Students will work collaboratively to explore how computer science connects to many industries and the world around them. K-5 students will focus on how CS changes everything around them, and 6-12 students will identify connections to many career industries.
The following activities are based on a 1-day (about 45 minute) class session. Further below on this webpage, you will find suggestions and additional extension activities to stretch out this lesson.
CS Connections for K-5
Computer Science is Changing Everything Video
Watch Video: CS is Changing Everything - Code.org (5:34 minutes)
Guiding Questions:
What is the main message of the video?
What are ways that CS changes things around you?
Reflection Question:
Do you agree or disagree with the message, “CS is changing everything?” Why or or why not?
Think-Pair-Share: Give students 3 minutes to reflect on the theme. With a partner, students each have 1 minute to share their reflection. As a whole group, have a few groups share their thoughts.
CS Connections for K-5
The video identifies how computer science changes six industries: Agriculture, Fashion, Medicine, Energy, Public Safety, and Art and Entertainment. This activity will provide students an opportunity to individually and collaboratively brainstorm how computer science changes these areas. The ideas in the video are a great place to start, but there are endless possibilities.
Provide students individual time to brainstorm ways that CS is changing their lives in the following areas.
Agriculture | Fashion | Medicine |
Energy | Public Safety | Art and Entertainment |
Allow students to share their ideas with a partner/group. Help students compile their ideas to create a more comprehensive list of how CS connects to things in the world around them.
CS is Changing Everything K-5 has print-ready worksheets that have 4 different versions: 6/page, 3/page, 2/page, 1/page. Decide on how you want to assign this activity to your students and utilize the table that best suits your lesson design. Keep in mind that some students need additional space to handwrite their responses and for those individuals, consider using the versions that have fewer categories per page.
This activity can be implemented in a variety of ways. Some student groups might appreciate more time to individually brainstorm, while others might want more time to discuss, or even draw how CS is changing a specific industry. The time allotment below is a general sketch of time allotment to focus on each category. If covering all six areas in one setting might be overwhelming for your group, consider focusing on one or two at a time.
Round Robin
This strategy provides students opportunities to collaborate with different groups of students and allows them a chance to get up and move around in between each round.
In groups of 3-4 students, provide students a prompt to discuss, for example, “How does computer science change fashion?” Provide them time to discuss. As a whole class, ask for a few students to share ideas discussed. Then, play music to have the students get up and move around the room (like musical chairs) and once the music stops, have students find a new seat (that’s hopefully with a new group of classmates). Then in this round, provide the next prompt and so forth.
Optimistic Closure
After learning more about how CS is changing everything, answer the following question:
What are new ways that you learned how computer science is changing how you live your life?
K-5 Lesson Plan Breakdown - 45 minutes
# mins | Description |
6 | CS is Changing Everything Video |
5 | Video Reflection: Think-Pair-Share |
5 | Video Class Debrief Introduction to 6 Categories Activity Instructions - Round Robin |
4 | How CS is Changing Agriculture |
4 | How CS is Changing Fashion |
4 | How CS is Changing Medicine |
4 | How CS is Changing Energy |
4 | How CS is Changing Public Safety |
4 | How CS is Changing Art & Entertainment |
5 | Optimistic Closure |
CS Connections for 6-12
Computer Science is Changing Everything Video
Watch Video: CS is Changing Everything - Code.org (5:34 minutes)
Guiding Questions:
What is the main message of the video?
What are ways that CS changes things around you?
Reflection Question:
Do you agree or disagree with the message, “CS is changing everything?” Why or or why not?
Think-Pair-Share: Give students 3 minutes to reflect on the theme. With a partner, students each have 1 minute to share their reflection. As a whole group, have a few groups share their thoughts.
The video identifies how computer science changes six industry categories: Agriculture, Fashion, Medicine, Energy, Public Safety, and Art and Entertainment. However, each state has its unique way of categorizing industry sectors. In this activity, students will learn about different career categories and identify the many ways that CS is changing those fields. The ideas in the video are a great place to start, but there are endless possibilities.
Provide students individual time to brainstorm ways that CS is changing their lives in the list of categories you decide to use.
Here is an example of an industry sector list, but this list is not considered the national norm.
Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources
Architecture & Construction
Arts, A/V Technology & Communications
Business Management & Administration
Education & Training
Finance
Government & Public Administration
Health Science
Hospitality & Tourism
Human Services
Information Technology
Law, Public Safety, Corrections & Security
Manufacturing
Marketing
STEM
Transportation, Distribution & Logistics
The table below provides examples of Career Technical Education Industry Sectors by State. View the 50-State Comparison of Career Clusters to identify your state’s industry sectors.
California
| Texas
|
Hawaii
| New York
|
CS is Changing Everything 6-12 has print-ready worksheets that have 4 different versions: 8/page, 4/page, 2/page, 1/page. Decide on how you want to assign this activity to your students and utilize the table that best suits your lesson design. Keep in mind that some students need additional space to handwrite their responses and for those individuals, consider using the versions that have less categories per page. The prepopulated pages (pp.2-32) utilize the industry categories per the National Career Cluster Framework while the last pages (pp.33-36) are blank versions to serve as templates where you can input your state’s industry sectors.
Individual Brainstorming
Provide students time to either brainstorm or research ways that they know how computer science is changing the industry sectors that you mentioned.
Cooperative Learning
Depending on how you assign sectors to individual students/partners/groups, have students share with others what they came up with.
Class List of Ways that CS is Changing Everything
Compile all the ways that CS is changing all the industry sectors. This can be collected digitally or using posters that are posted around the room.
Optimistic Closure
After learning more about how CS is changing everything, answer the following questions:
What are new applications of computer science you learned about?
What surprised you?
6-12 Lesson Plan Breakdown - 45 minutes
# mins | Description |
6 | CS is Changing Everything Video |
5 | Video Reflection: Think-Pair-Share |
2 | Video Class Debrief |
2 | Introduction to Industry Sectors |
8 | Individual Brainstorm |
7 | Cooperative Learning |
10 | Class List of Ways that CS is Changing Everything |
5 | Optimistic Closure |
Extension Activities
For schools that have career pathways/academies, consider having students from different academies to meet and discuss what are ways that their career sectors intersect. This can potentially lead to designing a cross-curricular collaborative project between programs.