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Computer Science Standards




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Showing 1 - 10 of 11 Standards

Standard Identifier: K-2.AP.14

Grade Range: K–2
Concept: Algorithms & Programming
Subconcept: Program Development
Practice(s): Creating Computational Artifacts, Communicating About Computing (5.1, 7.2)

Standard:
Develop plans that describe a program’s sequence of events, goals, and expected outcomes.

Descriptive Statement:
Creating a plan for what a program will do clarifies the steps that will be needed to create the program and can be used to check if a program runs as expected. Students create a planning document to illustrate their program's sequence of events, goals, and expected outcomes of what their program will do. Planning documents could include a story map, a storyboard, or a sequential graphic organizer, to illustrate their program's sequence of events, goals, and expected outcomes of what their program will do. Students at this level may complete the planning process with help from the teacher. For example, students could create a storyboard or timeline that represents a family's history, leading to their current location of residence. Students could then create a plan for a program that animates the story of family locations. (HSS 2.1.1) (CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy W.K.3, W.1.3, W.2.3)

Standard Identifier: 3-5.AP.15

Grade Range: 3–5
Concept: Algorithms & Programming
Subconcept: Program Development
Practice(s): Fostering an Inclusive Computing Culture, Creating Computational Artifacts (1.1, 5.1)

Standard:
Use an iterative process to plan and develop a program by considering the perspectives and preferences of others.

Descriptive Statement:
Planning is an important part of the iterative process of program development. Students gain a basic understanding of the importance and process of planning before beginning to write code for a program. They plan the development of a program by outlining key features, time and resource constraints, and user expectations. Students should document the plan as, for example, a storyboard, flowchart, pseudocode, or story map. For example, students could collaborate with a partner to plan and develop a program that graphs a function. They could iteratively modify the program based on feedback from diverse users, such as students who are color blind and may have trouble differentiating lines on a graph based on the color. (CA CCSS for Mathematics 5.G.1, 5.G.2) Alternatively, students could plan as a team to develop a program to display experimental data. They could implement the program in stages, generating basic displays first and then soliciting feedback from others on how easy it is to interpret (e.g., are labels clear and readable?, are lines thick enough?, are titles understandable?). Students could iteratively improve their display to make it more readable and to better support the communication of the finding of the experiment. (NGSS.3-5-ETS1-1, 3-5-ETS1-2, 3-5-ETS1-3)

Standard Identifier: 3-5.AP.16

Grade Range: 3–5
Concept: Algorithms & Programming
Subconcept: Program Development
Practice(s): Creating Computational Artifacts, Communicating About Computing (5.2, 7.3)

Standard:
Observe intellectual property rights and give appropriate attribution when creating, remixing, or combining programs.

Descriptive Statement:
Intellectual property rights can vary by country, but copyright laws give the creator of a work a set of rights and prevents others from copying the work and using it in ways that they may not like. Students consider common licenses that place limitations or restrictions on the use of others' work, such as images and music downloaded from the Internet. When incorporating the work of others, students attribute the work. At this level, students could give attribution by including credits or links directly in their programs, code comments, or separate project pages. For example, when making a program to model the life cycle of a butterfly, students could modify and reuse an existing program that describes the life cycle of a frog. Based on their research, students could identify and use Creative Commons-licensed or public domain images and sounds of caterpillars and butterflies. Students give attribution by properly citing the source of the original piece as necessary. (CA NGSS: 3-LS-1-1) (CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy W.3.8, W.4.8, W.5.8) Alternatively, when creating a program explaining the structure of the United States goverment, students find Creative Commons-licensed or public domain images to represent the three branches of government and attribute ownership of the images appropriately. If students find and incorporate an audio file of a group playing part of the national anthem, they appropriately give attribution on the project page. (HSS.3.4.4)

Standard Identifier: 6-8.AP.16

Grade Range: 6–8
Concept: Algorithms & Programming
Subconcept: Program Development
Practice(s): Developing and Using Abstractions, Creating Computational Artifacts, Communicating About Computing (4.2, 5.2, 7.3)

Standard:
Incorporate existing code, media, and libraries into original programs, and give attribution.

Descriptive Statement:
Building on the work of others enables students to produce more interesting and powerful creations. Students use portions of code, algorithms, digital media, and/or data created by others in their own programs and websites. They give attribution to the original creators to acknowledge their contributions. For example, when creating a side-scrolling game, students may incorporate portions of code that create a realistic jump movement from another person's game, and they may also import Creative Commons-licensed images to use in the background. Alternatively, when creating a website to demonstrate their knowledge of historical figures from the Civil War, students may use a professionally-designed template and public domain images of historical figures. (HSS.8.10.5) Additionally, students could import libraries and connect to web application program interfaces (APIs) to make their own programming processes more efficient and reduce the number of bugs (e.g., to check whether the user input is a valid date, to input the current temperature from another city).

Standard Identifier: 6-8.AP.18

Grade Range: 6–8
Concept: Algorithms & Programming
Subconcept: Program Development
Practice(s): Collaborating Around Computing, Creating Computational Artifacts (2.2, 5.1)

Standard:
Distribute tasks and maintain a project timeline when collaboratively developing computational artifacts.

