Chapter 1: Computational Thinking in Elementary Classrooms: A Toolkit to Scaffold Teacher Learning

In this chapter, we present a toolkit developed to support elementary teachers as they integrate computational thinking (CT) practices into their classrooms through unplugged mathematics and science activities. We describe the elements of the toolkit, which include a reference guide, lesson screener, and lesson planner, and describe how we used them in professional development. We also discuss specific examples of how we related each of our four focal CT practices (abstraction, decomposition, patterns, and debugging) to elementary classroom activities. To conclude the chapter, we provide an example of how we used these unplugged experiences to support elementary teachers transition from thinking about CT in unplugged contexts to thinking about how to use CT to bring computationally rich activities to their classrooms.