Course C

Course C was designed for students around second-grade age, so it uses simple shapes and basic math ideas that younger learners already understand.

In this course, students will build computer programs using loops (steps that repeat), events (actions that happen when something specific occurs, like a click), and conditionals (instructions that only happen "if" something is true). They will also translate their initials into binary, the number system made only of 0s and 1s that computers use to store information. Along the way, students will explore different ways to solve problems and talk about how to handle cyberbullying, which means using the internet to repeatedly hurt or scare someone. By the end of the course, students will build interactive games they can share with others. Every skill in Course C starts from the basics and slowly builds up, giving students room to grow, create, and enjoy a fresh, hands-on introduction to programming.

Journaling

Throughout this course, students will respond to journal prompts—short writing tasks that help them think about what they learned. Journals also work well as scratch paper for planning projects, working out problems, and fixing mistakes. Over time, a journal becomes a helpful tool students can look back on when they run into tricky problems later in the course.

Think Spot Journal

Debugging

Debugging means finding and fixing mistakes in a computer program. Whether you're a total beginner or a professional programmer, debugging is a skill everyone needs—yet it's often overlooked. In fact, most of the time spent "coding" is usually spent debugging! To help students take charge of this process, we provide a simple reference guide they can use while they work. For more tips on debugging, check the "Debugging" section of the CS Fundamentals Curriculum Guide.

Debugging Guide

Chapter 1: Digital Citizenship

Lesson 1: Screen Out the Mean (Unplugged | Cyberbullying)
Students learn what to do if something online makes them feel angry, sad, or scared.

Lesson 2: Powerful Passwords (Unplugged | Online Safety)
Students learn how passwords keep their information safe and how to create a strong password.

Chapter Commentary: Digital Citizenship

Chapter 2: Sequencing

A sequence is a set of steps done in a specific order—like a recipe or a set of directions.

Lesson 3: My Robotic Friends Jr. (Unplugged | Sequencing)
Students pretend their classmates are robots and give them instructions to stack cups into patterns.

Lesson 4: Programming with Angry Birds (Skill Building | Sequencing)
Students learn about sequences and algorithms (step-by-step instructions for solving a problem) using the game Angry Birds.

Lesson 5: Debugging in Maze (Skill Building | Sequencing)
Students find and fix mistakes in puzzles to practice their debugging skills.

Lesson 6: Collecting Treasure with Laurel (Skill Building | Sequencing)
Students write step-by-step instructions to help a character named Laurel collect gems.

Lesson 7: Creating Art with Code (Skill Building | Sequencing)
Students program the Artist tool to create colorful images.

Chapter Commentary: Sequencing

Chapter 3: Binary

Lesson 8: Binary Bracelets (Unplugged | Binary)
Students make their own binary bracelet and discover how computers store information using 0s and 1s.

Chapter Commentary: Binary

Chapter 4: Loops

A loop is a set of instructions that repeats, which helps programmers avoid writing the same steps over and over.

Lesson 9: My Loopy Robotic Friends Jr. (Unplugged | Loops)
Students program their classmates again, but this time they use loops to solve bigger, more complicated problems.

Lesson 10: Loops with Rey and BB-8 (Skill Building | Loops)
Students use loops to help the droid BB-8 move through mazes.

Lesson 11: Harvesting Crops with Loops (Skill Building | Loops)
Students use loops to help a harvester collect vegetables.

Lesson 12: Looking Ahead with Minecraft (Skill Building | Loops)
Students avoid dangerous lava while getting an early introduction to conditionals in the Minecraft world.

Lesson 13: Sticker Art with Loops (Application | Loops)
Students use loops to make even more detailed and creative images with the Artist tool.

Chapter Commentary: Loops

Chapter 5: Events

An event is something that happens—like a click or a key press—that triggers a specific action in a program.

Lesson 14: The Big Event (Unplugged | Events)
Students play a game that teaches them how events work.

Lesson 15: Build a Flappy Game (Skill Building | Events)
Students design their own version of a Flappy Bird–style game and share it with classmates.

Lesson 16: Chase Game with Events (Skill Building | Events)
Students get creative and design a game using a tool called Play Lab.

Chapter Commentary: Events

Chapter 6: Data

Lesson 17: Picturing Data (Unplugged | Data)
Data—information that can be measured or collected—helps students understand the world around them and answer interesting questions. In this lesson, students gather data from a Play Lab project and turn it into different types of graphs.

