Exploring Computer Science

The Exploring Computer Science (ECS) materials provide daily lesson plans and resources which support the teaching of six instructional units:

1. Human Computer Interaction
2. Problem Solving
3. Web Design
4. Introduction to Programming (with Scratch)
5. Robotics; and
6. Computing Applications.

The curriculum adopts an inquiry-based learning model and each unit concludes with an in-depth project. The instructional materials have been developed for high school classrooms in Los Angeles Unified School District as an instruction tool for introducing students to the "computational thinking" of computer science.

In Unit 4 - Introduction to Programming, students will be introduced to some basic issues associated with program design and development. Students design algorithms and programming solutions to a variety of computational problems using Scratch. Programming problems include control structures, functions, parameters, objects and classes, structured programming and event-driven programming techniques.

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This curriculum was created under the auspices of the Broadening the Participation in Computing National Science Foundation grant, "Into the Loop: An University K-12 Alliance to Increase and Enhance the Computer Science Learning Opportunities for African-American, Latino/a, and Female Students in the Second Largest School District in the Country".  Principal Investigator: Jane Margolis (UCLA); Co-Principal Investigators Joanna Goode (University of Oregon), Todd Ullah (LAUSD), Deborah Estrin (UCLA).