5 students per class

COMPUTER SCIENCE SYLLABUS
PYTHON LEVEL 1: Grades 5 – 8

Course Description
This course introduces core programming basics—including variables, conditional statements, loops, debugging, and functions—via the Scratch programming language. In this course, students will explore and develop familiarity and fluency with computational concepts. At the completion of this course, students will be able to create a variety of Scratch projects that include sprites, sounds, math operations, variables, and logic. After students complete this course, they will be prepared to enroll in the Level 1 Python Course.

Course Breakdown

During each lesson, students will be assisted and guided to complete a project to ensure that
they can apply the concepts that they learn.
Lessons 1 – 10:
● We will discuss:
○ The benefits students can gain from learning computer programming.
○ The types of projects can be created with Scratch.
● Introduce the basics of scratch
● Use Scratch’s built-in sprites.
● Create your own sprites.
● How is “blocky” activities the same and/or different than coding?
● Students will learn how to:
○ Add movement to a sprite.
○ Add sound to a sprite.
○ Change the colors of a sprite.
● Students will learn how to add interactivity by…
○ Adding different types of events that can be triggered by the different keyboard
buttons.
○ Adding clickable “Buttons” to give the player several choices during the activity.
○ How to create your own variables.

Lesson 11 – 18:
● Students will learn about mathematical concepts in Scratch:
○ The four operations.
○ Random numbers.
○ Comparing numbers.
○ Logic and logical arguments.
○ Creating variables.
○ Using variables.
● Students will learn about if statements, if-else statements, and if-elif-else statements
● Students will learn about the concept of loops
● Students will learn how to use…
○ The Stop block.
○ The Wait block.
○ The Forever block.
○ Repeating actions.
○ The Broadcast block.
○ Conditional statements.
○ Nested control statements.

Lessons 19 – 24:
● Students will learn how to…
○ Link sounds to a sprite.
○ Play Scratch’s sounds.
○ Record and play your own sounds.
○ Add narration to your story.
● Adding and changing costumes.
● Adding and changing backgrounds.
● Changing the size of a sprite.
● Working with multiple sprites.
Lesson 25:
● Final Project Presentations