Students who complete the seventh grade coding course will receive coding certification through Code.org.  Students who complete the eighth grade course will have the opportunity to receive certification through Vex Robotics.

Course Description

During 6th grade students will examine careers related to engineering and complete activities that introduce students to these careers. 

The length of this course is nine weeks.

Academic Standards

• Vocational Studies Standard A.E. 2.37: Students demonstrate skills and work habits that lead to success in future schooling and work.
• Vocational Studies Standard A.E. 3.3:  Students demonstrate the ability to be adaptable and flexible through appropriate tasks or projects
• Vocational Studies Standard A.E. 3.8: Students demonstrate the ability to make decisions based on ethical values. 
• Vocational Studies Standard A.E. 5.4:  Students use a decision-making process to make informed decision among options
• Vocational Studies Standard A.E. 6.1:  Students connect knowledge and experiences from different subject areas.
• Vocational Studies Standard A.E. 6.3:  Students expand their understanding of existing knowledge by making connections with new knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Approaches to Learning

Communication Skills

• Practice observing carefully in order to recognize problems
• Gather and organize relevant information to formulate an argument
• Recognize unstated assumptions and bias
• Interpret data Evaluate evidence and arguments
• Analyse complex concepts and projects into their constituent parts and synthesize them to create new understanding
• Propose and evaluate a variety of solutions
• Identify obstacles and challenges
• Use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues
• Troubleshoot systems and applications
• Use brainstorming and mind mapping to generate new ideas and inquiries
• Consider multiple alternatives, including those that might be unlikely or impossible
• Create novel solutions to complex problems
• Use lateral thinking to make unexpected connections
• Design improvements to existing machines, media and technologies
• Design new machines, media and technologies
• Make guesses and generate testable hypotheses
• Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products or processes
• Create original works and ideas
• Make connections between subject groups and disciplines
• Combine knowledge, understanding and skills to create products or solutions
• Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies

Social Skills

• Delegate and share responsibility for decision-making
• Help others to succeed
• Take responsibility for one’s own actions
• Manage and resolve conflict and work collaboratively in teams
• Build consensus
• Make fair and equitable decisions
• Listen actively to other perspectives and ideas
• Negotiate effectively
• Encourage others to contribute
• Exercise leadership and take on a variety of roles within groups
• Give and receive meaningful feedback
• Advocate for your own rights and needs

Communication Skills

• Exchanging thoughts, messages and information effectively through interaction
• Give and receive meaningful feedback
• Interpret and use effectively modes of non-verbal communication
• Negotiate ideas and knowledge with peers and teachers
• Make inferences and draw conclusions
• Organize and depict information logically

Self-Management Skills

• Set goals that challenging and realistic
• Plan strategies and take action to achieve personal and academic goals
• Bring necessary equipment and supplies to class
• Keep an organized and logical system of information files/notebooks
• Use appropriate strategies for organizing complex informationConsider content (What did I learn about today? What don’t I yet understand? What questions do I have now?)
• Select and use technology effectively and productively
• Practice analyzing and attributing causes for failure
• Practice ‘bouncing back’ after adversity, mistakes and failures
• Develop new skills, techniques and strategies for effective learning

Research Skills

• Collect, record and verify data
• Access information to be informed and inform others
• Make connections between various sources of information
• Understand the benefits and limitations of personal sensory learning preferences when accessing, processing and recalling information
• Collect and analyse data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions
• Understand and use technology systems

Course Description

During 7th grade, students will complete 18 weeks of course work that will direct students towards skills in coding through Code.org.  

Academic Standards

• Technology Standard M-AP-01:  Distribute tasks and maintain a project timeline when collaboratively developing computational artifacts
• Technology Standard M-AP-05: Create clearly named variables that represent different data types and perform operations on their values.
• Technology Standard M-AP-10:  Document programs in order to make them easier to follow, test, and debug
• Technology Standard M-AP-07:  Design and iteratively develop programs that combine control structures, including nested loops and compound conditionals
• Technology Standard M-AP-08:  Incorporate existing code, media, and libraries into original programs, and give attribution.
• Technology Standard M-AP-09:  Systematically test and refine programs using a range of test cases.
• Technology Standard M-AP-11:  Evaluate licenses that limit or restrict use of computational artifacts when using resources such as libraries.
• Technology Standard M-AP-03: Seek and incorporate feedback from team members and users to refine a solution that meets user needs.
• Technology Standard M-CS-02:  Design projects that combine hardware and software components to collect and exchange data
• Technology Standard M-AP-04:  Create flowcharts and/or pseudocode to address complex problems as algorithms

Approaches to Learning 

Thinking Skills

• Practice observing carefully in order to recognize problems
• Gather and organize relevant information to formulate an argument
• Recognize unstated assumptions and bias
• Interpret data Evaluate evidence and arguments
• Analyse complex concepts and projects into their constituent parts and synthesize them to create new understanding
• Propose and evaluate a variety of solutions
• Identify obstacles and challenges
• Use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues
• Troubleshoot systems and applications
• Use brainstorming and mind mapping to generate new ideas and inquiries
• Consider multiple alternatives, including those that might be unlikely or impossible
• Create novel solutions to complex problems
• Use lateral thinking to make unexpected connections
• Design improvements to existing machines, media and technologies
• Design new machines, media and technologies
• Make guesses and generate testable hypotheses
• Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products or processes
• Create original works and ideas
• Make connections between subject groups and disciplines
• Combine knowledge, understanding and skills to create products or solutions
• Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies

