Computer Science Education Week

To make this run smoothly, parents will need:

1. Bookmarks: Save links to Code.org/learn, Teachable Machine, and Quick, Draw! on the devices ahead of time.

2. Supplies: Painter’s tape (for Friday), a jar of peanut butter/jelly (for Tuesday), and paper/markers.

3. The "Expert" Badge: Remember that you don't need to know the answers! If a child asks "How does it know that?", a perfect answer is: "I don't know, let's ask the AI!"

• Level 1 (K-5): The "Robot Vision" Scavenger Hunt (Unplugged)

  • Activity: Have the student walk around the house and "collect" data. Give them a specific category (e.g., "Find things that are soft").

  • The Lesson: Explain that AI learns by looking for patterns. "If we show a robot 10 fluffy pillows, it learns what 'soft' looks like."

• Level 2 (6-8): AI for Oceans (Code.org)

  • Activity: A very popular interactive game where students train an AI to clean up the ocean by identifying "fish" vs. "trash."

  • The Lesson: Teaches the concept of "Training Data"—if you teach the AI wrong, it makes mistakes!

• Level 3 (9-12): Google Teachable Machine (Web-based)

  • Activity: Use the webcam to train a real AI model to recognize their hand gestures (e.g., "Thumbs up" vs. "Peace sign") or different objects (e.g., holding a pen vs. holding a mug).

  • The Lesson: Direct experience with Neural Networks and classification.

Suggested viewing to start your day or watch during lunch!

Theme: Computers don't have eyes like we do—they see patterns in pixels.

• For Kids (K–5):

  • SciShow Kids: How Eyes Let Us See The World (Good primer on human vision vs. sensors)

  • Code.org: AI for Oceans - Intro Video (Explains training data perfectly for kids)

• For Teens (6–12):

  • Code.org: Computer Vision - How AI Works (Clear, visual explanation of how pixels work)

  • TEDx: Seeing Beyond: Computer Vision (Inspirational talk on how this tech helps people)

• Level 1 (K-5): The "PB&J Robot" (Unplugged)

  • Activity: The parent is the "Robot." The child must give step-by-step instructions to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. If they say "put peanut butter on bread" but don't say "open the jar," the parent keeps the jar closed and tries to spread it!

  • The Lesson: Computers only do exactly what you tell them.

• Level 2 (6-8): Akinator (The Web Genie)

  • Activity: The student thinks of a character (from a movie, book, or history), and the AI tries to guess who it is by asking "Yes/No" questions.

  • The Lesson: This is a perfect demonstration of a Binary Search Tree or Decision Tree. The AI is narrowing down millions of possibilities by cutting the list in half with every question (e.g., "Is your character real?" immediately eliminates 50% of the database). Challenge your student to "stump" the AI. If they win, the AI will ask them to enter the name of their character. Explain that they just updated the algorithm for the next person!

• Level 3 (9-12): The "Bias" Debate (Discussion/Writing)

  • Activity: Watch the short video "Coded Bias" (trailer on YouTube) or read an article about facial recognition.

  • The Lesson: Discuss: Why might an AI have trouble recognizing certain faces? Who programmed it? (Connects CS to Ethics/Social Studies).

Suggested viewing to start your day or watch during lunch!

Theme: Being specific is the most important part of coding.

• For Kids (K–5):

  • BBC Learning: What Is An Algorithm? (Fun animation using a toothbrushing routine)
  • Craig n' Dave: The Peanut Butter & Jelly Algorithm (Watch after you do the activity for a laugh!)

• For Teens (6–12):

  • Crash Course Computer Science: Intro to Algorithms (Great overview of how algorithms solve problems)

  • TED-Ed: The Prisoner's Dilemma (A famous game theory algorithm example)

• Level 1 (K-5): Quick, Draw! (Google)

  • Activity: Go to quickdraw.withgoogle.com. The child draws a doodle (like a cat), and the AI tries to guess what it is in under 20 seconds.

  • The Lesson: Neural networks recognizing shapes and doodles.

• Level 2 (6-8): Code a Dance Party (Code.org)

  • Activity: Use block-based coding to make characters dance to popular songs (this year's theme often includes AI-generated backgrounds or moves).

  • The Lesson: Sequencing and loops.

• Level 3 (9-12): AI Art Generator Prompting

  • Activity: Use a free tool like Bing Image Creator or Canva Magic Media. Challenge them to generate a specific scene (e.g., "A futuristic city in the style of Van Gogh").

  • The Lesson: "Prompt Engineering"—learning how to speak to the AI to get the desired result.