Chapter Commentary: Data

Chapter 7: End of Course Project

Lesson 18: End of Course Project
Students put all their new coding skills to work by building their own final project.

Chapter Commentary: End of Course Project

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Lesson 1: Screen Out the Mean

Overview

This lesson helps students understand that if something online ever makes them feel angry, sad, or scared, they should tell a trusted adult right away.

Students learn that people can sometimes act like bullies when they're online. They explore what cyberbullying means and what steps to take if they experience it. After reading a short story about someone being treated badly online, students discuss what cyberbullying looks like, how it makes people feel, and how to respond. To finish, they use what they've learned to create a simple list of tips about cyberbullying in their journal.

Purpose

Students may never personally experience cyberbullying, but it's important that they know how to recognize it and respond to it—just in case they ever see it happen. This lesson teaches students how to identify cyberbullying and the steps to take to stop it. These skills will come in handy later in the course, when students share their own projects online. If someone reacts unkindly to a student's work, this lesson gives them the tools to handle it calmly and safely.

Agenda

• Warm Up (5 min): Introduction
• Main Activity (35 min): What Is Cyberbullying? / What to Do About Cyberbullying
• Wrap Up (15 min): Flash Chat: What did we learn? / Journaling
• Assessment (5–10 min)

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Identify online behaviors that count as cyberbullying.
• Explain the steps to take when cyberbullying happens.
• Understand why it's important to involve a trusted adult when cyberbullying occurs.

Preparation

• Print one Screen Out the Mean – Worksheet and one Screen Out the Mean – Assessment for each student.
• Make sure every student has their Think Spot Journal – Reflection Journal.

Vocabulary

• Cyberbullying – Doing something on the internet, usually again and again, to make another person feel angry, sad, or scared.
• Online – Connected to the internet.

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Teaching Guide

Warm Up (5 min): Introduction

Encourage students to share what they already know about bullying.

Ask:

• What kinds of things count as bullying?

Students should understand that bullying means acting in a way that's purposefully mean or scary toward someone else—for example, making fun of how someone looks, spreading lies about them, or threatening to hurt them.

• How does bullying make people feel?

Hurt, angry, upset, or scared.

• What's the best thing to do if you feel bullied, or if you see someone else being bullied?

Students should know that telling a trusted adult is always the right first step.

Explain that students will now learn about a type of bullying that can happen online.

Main Activity (35 min)

What Is Cyberbullying?

Define:

• Online – Connected to the internet.
• Cyberbullying – Doing something on the internet, usually again and again, to make another person feel angry, sad, or scared.

Discuss: Some students may not go online very often—maybe because of family rules, or because they simply don't enjoy it much. Others go online often to do different activities.

Ask: What do you do online, or what would you like to do?
Students might mention things like messaging friends or playing games.

Share: Most of the time, going online is used for fun or interesting activities. But sometimes people are mean to each other online, and that's called cyberbullying.

Ask: Have you ever seen someone make another person feel bad online?
Answers will vary—remind students to describe what happened without using real names.

Explain that students will now learn more about how cyberbullying happens and what to do about it if it happens to them or someone they know.

What to Do About Cyberbullying

Discuss: Read aloud these two short scenarios and talk about them as a class:

1. Kyle keeps getting messages from someone saying mean things about him. The sender doesn't use a real name, but Kyle recognizes the messages as coming from someone who also teases him during gym class at school.
2. Sasha is new at school and has been making lots of friends. Then she finds out that another girl sent around an email containing an unkind picture with Sasha's name attached to it.

Discussion goal—questions to guide the conversation:

• What do you think happened to Jada's game? (This refers to a story in the worksheet, described below.)
• How do you think Jada, Kyle, or Sasha felt when these things happened to them?
• How can you tell if someone is cyberbullying you?
• Why is it important to stop using the computer as soon as cyberbullying starts?

(If students stay online, the cyberbullying might continue or get worse.)

Teacher Tip: These scenarios can be discussed together as a class, or read and discussed one at a time.

Distribute the Screen Out the Mean – Worksheet to each student. Read the story at the top aloud, then have students work in pairs or small groups to complete the worksheet.

After discussing Jada's story, explain that there are clear steps for handling a cyberbully:

• Jada should stop using the computer.
• Jada should tell a trusted adult what happened.
• Jada should not return to the pony website until an adult says it's okay.
• If Jada and Michael are close friends, she may want