In the beginning of the unit, students are introduced to the concepts of parameters and return, which allow for students to design functions that implement an algorithm.

Students learn how to design clean and reusable code that can be shared with a single classmate or the entire world. At the conclusion of the unit, students complete a week-long project in which they must design an app around a goal of their choosing that uses one of these data sets. Later in the unit, students are introduced to tools that allow them to import tables of real-world data to help further power the types of apps they can make. Like the previous unit, students learn the core concepts of lists, loops, and traversals through a series of EIPM lesson sequences. Students learn to build apps that use and process lists of information. The entire unit concludes with a three-day open-ended project in which students must build an app that makes a recommendation about any topic they wish. Each programming topic is covered in a specific sequence of lessons that ask students to ‘Explore’ ideas through hands-on activities, ‘Investigate’ these ideas through guided code reading, ‘Practice’ with sample problems, and apply their understanding as they ‘Make’ a one-day scoped project. Students expand the types of apps they can create as they learn how to store information (variables), make decisions (conditionals), and better organize code (functions). The unit concludes with students sharing the apps they develop with their classmates.

Along the way, students learn practices like debugging, pair programming, and collecting and responding to feedback, which they will be able to use throughout the course as they build ever more complex projects. Throughout the unit, they learn how to use ’s programming environment, App Lab, to design user interfaces and write simple event-driven programs.

Students work with partners to develop a simple app that teaches classmates about a topic of personal interest. Students design their first app while learning both fundamental programming concepts and collaborative software development processes.

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