Answers.Body: <p>Scratch comes with a large document of <a href="https://scratch.mit.edu/educators" rel="nofollow noreferrer">day-by-day lessons along with labs</a>.  As a side benefit, due to the exploratory nature of Scratch, creating new assignments is fairly simple.  &quot;Create a movie about ____&quot; or &quot;create a small game that involves bouncing&quot; or &quot;create a game that responds to sounds as the controls&quot;.</p>
  <p>Actually, that blank is great.  You can tell the students to create a &quot;movie&quot; or a game about any topic the kids are studying elsewhere in the curriculum, and allow them to make use of all of the techniques they've learned and explore other parts of the program.</p>
  <p>To my thinking, it's also advantageous to use scratch concurrently with logo, since using two systems will introduce the key computer science concepts twice within two giant, open, exploratory worlds.  This increases the chances that the kids will see the parallels and really begin to absorb the computer science concepts.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2020-12-03T13:21:18.957Z
Answers.Text: Well, Scratch is a good choice for sparking the interest, but for the systematic course we're looking for something with text as basis. Fantasy consoles like pico-8, Coumir with executors: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D1%83%D0%9C%D0%B8%D1%80 etc. Something simple as an ecosystem able to show basic concepts at the core of CS.
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Answers.CreationDate: 2020-12-02T21:23:48.130Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-12-02T21:23:48.130Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Ben I.
Body: <p>Good afternoon, colleagues!
  We're planning a year-long intro course to computer science for middle schoolers and going to use Logo as a main language but also looking for alternatives available to 5-6th graders. I'm looking for learning materials we can start to work from. Can you recommend anything that has a week-by-week plan with homeworks and in-class assignments to see if we're able to fit in limits we have?</p>
  <p>Thank you!</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-12-01T13:39:23.383Z
Comments.Text: I suggest that you ask a question like this on one of the APCS lists and on the SIGCSE list. You may find people there who have done something like this.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Buffy
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-12-01T20:07:35.217Z
Comments.Text: You mean mailing lists like this one? https://sigcse.org/sigcse/membership/mailing-lists.html
Comments.UserDisplayName: paus
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-12-01T20:20:10.410Z
Comments.Text: Yes, the sigcse members list. You need to join SIGCSE but the cost is reasonable (by US standards, anyway).
Comments.UserDisplayName: Buffy
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-12-06T16:26:34.957Z
Comments.Text: MIT Scratch is good to start with, then Berkeley snap has everything you need to teach first year undergrad. Then python turtle module for when you need to do text based.
Comments.UserDisplayName: ctrl-alt-delor
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-12-08T09:55:50.107Z
Comments.Text: @Buffy can you share the link to APCS community mailing list with me? I cannot google it by just "apcs mailing list" or "apcs".
Comments.UserDisplayName: paus
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-12-08T12:16:37.730Z
Comments.Text: AP is part of the College Board: https://apcommunity.collegeboard.org
Comments.UserDisplayName: Buffy
Tags: <introductory-lesson><functional-programming>
Title: Logo course scaffolding
ThreadText: # Logo course scaffolding
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2020-12-01)
  
  Good afternoon, colleagues!
  We're planning a year-long intro course to computer science for middle schoolers and going to use Logo as a main language but also looking for alternatives available to 5-6th graders. I'm looking for learning materials we can start to work from. Can you recommend anything that has a week-by-week plan with homeworks and in-class assignments to see if we're able to fit in limits we have?
  
  Thank you!
  
  **Tags:** introductory-lesson, functional-programming
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: I suggest that you ask a question like this on one of the APCS lists and on the SIGCSE list. You may find people there who have done something like this.  
  > **username_0**: You mean mailing lists like this one? https://sigcse.org/sigcse/membership/mailing-lists.html  
  > **username_1**: Yes, the sigcse members list. You need to join SIGCSE but the cost is reasonable (by US standards, anyway).  
  > **username_2**: MIT Scratch is good to start with, then Berkeley snap has everything you need to teach first year undergrad. Then python turtle module for when you need to do text based.  
  > **username_0**: @username_1 can you share the link to APCS community mailing list with me? I cannot google it by just "apcs mailing list" or "apcs".  
  > **username_1**: AP is part of the College Board: https://apcommunity.collegeboard.org  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_3 on 2020-12-02. Score: 3
  
  Scratch comes with a large document of [day-by-day lessons along with labs](https://scratch.mit.edu/educators). As a side benefit, due to the exploratory nature of Scratch, creating new assignments is fairly simple. "Create a movie about \_\_\_\_" or "create a small game that involves bouncing" or "create a game that responds to sounds as the controls".
  
  Actually, that blank is great. You can tell the students to create a "movie" or a game about any topic the kids are studying elsewhere in the curriculum, and allow them to make use of all of the techniques they've learned and explore other parts of the program.
  
  To my thinking, it's also advantageous to use scratch concurrently with logo, since using two systems will introduce the key computer science concepts twice within two giant, open, exploratory worlds. This increases the chances that the kids will see the parallels and really begin to absorb the computer science concepts.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Well, Scratch is a good choice for sparking the interest, but for the systematic course we're looking for something with text as basis. Fantasy consoles like pico-8, Coumir with executors: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D1%83%D0%9C%D0%B8%D1%80 etc. Something simple as an ecosystem able to show basic concepts at the core of CS.  
  
  ---
  
  