Category: CEP 814

• 814 Final Project: Navigating Our World Through Computational Thinking

  For my final project, I designed a third-grade social studies unit that weaves computational thinking into map skills and navigation. What began as a simple idea about teaching directions became…

• Automation — When “Almost” Isn’t Quite

  Automation felt straightforward at first. Systems follow rules. They remove repetitive work. They free up time and mental energy. Simple enough…or so I thought. For my automation creation, I created…

• Jedi, Debugging, and the Reality of Automation

  If there is one constant in this course, it’s this: MakeCode Arcade is my favorite part of every unit! For this creation, I built a Jedi-themed game. The concept sounds…

• Automation: Making Thinking Visible

  Unit 6 shifted my focus to automation, and it immediately felt relevant to students’ everyday lives. In my first activity, I brainstormed examples of automation my students already experience. Their…

• Seeing What Matters: Abstraction in Art and Computer Science

  For my final creation in Unit 5, I designed a lesson titled Seeing What Matters: Abstraction in Art and Computer Science. My key takeaway from this unit is that abstraction…

• When Abstraction Breaks…and Then Works

  This MakeCode project was focused on abstraction… and it humbled me. I went into it thinking it would be a quick build. My plan felt simple: instead of donuts subtracting…

• Abstraction, AI, and Seeing Patterns in Real Time

  This week, I explored several AI tools through the lens of abstraction and computational thinking, and I had an absolute blast! I started with Quick, Draw! and immediately went down…

• Abstraction Through a Mad Lib

  For this activity, I started with a detailed story about a doe and her two fawns. It was specific. It had setting, tone, personality, and imagery. Then I abstracted it.…

• What Abstraction Reveals…and What It Hides

  My next unit focused on abstraction, and it pushed my thinking in a different direction. In our first activity, I examined everyday examples of abstraction and identified what each one…

• Iterating Through Pattern Matching

  This week, I created a game in MakeCode Arcade focused on pattern matching. While I enjoyed building the mechanics, what stood out most to me was the music. In my…