Search the California Content Standards

Standard:
Create programs with sequences of commands and simple loops, to express ideas or address a problem.

Descriptive Statement:
People create programs by composing sequences of commands that specify the precise order in which instructions should be executed. Loops enable programs to repeat a sequence of commands multiple times. For example, students could follow simple movements in response to oral instructions. Students could then create a simple sequence of movement commands in response to a given problem (e.g., In how many ways can you travel from point A to point B?) and represent it as a computer program, using loops to repeat commands. (VAPA Dance K.1.4, 1.2.3, 1.2.5, 1.2.8, 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.3) Alternatively, on a mat with many different CVC words, students could program robots to move to words with a similar vowel sound. Students could look for multiple ways to solve the problem and simplify their solution by incorporating loops. (CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy RF.K.2.D, RF.1.2.C)

Standard:
Explain why people use passwords.

Descriptive Statement:
Passwords protect information from unwanted use by others. When creating passwords, people often use patterns of familiar numbers and text to more easily remember their passwords. However, this may make the passwords weaker. Knowledge about the importance of passwords is an essential first step in learning about cybersecurity. Students explain that strong passwords are needed to protect devices and information from unwanted use. For example, students could play a game of guessing a three-character code. In one version of the game, the characters are only numbers. In the second version, characters are numbers or letters. Students describe why it would take longer to guess the correct code in the second case. Alternatively, students could engage in a collaborative discussion regarding passwords and their importance. Students may follow-up the discussion by exploring strong password components (combination of letters, numbers, and characters), creating their own passwords, and writing opinion pieces indicating reasons their passwords are strong. (CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy SL.K.1, SL.1.1, SL 2.1, W.1.1, W.2.1)

Standard:
Create patterns to communicate a message.

Descriptive Statement:
Connecting devices to a network or the Internet provides great benefit, but care must be taken to protect devices and information from unauthorized access. Messages can be protected by using secret languages or codes. Patterns help to ensure that the intended recipient can decode the message. Students create a pattern that can be decoded and translated into a message. For example, students could use a table to associate each text character with a number. Then, they could select a combination of text characters and use mathematical functions (e.g., simple arithmetic operations) to transform the numbers associated with the characters into a secret message. Using inverse functions, a peer could translate the secret message back into its original form. (CA CCSS for Mathematics 2.OA.A.1, 2.OA.B.2) Alternatively, students could use icons or invented symbols to represent patterns of beat, rhythm, or pitch to decode a musical phrase. (VAPA Music K.1.1, 1.1.1, 2.1.1, 2.2.2)

Standard:
Create programs that include events, loops, and conditionals.

Descriptive Statement:
Control structures specify the order (sequence) in which instructions are executed within a program and can be combined to support the creation of more complex programs. Events allow portions of a program to run based on a specific action. Conditionals allow for the execution of a portion of code in a program when a certain condition is true. Loops allow for the repetition of a sequence of code multiple times. For example, students could program an interactive map of the United States of America. They could use events to initiate a question when the user clicks on a state and conditionals to check whether the user input is correct. They could use loops to repeat the question until the user answers correctly or to control the length of a "congratulations" scenario that plays after a correct answer. (HSS.5.9) Alternatively, students could write a math fluency game that asks products of two one-digit numbers and then uses a conditional to check whether or not the answer that was entered is correct. They could use a loop to repeatedly ask another question. They could use events to allow the user to click on a green button to play again or a red button to end the game. (CA CCSS for Mathematics 3.OA.7) Additionally, students could create a program as a role-playing game based on a literary work. Loops could be used to animate a character's movement. When reaching a decision point in the story, an event could initiate the user to type a response. A conditional could change the setting or have the story play out differently based on the user input. (CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy RL.5.3)

Standard:
Describe physical and digital security measures for protecting personal information.

Descriptive Statement:
Personal information can be protected physically and digitally. Cybersecurity is the protection from unauthorized use of electronic data, or the measures taken to achieve this. Students identify what personal information is and the reasons for protecting it. Students describe physical and digital approaches for protecting personal information such as using strong passwords and biometric scanners. For example, students could engage in a collaborative discussion orally or in writing regarding topics that relate to personal cybersecurity issues. Discussion topics could be based on current events related to cybersecurity or topics that are applicable to students, such as the necessity of backing up data to guard against loss, how to create strong passwords and the importance of not sharing passwords, or why we should keep operating systems updated and use anti-virus software to protect data and systems. Students could also discuss physical measures that can be used to protect data including biometric scanners, locked doors, and physical backups. (CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy SL.3.1, SL.4.1, SL.5.1)

Standard:
Create patterns to protect information from unauthorized access.

