Ann Gadzikowski

This book provides a systematic set of units for teaching coding, robotics, and engineering to young students. The system used is aligned with K-12 computer science framework and requires no previous computer science training on the part of the teacher.

Each unit features four different levels for the various ages between Pre-K and 2nd grade. Each unit is designed for five days and features centers. One thing I really like about the centers is that they include physical, non-computer things show more like blocks and movement activities. It makes it clear to students that the coding they are doing have parallels in the real world and are not a completely foreign language. Each day in the lesson starts with a welcome circle that features a book that will help students begin to think about the core concept of the day.

The book provides a clear list of what items, apps, etc are needed for each unit and information on what the teacher will need to do to prepare to teach the unit. There are also resources and book lists that can supplement the lessons. I can see that this book will be very helpful for teaching coding, robotics, and engineering to young students in a way that makes it easy for the students and the teacher. show less

For teachers of young students (pre-K through 2nd grade), this book offers general suggestions and specific examples of how to integrate the STEM topics of computing programming, robots, and engineering into your curriculum.

Initially I mis-read the title as applying to grades through the end of high school, so I was surprised at how slender the book is. But when I realized that the book was just for a few grades, I realized that there is a lot of material here! There is text for Teacher show more Prep; ideas for discussions; rubrics; sample projects; sample activities for times when the children get antsy; suggested assignments; and more.

This book should be a great help to a teacher who wants to add these topics to their classroom but is unsure of how to begin. show less

Received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. While I teach an older audience I requested this book as my students have little to no coding experience. The ideas and lessons presented in this book have been tried and tested so I don't have to reinvent the wheel just scale it to my high school age students. Great ideas for lessons and ways to include coding and robotics for an age group that some people might think are too young - but this book shows that show more you young students are capable of learning these 21st century skills. show less

I received this book for free as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

This is a complete curriculum for teaching simple programming concepts to very young, but very bright children. Since I haven't attempted to execute this program, I cannot comment on how well it works in practice. However, it does look to be well-structured, broken up into appropriate length lessons, and most importantly, fun for the kind of child who would be interested in this kind of thing.

I suspect my show more children would enjoy such a program, which is about the best endorsement a non-educator parent could give. show less