For the first time in about 15 years, I am not conducting teacher workshops or doing summer camps with kids. I am excited and nostalgic at the same time. Before I leave I wanted to get some things ready for STEAM by Design which will have 4 sections plus a new trimester course called CS Explorations. A long-time colleague will be teaching this class while I will split the STEAM by Design teaching with a person who was recently hired. This is the largest expansion of computer science courses in the history of my school and for sure in the middle school. Below are a couple of videos I made for how we plan to assess and encourage students to own their learning.
This text is from the new MS Computer Science site I built for the new courses.
We will be using a Depth of Knowledge model to align better with proficiency-based learning and computational thinking.
The main component of all MS Computer Science courses will be the creation of a reflective portfolio by students with examples of work products including a narrative paragraph on the learning process.
View a presentation on how students can own their learning in STEAM by Design.
View a presentationon how students will use Computational and Design Thinking in STEAM by Design.