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Teacher Guide for Hosting Synchronous Online Learning Sessions

A guide of practical tips and procedures for running effective live online learning sessions (aka Synchronous Online Learning).

CSTA-Compiled Resources to Support Teaching During COVID-19

Compiled a list of resources to help CS teachers support their students remotely.

COVID-19 Modelling Challenge

Learn basic StarLogo Nova skills then use those skills to customize your model to reflect how Coronavirus spreads. To that model, you can add different strategies and study the impact of the strategies on containing COVID-19’s spread.

Locating the Epicenter of an Earthquake Lesson

Identify the location of an earthquake epicenter using a travel time graph and three seismograph tracings. The epicenter is the point on Earth's surface directly above an earthquake. Seismic stations detect earthquakes by the tracings made on seismographs. Tracings made at three separate seismic stations are needed to locate an earthquake epicenter.

Module 3 Lesson 5 - Designing and Running an Experiment and Sharing Your Findings

In this lesson, students will complete their ecosystems models and then design and run experiments using their models as experimental test beds. As an extension, students can prepare a presentation on their model, experimental design and findings.

Module 3 Lesson 4 - Create Your Own Ecosystem Model

In this lesson, students will design their own ecosystems projects consisting of a question, experimental design and model. In the first activity, students will learn about the computational science cycle and use it to scope their project. This leads to a second activity where they start designing and implementing their model.

Module 3 Lesson 3 - Adding a Predator

In this lesson, students will modify the Rabbits and Grass model by adding a predator, a Mountain Lion, to answer a new question: “Does adding a top predator increase or decrease the stability of an ecosystem?” In the second activity, students will design and run experiments to see if adding a predator has an impact on the ecosystem. This activity will reinforce the concepts of energy flow through ecosystems and the often unexpected results of interactions in complex adaptive systems.

Module 2 Lesson 5 - Experiment with Your New Water Pumping Model

In this lesson, students will finish including their chosen modifications and debugging their Water Pump Model. In the second activity, students will use their new model as an experimental test bed. They will modify the question they came up with in Lesson 4 and run experiments to address this question, using repeated trials at each variable setting. Students will critically analyze their results, as well as their model, and relate it back to the bigger picture – Water as a Shared Resource.

Module 2 Lesson 4 - Customize Your Water Pumping Model

In this lesson, students design their own Water Pumping projects consisting of a question, experimental design and model. In the first activity, students will learn about computational science and how to design a model, and will use this knowledge to scope their project. This leads to a second activity, in which they start designing and implementing their model, using the Water Pumping base model as a starting place.

Module 3 Lesson 1 - Ecosystems as Complex Adaptive systems

In this lesson, students will be introduced to ecosystems concepts through an activity called "Papercatchers", a participatory simulation in which students play the part of agents in a simulation. After playing the “game” that illustrates population dynamics and carrying capacity, students will view a computer model of a simple ecosystem. Through the model, students will review concepts of population growth, producers and consumers, and the
movement of energy through an ecosystem.

Module 3 Lesson 2 - Rabbits and Grass Model

In this lesson, students will participate in two activities that USE the Rabbits and Grass model. The first activity is a look under the hood at the model to understand what was included and left out of the model (abstraction). In
the second activity, students will learn to design and conduct systematic experiments using the model as an experimental test bed. They will instrument their model to collect data, then analyze data and report out on
their findings.

Module 2 Lesson 3 - Adding More Water Pumps and Running Experiments

In this lesson, students will modify the Water Pumping model. First, students will add a 2nd water pump that pulls water from the aquifer. Next, students will add monitors and a line graph that collects and displays the cumulative amount of water pumped by each pump. In the second activity, the new model can then be used as an experimental test bed. Students develop a hypothesis, run an experiment, and analyze the results to see what effect the modification had on the system.

Module 2 Lesson 2 - Math Basics for Modeling and the Water Pumping Base Model

In this lesson, students will become familiar with the Water Pumping base model. Students will (1) review math basics necessary for understanding the model, (2) decode the base model, run simple experiments, make observations, and identify complex systems characteristic of the model (3) add an evaporation slider and run an experiment, using the slider, and (4) finally, be asked to think of ways to improve the model, based on what they know about the hydrologic cycle and water as a resource.

Neural Network Game

This is a presentation / activity presented at AAAI/AI4k12 2019 on teaching about neural networks through a participatory simulation.

Investigating Fairness in Machine Learning Applications

This is a mini-AI curriculum developed for a CSTA conference workshop.

Module 2 Lesson 1 - Introduction to Water as a Shared Resource

In this lesson students will engage in discussion about water resources and group decision making, stimulated by a video and a participatory simulation that serve to highlight group decision-making dynamics. The video will serve to get students thinking about water resources and the difficulties some people their age face in obtaining safe drinking water. The two activities will provide background on how communities make decisions, especially when dealing with a shared resource like water.

Module 1 Lesson 6 - Adding Instrumentation to your Model and Running Experiments

In this lesson students will add instrumentation to their model so they can collect quantitative data on the spread of disease. Students will use this model to run experiments to determine if disease will spread throughout a
virtual population under different initial conditions and different scenarios.

Module 1 Lesson 5 - Modeling the Spread of Disease

In this lesson students will convert their Colliding Turtles model into a simple Epidemic model by adding slider widgets for transmission rate and recovery rate. The Contagion model represents a very simplified version of an epidemic or spread of a disease. Two variables will be created: transmission rate and recovery rate. Students will later use this model to run experiments to determine if disease will spread throughout a virtual population in different scenarios.

Module 1 Lesson 4 - Probability with Dice and Data and Colliding Turtles

In this lesson students will participate in two activities. In the first activity, students will learn about probability, how it is implemented in StarLogo Nova, and use probability to implement chance behavior in agent movement. In the second activity, students will create a Colliding Turtles project in which turtles react to other turtles upon collision. The wrap-up discussion covers what probability is used for in computer modeling and simulation.

Module 1 Lesson 3 - Conditionals with Trailblazer and Bumper Turtles

In this lesson students will participate in two activities. In the first they will
learn about conditionals, logic, and Boolean expressions as they guide an
agent through a puzzle. They also consider the best path / solution and the degree of universality of their solution. In the second activity, students will learn a few simple commands and then starting with a basic project, implement a Bumper Turtles program in which agents respond to their environment.

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