Social Skills

• Delegate and share responsibility for decision-making
• Help others to succeed
• Take responsibility for one’s own actions
• Manage and resolve conflict and work collaboratively in teams
• Build consensus
• Make fair and equitable decisions
• Listen actively to other perspectives and ideas
• Negotiate effectively
• Encourage others to contribute
• Exercise leadership and take on a variety of roles within groups
• Give and receive meaningful feedback
• Advocate for your own rights and needs

Communication Skills

• Exchanging thoughts, messages and information effectively through interaction
• Give and receive meaningful feedback
• Interpret and use effectively modes of non-verbal communication
• Negotiate ideas and knowledge with peers and teachers
• Make inferences and draw conclusions
• Organize and depict information logically

Self-Management Skills

• Set goals that challenging and realistic
• Plan strategies and take action to achieve personal and academic goals
• Bring necessary equipment and supplies to class
• Keep an organized and logical system of information files/notebooks
• Use appropriate strategies for organizing complex informationConsider content (What did I learn about today? What don’t I yet understand? What questions do I have now?)
• Select and use technology effectively and productively
• Practice analyzing and attributing causes for failure
• Practice ‘bouncing back’ after adversity, mistakes and failures
• Develop new skills, techniques and strategies for effective learning

Research Skills

• Collect, record and verify data
• Access information to be informed and inform others
• Make connections between various sources of information
• Understand the benefits and limitations of personal sensory learning preferences when accessing, processing and recalling information
• Collect and analyse data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions
• Understand and use technology systems

Course Description

During 8th grade students will complete an 18 week unit of unit in robotics.  The robotics course could lead to certification if they choose to pay for the test.

This course is 18 weeks in length.

Academic Standards

• Technology Standard A.E. 2.37 Students demonstrate skills and work habits that lead to success in future schooling and work.
• Technology Standard A.E. 3.3  Students demonstrate the ability to be adaptable and flexible through appropriate tasks or projects
• Technology Standard A.E. 3.8 Students demonstrate the ability to make decisions based on ethical values. 
• Technology Standard A.E. 5.4  Students use a decision-making process to make informed decision among options
• Technology Standard A.E. 6.1  Students connect knowledge and experiences from different subject areas.
• Technology Standard A.E. 6.3  Students expand their understanding of existing knowledge by making connections with new knowledge, skills, and experiences.
• Technology Standard MS-ETS1-1: Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions. 
• Technology Standard MS-ETS1-2:  Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
• Technology Standard MS-ETS1-3:  Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
• Technology Standard MS-ETS1-4:  Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved

Approaches to Learning Skills

Thinking Skills

• Practice observing carefully in order to recognize problems
• Gather and organize relevant information to formulate an argument
• Recognize unstated assumptions and bias
• Interpret data Evaluate evidence and arguments
• Analyse complex concepts and projects into their constituent parts and synthesize them to create new understanding
• Propose and evaluate a variety of solutions
• Identify obstacles and challenges
• Use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues
• Troubleshoot systems and applications
• Use brainstorming and mind mapping to generate new ideas and inquiries
• Consider multiple alternatives, including those that might be unlikely or impossible
• Create novel solutions to complex problems
• Use lateral thinking to make unexpected connections
• Design improvements to existing machines, media and technologies
• Design new machines, media and technologies
• Make guesses and generate testable hypotheses
• Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products or processes
• Create original works and ideas
• Make connections between subject groups and disciplines
• Combine knowledge, understanding and skills to create products or solutions
• Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies

Social Skills

• Delegate and share responsibility for decision-making
• Help others to succeed
• Take responsibility for one’s own actions
• Manage and resolve conflict and work collaboratively in teams
• Build consensus
• Make fair and equitable decisions
• Listen actively to other perspectives and ideas
• Negotiate effectively
• Encourage others to contribute
• Exercise leadership and take on a variety of roles within groups
• Give and receive meaningful feedback
• Advocate for your own rights and needs

Communication Skills

• Exchanging thoughts, messages and information effectively through interaction
• Give and receive meaningful feedback
• Interpret and use effectively modes of non-verbal communication
• Negotiate ideas and knowledge with peers and teachers
• Make inferences and draw conclusions
• Organize and depict information logically

Self-Management Skills

• Set goals that challenging and realistic
• Plan strategies and take action to achieve personal and academic goals
• Bring necessary equipment and supplies to class
• Keep an organized and logical system of information files/notebooks
• Use appropriate strategies for organizing complex informationConsider content (What did I learn about today? What don’t I yet understand? What questions do I have now?)
• Select and use technology effectively and productively
• Practice analyzing and attributing causes for failure
• Practice ‘bouncing back’ after adversity, mistakes and failures
• Develop new skills, techniques and strategies for effective learning

Research Skills

• Collect, record and verify data
• Access information to be informed and inform others
• Make connections between various sources of information
• Understand the benefits and limitations of personal sensory learning preferences when accessing, processing and recalling information
• Collect and analyse data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions
• Understand and use technology systems

• Bryan Station High School Academy of Engineering, Manufacturing, and Robotics
• Bryan Station High School Academy of Information Technology
• Eastside Technical Center Media Arts and Information Technology Career Pathway
• Frederick Douglass High School Academy of Technology
• Southside Technical Center Pre-engineering Career Pathway
• Southside Technical Center Electronics Career Pathway
• Tates Creek High School Academy of Design and Engineering
• Tates Creek High School Academy of International Baccalaurete and Information Technology

• Coding Club
• Student Technology Leadership Program
• Vex Robotics Competitions