Descriptive Statement:
Encryption is the process of converting information or data into a code, especially to prevent unauthorized access. At this level, students use patterns as a code for encryption, to protect information. Patterns should be decodable to the party for whom the message is intended, but difficult or impossible for those with unauthorized access. For example, students could create encrypted messages via flashing a flashlight in Morse code. Other students could decode this established language even if it wasn't meant for them. To model the idea of protecting data, students should create their own variations on or changes to Morse code. This ensures that when a member of that group flashes a message only other members of their group can decode it, even if other students in the room can see it. (CA NGSS: 4-PS4-3) Alternatively, students could engage in a CS Unplugged activity that models public key encryption: One student puts a paper containing a written secret in a box, locks it with a padlock, and hands the box to a second student. Student 2 puts on a second padlock and hands it back. Student 1 removes her lock and hands the box to student 2 again. Student 2 removes his lock, opens the box, and has access to the secret that student 1 sent him. Because the box always contained at least one lock while in transit, an outside party never had the opportunity to see the message and it is protected.

Standard:
Design and iteratively develop programs that combine control structures and use compound conditions.

Descriptive Statement:
Control structures can be combined in many ways. Nested loops are loops placed within loops, and nested conditionals allow the result of one conditional to lead to another. Compound conditions combine two or more conditions in a logical relationship (e.g., using AND, OR, and NOT). Students appropriately use control structures to perform repetitive and selection tasks. For example, when programming an interactive story, students could use a compound conditional within a loop to unlock a door only if a character has a key AND is touching the door. (CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy W.6.3, W.7.3, W.8.3) Alternatively, students could use compound conditionals when writing a program to test whether two points lie along the line defined by a particular linear function. (CA CCSS for Mathematics 8.EE.7) Additionally, students could use nested loops to program a character to do the "chicken dance" by opening and closing the beak, flapping the wings, shaking the hips, and clapping four times each; this dance "chorus" is then repeated several times in its entirety.

Standard:
Explain potential security threats and security measures to mitigate threats.

Descriptive Statement:
Cybersecurity is an important field of study and it is valuable for students to understand the need for protecting sensitive data. Students identify multiple methods for protecting data and articulate the value and appropriateness for each method. Students are not expected to implement or explain the implementation of such technologies. For example, students could explain the importance of keeping passwords hidden, setting secure router administrator passwords, erasing a storage device before it is reused, and using firewalls to restrict access to private networks. Alternatively, students could explain the importance of two-factor authentication and HTTPS connections to ensure secure data transmission.

Standard:
Apply multiple methods of information protection to model the secure transmission of information.

Descriptive Statement:
Digital information is protected using a variety of cryptographic techniques. Cryptography is essential to many models of cybersecurity. At its core, cryptography has a mathematical foundation. Cryptographic encryption can be as simple as letter substitution or as complicated as modern methods used to secure networks and the Internet. Students encode and decode messages using encryption methods, and explore different levels of complexity used to hide or secure information. For example, students could identify methods of secret communication used during the Revolutionary War (e.g., ciphers, secret codes, invisible ink, hidden letters) and then secure their own methods such as substitution ciphers or steganography (i.e., hiding messages inside a picture or other data) to compose a message from either the Continental Army or British Army. (HSS.8.1) Alternatively, students could explore functions and inverse functions for encryption and decryption and consider functions that are complex enough to keep data secure from their peers. (CA CCSS for Mathematics 8.F.1)

Standard:
Justify the selection of specific control structures by identifying tradeoffs associated with implementation, readability, and performance.

Descriptive Statement:
The selection of control structures in a given programming language impacts readability and performance. Readability refers to how clear the program is to other programmers and can be improved through documentation. Control structures at this level may include, for example, conditional statements, loops, event handlers, and recursion. Students justify control structure selection and tradeoffs in the process of creating their own computational artifacts. The discussion of performance is limited to a theoretical understanding of execution time and storage requirements; a quantitative analysis is not expected. For example, students could compare the readability and program performance of iterative and recursive implementations of procedures that calculate the Fibonacci sequence. Alternatively, students could compare the readability and performance tradeoffs of multiple if statements versus a nested if statement.