Suggested viewing to start your day or watch during lunch!

Theme: Can a computer paint or write poetry? How does it learn styles?

• For Kids (K–5):

  • Code.org: How AI Works: Neural Networks (Simplifies the complex "brain" of the computer)

• For Teens (6–12):

  • Code.org: Generative AI: Input & Pre-training (Explains how tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney actually work)

  • Crash Course AI: Neural Networks and Deep Learning (Deeper dive for high schoolers)

• Level 1 (K-5): "Mad Libs" Style Coding (Unplugged)

  • Activity: Write a story with blanks. Ask the child to fill them in. Read it aloud.

  • The Lesson: This is a simplified version of how "Large Language Models" (like ChatGPT) work—they are guessing which word fits best in the blank!

• Level 2 (6-8): Semantris (Google Research)

  • Activity: A fast-paced word association game (like Tetris with words). The AI gives a word (e.g., "Table"), and the student must type a related word (e.g., "Chair" or "Wood"). The AI scores how "close" the relationship is and clears the blocks. (Choose "Arcade Mode" for speed or "Blocks Mode" for strategy).

  • The Lesson: It teaches Natural Language Processing (NLP). It shows that computers don't just read words as letters; they understand the connections and context between ideas.

• Level 3 (9-12): The "Turing Test" Experiment

  • Activity: Have the student chat with a "classic" chatbot (like Eliza, available online) vs. a modern one (like ChatGPT).

  • The Lesson: Compare the differences. Does the new one feel "alive"? Why?

Suggested viewing to start your day or watch during lunch!

Theme: How do computers understand human speech?

• For Kids (K–5):

  • StoryBots: How Computers Work (Binary & Logic) (Basic intro to computer language)

• For Teens (6–12):

  • TED-Ed: The Turing Test: Can a Computer Pass for a Human? (Classic philosophical question)

  • Code.org: Chatbots & Large Language Models (Explains the "next word prediction" concept)

• Whole Family Activity: "Human Sorting Network" (Unplugged)

  • Setup: Use painter's tape to create lines on the floor (search "Sorting Network floor game" for a diagram or click the button link below).

  • Action: Have the kids walk the lines. When they meet at a junction, they have to compare numbers (e.g., "Who is older?" or "Who is taller?"). The "winner" goes one way, the other goes the other way. By the end, the family is sorted by age/height automatically!

  • Why: It’s active, hilarious, and teaches how computers sort data.

Suggested viewing to start your day or watch during lunch!

Theme: Organizing information quickly.

• For Everyone (Perfect for the Activity):

  • CS Unplugged: Sorting Networks in Action (Important: This is the exact video that demonstrates the "floor tape" game you will be playing. Watch this first!)

• For Kids (K–5):

  • BBC Learning: What is an Algorithm? (Short clips on grouping items)

• For Teens (6–12):

  • Computerphile: Sorting Algorithms Visualized (Mesmerizing visualization of how computers sort colors/sounds)

  • Udiprod: Quick Sort Visualization (Shows how fast computers can sort data using similar logic.)

Have your students open up their web browser and:

1. Go to kids.getepic.com/students
2. Enter class code jey4917
3. Select their name

Don't see your student's name in the list? Email Holly hshier@yksd.com to have them added to our Raven Homeschool Classroom.

K-2nd: https://www.kodable.com/connect?code=mdr27qk9

3rd-5th: https://www.kodable.com/connect?code=6xtvtfta

We are caught in an infinite loop! Someone has re-written our classroom code and we are stuck. We will keep having the same day over and over unless we can find the correct code to debug the system. The correct code has been locked in the Breakout EDU box - once we figure out the combos, we will can escape the loop and move forward.

What is going on? We pushed the wrong button (again) and everything is now written in code, and not all the same code! We need to read and interpret the codes so we can run our programs and Breakout!

Our Code, the Code that lets us access the internet and communicate with our friends, listen to music, and watch videos has been messed with! Someone has played a trick and added a Jenga Code! If we remove the Jenga Code, our entire program will collapse, which means no Internet for who knows how long! We need to carefully fix our code to save our Internet access, keep it from collapsing and Breakout!

Students can join our Raven Homeschool Juneau class on BreakoutEDU and play fun games. You can also create your own games for your friends to play, or play other student-created games.

• Step 1 - Access student login page at: https://student.breakoutedu.com/
• Step 2 - Click on the SIGN UP or LOG IN button.
• Step 3 - Input our class code 4P2XEP and click next.
• Step 4 - Follow the prompts to create a username and password and confirm your details.