Summary

As Curriculum Developer, you’ll be responsible for designing learning experiences for students,
giving feedback on game design, and writing teacher materials. For this take-home, you’ll focus
on these three tasks in the context of an introductory lesson on variables.

The task has three parts:

1. Set clear, standards-based learning objectives within a sensible learning trajectory
2. Critique and revise one existing intro and one existing level
3. Draft one new piece of teacher-facing content to help them implement the in-game
experience in classrooms

Your work will be evaluated according to instructional design, clear and concise writing, student
empathy and engagement, content area expertise, and creative thought partnership. Some
parts require detail-oriented work, other parts require a broad creative lens. This mimics the
variety of skills needed in the role.

These artifacts will be treated as a rough draft, giving us a reasonable sense of your skills in
these areas. Polish is not expected.

Background Info on Content

Introduction to Computer Science is the first course students take in their CodeCombat
experience.

To review the course content, create a teacher account at www.codecombat.com and go to the
course guide for Introduction to Computer Science: https://codecombat.com/teachers/courses
You can play through different levels using the drop down menu.

Part 1: Outline a Learning Trajectory

This portion is used to assess your content knowledge as well as your ability to unpack a
standard into clear learning objectives positioned within a broader learning trajectory.

Note: This section doesn’t have to be based on an existing content in the above sequence, but
rather what you think the best approach would be.

a) Using this CSTA standard as a basis, write learning objectives for an Intro on variables.

1B-AP-09: Create programs that use variables to store and modify data.
 b) What prior knowledge will students need to be ready to tackle your objectives?
c) Once they have mastered your objectives, what would students be ready to learn next?

Part 2: Critique and Revise Existing Content

This portion is used to evaluate your ability to write clear and concise student-facing content,
your instructional design instincts, your student empathy, and your approach to revising existing
content. It is detail-oriented.

a) Review the lesson slides (see email attachment) that are used to teach variables for
this course and demonstrate how you would improve the instruction.
i) Deliver the feedback/revisions in whatever form makes sense to you. Note: you
can make a copy of the slides and add comments as feedback.
ii) While any feedback is welcome, your focus should be on revising the text
components on each slide and within the speaker notes. You can also make
suggestions to any of the visual components on the slides.
b) Review the lesson plan (see email attachment), which is an alternative way to teach
variables for this course and demonstrate how you can revise the content so that the
slides and the lesson plan can be used in conjunction
i) Outline the revisions you would make to the lesson plan and the lesson slides so
that they can be used together to teach variables for this course.
ii) Deliver feedback/revisions in whatever form makes sense to you. Note: you can
make a copy of the document and add suggestions/comments.
c) Optional: Share any overall thoughts on the levels you have played for this lesson from
an educator’s lens:
i) In general, what is done well?
ii) What could be improved?

Part 3: Draft Teacher Materials

This portion will be used to evaluate your instructional design and curriculum writing skills. We’re
most interested in seeing what you think teachers need to be successful in the classroom and
how you communicate best practices for engaging students. It is not so detail-oriented.

Note: There are Teacher Materials available in the Teacher Resource Hub, but we would like
you to draft your own version of what you think would be the best approach.

Using this AP CSP standard, draft a lesson plan or lesson slides to teach the concept using
CodeCombat’s gaming experience.
AAP-1.B.3 - The value stored in a variable will be the most recent value assigned. For
example, with the following code:
a=1
b=a
a=2
The command display(b) still displays 1.

You can suggest the creation of new game levels to better illustrate this concept. You can
assume that the teacher has played through the content themselves and has a basic
understanding of computer science. Some key pieces you might include (but are not required
to):
- Key vocabulary
- Tips for differentiation
- Common student misconceptions
- Placement in curriculum
- Narrative background

You are free to include blended learning activities if you would like, but the focus should be on
supporting teachers to deliver the in-game content.

Include a brief rationale for your approach.

You are not being evaluated on your wordsmithing or design skills. A simple rough draft is good
enough, no need for perfect formatting.