by coding a project, students will learn the concepts and skills to build a model of a system in the Scratch coding environment.

Lesson 2.1: What is a system? 

Students are introduced to the concepts of natural and human systems. They play a card game with their classmates identifying how parts of the chaparral ecosystem are related.

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Duration: 50 mins

Lesson 2.2 Disruptions in an Ecosystem

Students learn about invasive species through the context of the chaparral ecosystem. They will create a public service in Scratch to teach others about what they learn.

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Duration: 50 mins

Lesson 2.3: Demonstrating Interactions in Scratch

Students understand the computing concept of parallelism, initialization, and loops that they need to understand to complete the connection circle project in the next lesson.

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Duration:  50 mins

Lesson 2.4: Modeling an Ecosystem

Students code a connection circle in Scratch to model an ecosystem of their choice.

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Duration: 50 mins

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Lesson 2.5: Reflect and Share

Students reflect on their Connection Circle projects, then share their projects with a partner.​​

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Duration: 50

Unit 3
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Learning Objectives

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To apply variables, conditional loops and functions to creates that help to visualize data. 

Unit 3: Variables, Conditionals, and Functions

Unit Overview

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Variables are used to store values (words and numbers) in a computer program. Variables are created by the programmer. They can be set and changed by the computer program. Variable values can be entered into a computer program by a user when the program asks the user a question. Variable values can be used in different parts of a program. In this unit, students will be introduced to the concept of variables through examples, discussion, and playing Madlibs. Students will interact with the concept of variables by exploring an existing project and modifying it. Finally, with a partner, they will plan and build their own project in Scratch using variables. 

 

Students will be introduced to the concept of if, then, else conditions through examples, discussion, and playing an if, then, else dice game. Students will interact with this concept by exploring an existing project and modifying it. Finally, with a partner, they will plan and build their own project in Scratch using loops with if, then else conditions.

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Students will practice identifying code that is used in multiple places in a program and can be converted into a function. They will work with functions that are called multiple times in a program. Students will interact with this concept by exploring an existing project and modifying it. Finally, with a partner, they will plan and build their own project in Scratch using loops with if, then else conditions and functions. 

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3.1 Intro to Variables

Students are introduced to the concept of input variables and how to create and set programmer defined variables. Students practice creating and setting the variables.

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Duration: 50 minutes

Lesson 3.2: Use, Create, and Set Variables with TIPP&SEE

Students do a TIPP&SEE activity to reinforce the concepts from lesson 3.1. They are guided as they modify an existing project.

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Duration: 50 minutes

Lesson 3.3: Plan, Debug, Build and Share

Students plan a Madlibs project, do a debugging activity as a class, then build their Madlibs projects. When finished, students test each other’s projects.

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Duration: 50 minutes

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Lesson 3.4: Intro to Loops with if, then, else Conditionals

Students will be introduced to the computer science concept of if, then, else conditions and will play an unplugged, hands-on activity.

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Duration: 50 minutes

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Lesson 3.5: Exploring Loops with if, then else Conditionals

Students explore a Scratch Project to identify how if, then else conditions work and the types of operators that are used in conditions. Students modify an existing project.

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Duration: 50 minutes

Lesson 3.6: Introduction to Functions

Students will be introduced to the computer science concept of functions, play an unplugged activity, and explore a Scratch project with functions.

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Duration: 50 minutes

Lesson 3.7: Exploring Functions: Quest & Plan

Students explore a Scratch Project to identify how functions work and how to identify code that can be converted into functions. Students modify an existing project and plan for their Create project.

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Duration: 50 minutes

Lesson 3.8: Functions and if, then, else Conditional Loops: Plan & Build

Students complete a project using functions and if, then else conditions. Students complete a Debugging Challenge then complete the scripts and create functions for a graphing project.

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Duration: 50 minutes

Unit 4
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Learning Objectives

  • Plan, collect, clean, anaylze and present data

  • Explan what data is and to give examples of qualitative and quantitaive data

  • Represent data using a suitable chart

  • Work collaboratively to develop  research questions and a survey to gather data to support it

  • Conduct polite and efficient interviews

  • To listen and to incorporate the ideas of others in a conversation

  • Consider their audience when presenting information

Unit 4 Visualizing Data

Unit Overview

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This unit examines how essential trees are to a community and then applies data science to examine the distribution of trees in various communities using the Tree Equity Score website. Students discuss different perspectives on trees in their community. Collectively, the class designs a survey to study the perspective of a particular group in their community on the topic of trees. The data is collected, cleaned and visualized in this unit.

Lesson 4.1: We Need Trees

Students will be explain how trees benefit a community and identify reasons the number of trees is decreasing each year.

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Duration: 50 mins

Lesson 4.2: Tree Equity Score

Students will be introduced to the treeequityscore website. They will compare the tree equity score and heat disparity scores in different zip codes. They will discuss what data is and how it can be visualized.

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Duration: 50 mins

Lesson 4.3: Quantitative and Qualitative Data

Students will be introduced to what data is. They will compare qualitative data versus quantitative data. They will learn the appropriate data visualization to represent data.

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Duration: 50 mins

Lesson 4.4: Creating a Survey on Trees

Students will develop a survey on the topic of trees to learn the perspectives on a particular part of their community. They will identify people who would be interested in the finding of this proposed research.

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Duration: 50 mins 

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Lesson 4.5: Collecting and Cleaning Data

Students will conduct interviews to gather their data.

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Duration: 50 mins

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Lesson 4.6: Visualizing and Analyzing Data

Students will create a visualization with their data and discuss what it means. They will discuss pros and cons of different ways that data can be represented

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Duration: 50 mins

Unit 5
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Unit 5 Communicating Science 

Unit Overview

In this unit, students will create a public service announcement on the topic that they have researched in Unit 4. Students will craft a message in the Scratch environment that will be supported by a visualization of their research findings. Students will choose the appropriate audience for this announcement.

 

Lesson 5.1: What is a Public Service Announcement (PSA)? 

Students view public service announcements and advertisements as they identify the problems being addressed, the supporting facts, the call to do something, and the kind of persuasion they represent.  (50 min)

Lesson 5.2: Crafting a Message

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Students create a relevant message for the community supported with the findings of their survey. The message will include a behavioral request from the audience.  (90 min)

Lesson 5.3: Build Your  Public Service Announcement (PSA)

Students create a PSA in the Scratch environment in small groups that includes a data visualization that was created in Unit 4.  (50 min)

Lesson 5.4: Sharing Your Public Service Announcement (PSA)

Students self-reflect on their projects. They give helpful feedback on classmate’s projects and accept feedback from others. Desired changes are made. Projects are shared with members of the community. (30 min)

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