Descriptive Statement:
Collaboration is a common and crucial practice in programming development. Often, many individuals and groups work on the interdependent parts of a project together. Students assume pre-defined roles within their teams and manage the project workflow using structured timelines. With teacher guidance, they begin to create collective goals, expectations, and equitable workloads. For example, students could decompose the design stage of a game into planning the storyboard, flowchart, and different parts of the game mechanics. They can then distribute tasks and roles among members of the team and assign deadlines. Alternatively, students could work as a team to develop a storyboard for an animation representing a written narrative, and then program the scenes individually. (CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy W.6.3, W.7.3, W.8.3)

Standard Identifier: 6-8.CS.2

Grade Range: 6–8
Concept: Computing Systems
Subconcept: Hardware & Software
Practice(s): Creating Computational Artifacts (5.1)

Standard:
Design a project that combines hardware and software components to collect and exchange data.

Descriptive Statement:
Collecting and exchanging data involves input, output, storage, and processing. When possible, students select the components for their project designs by considering tradeoffs between factors such as functionality, cost, size, speed, accessibility, and aesthetics. Students do not need to implement their project design in order to meet this standard. For example, students could design a mobile tour app that displays information relevant to specific locations when the device is nearby or when the user selects a virtual stop on the tour. They select appropriate components, such as GPS or cellular-based geolocation tools, textual input, and speech recognition, to use in their project design. Alternatively, students could design a project that uses a sensor to collect the salinity, moisture, and temperature of soil. They may select a sensor that connects wirelessly through a Bluetooth connection because it supports greater mobility, or they could instead select a physical USB connection that does not require a separate power source. (CA NGSS: MS-ETS1-1, MS-ETS1-2)

Standard Identifier: 9-12.AP.18

Grade Range: 9–12
Concept: Algorithms & Programming
Subconcept: Program Development
Practice(s): Fostering an Inclusive Computing Culture, Creating Computational Artifacts (1.1, 5.1)

Standard:
Systematically design programs for broad audiences by incorporating feedback from users.

Descriptive Statement:
Programmers use a systematic design and review process to meet the needs of a broad audience. The process includes planning to meet user needs, developing software for broad audiences, testing users from a cross-section of the audience, and refining designs based on feedback. For example, students could create a user satisfaction survey and brainstorm distribution methods to collect feedback about a mobile application. After collecting feedback from a diverse audience, students could incorporate feedback into their product design. Alternatively, while developing an e-textiles project with human touch sensors, students could collect data from peers and identify design changes needed to improve usability by users of different needs.

Standard Identifier: 9-12S.AP.19

Grade Range: 9–12 Specialty
Concept: Algorithms & Programming
Subconcept: Program Development
Practice(s): Collaborating Around Computing, Creating Computational Artifacts (2.2, 2.3, 5.2)

Standard:
Plan and develop programs for broad audiences using a specific software life cycle process.

Descriptive Statement:
Software development processes are used to help manage the design, development, and product/project management of a software solution. Various types of processes have been developed over time to meet changing needs in the software landscape. The systems development life cycle (SDLC), also referred to as the application development life cycle, is a term used in systems engineering, information systems, and software engineering to describe a process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying an information system. Other examples of common processes could include agile, spiral, or waterfall. Students develop a program following a specific software life cycle process, with proper scaffolding from the teacher. For example, students could work in teams on a common project using the agile development process, which is based on breaking product development work into small increments. Alternatively, students could be guided in implementing sprints to focus work on daily standup meetings or scrums to support efficient communication.

Standard Identifier: 9-12S.AP.20

Grade Range: 9–12 Specialty
Concept: Algorithms & Programming
Subconcept: Program Development
Practice(s): Creating Computational Artifacts (5.2)

Standard:
Develop programs for multiple computing platforms.

Descriptive Statement:
Humans use computers in various forms in their lives and work. Depending on the situation, software solutions are more appropriate or valuable when available on different computational platforms or devices. Students develop programs for more than one computing platform (e.g. desktop, web, or mobile). For example, students could develop a mobile app for a location-aware software product and a different program that is installed on a computer. Alternatively, students could create a browser-based product and make it accessible across multiple platforms or computers (e.g., email).

Standard Identifier: 9-12S.AP.23

Grade Range: 9–12 Specialty
Concept: Algorithms & Programming
Subconcept: Program Development
Practice(s): Developing and Using Abstractions, Creating Computational Artifacts (4.2, 5.3)

Standard:
Modify an existing program to add additional functionality and discuss intended and unintended implications.

Descriptive Statement:
Modularity and code reuse is key in modern software. However, when code is modified, the programmer should consider relevant situations in which this code might be used in other places. Students create and document modifications to existing programs that enhance functionality, and then identify, document, and correct unintended consequences. For example, students could take an existing a procedure that calculates the average of a set of numbers and returns an integer (which lacks precision) and modify it to return a floating-point number instead. The student would explain how the change might impact multiple scenarios.

Showing 1 - 10 of 11 Standards


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