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Skill Building Deck

A slide deck of exercises to build CS and decoding skills

Image of a part of the trailblazers maze, from Project GUTS

Trailblazers is a fun pencil and paper activity where students write simple instructions for another student to navigate a maze. The instructions are drawn on the maze as commands (if square is red, turn right, etc.) and then students exchange papers to navigate the maze following only the commands. This is a preliminary activity for the Bumper Turtles coding activity.

Teaching Computer Science and Creating Independent Learners

A video (7:54) for teachers and facilitators with helpful techniques on facilitating design-and-build activities in ways then encourage students to become self-sufficient problem solvers.

Getting Unstuck: Karen Brennan's "8 for 8"

This 8:13 minute video gives techniques for facilitating classrooms of students who are working on projects.

The Giraffe and the Platypus

This is an activity that allows teachers in a workshop to experience and explore the equity issue involved in differences in background knowledge of students.

Interview with Hal Scheintaub

Teachers with GUTS interviewed Hal Scheintaub and demo of StarLogo Nova models created by his students on August 2, 2017.

Teaching Equity Resources

Here are links to the resources used in CS in Science workshops to discuss equity in computer science.

Project GUTS teacher & facilitator guides

These guides are aimed at helping teachers or workshop facilitators help their students or participants be independent learners while working with computer models. They are a work in progress - final versions will be uploaded soon. Please feel free to point out any corrections or additions in a discussion thread -- Thanks!

What is a Complex Adaptive System?

A brief explanation of the characteristics of Complex Adaptive Systems, with a few examples of activities that demonstrate these characteristics.

Complex Adaptive Systems Background Resources

The attached files can provide teachers and students with some simple background explanations of complex adaptive systems and feedback loops.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology video - image of birds flocking

Complex Adaptive Systems Modeling Video

This short video (3:13 minutes) introduces complex adaptive systems and agent-based modeling concepts to middle-school students. It shows beautiful footage of birds flocking as an example of a complex adaptive system.

CS in Science videos -Link to Playlists for each Module and CS resources

This link will take you to the playlist for the Project GUTS/CS in Science youtube channel, where videos for each module and for teaching and StarLogo Nova tips are organized.

Characteristics of a complex adaptive system

Summary of CAS concepts

Image of students at computer from elegantthemes.com

Model Design Form

Here are pdf, docx, and google docs links to the Model Design Form, used in Project GUTS CS in Science Modules.

The Greenhouse Effect

A short video on the basics of the greenhouse effect, used in CS in Science, Module 2 (Greenhouse gas model).

Beaker with silver nitrate solution and copper pipe

Silver Nitrate Production video

A short video showing "Silver Production from Silver Nitrate using a Copper Pipe" - used if wet lab activity not available for CS in Science Module 4 (Chemical Reactions)

Introduction to Climate Modeling

This document gives background information for students to use with CS in Science Module 5 (Greenhouse Gas).

Model Observation Form

This form is used to capture a learner's thinking while observing a model.

Pair Programming video

This short video (2:51 minutes) features two middle school girls describing and practicing pair programming. It is a great introduction to this method of learning programming and creating models.

Computational Science video

A short video (1:27) on the computational science cycle, used in Project GUTS CS in Science (Modules 2-4).

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