Last week we discussed the term ‘computational thinking‘. Tick, Tock – BUT there’s only so many hours in the day! I hear this often – it’s our reality. How do we include ADST so that we’re being efficient and not go crazy? We do what great teachers have always done – tease out the important standards and connect them to our curriculum. We remove the ‘bling’ projects that take up a ton of time but give us questionable gains.
“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.”
John Dewey
The act of reflection offers opportunities to analyze, evaluate and synthesize the experience. I think this is a perfect connection with Core Competencies!
The following are unplugged activities you may not have seen that engage students in a variety of computational thinking processes. These are split into sections for organizational purposes. The goal is to explore 1-2 activities, not complete the list. Above all else, have fun and talk about your discoveries.
Primary
Intermediate/Secondary
- Count the dots (binary numbers)
- More Codes
- Be a Tour Guide (Algorithm)
- Knights Tour (algorithm)
- Hexa Hexa Flexigon
- Engineering
- Intelligent Piece of Paper (algorithm)
- Swap Puzzle (what’s an algorithm)