Computer Science Week Activities

Can your students develop an algorithm to find treasure? In this introductory unplugged (no tech needed) activity, students will explore the computer science concepts of sequences and algorithms. Students will navigate a treasure map to arrive at the intended destination. To meet the needs of your classroom, students can use printable arrows, icon coding blocks, or word-based coding blocks to indicate the correct sequence from home to the treasure.

Can your students describe how each Boolean operator functions to search the data? In this activity, students will use physical manipulatives (assorted LEGO® Bricks) to model how Boolean Operators search for a dataset. Students will explore if/then conditional statements and Boolean code blocks such as AND, OR, and NOT.

This activity uses hands-on materials, imaginative play, and iterative development to help demystify Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning models. Students build and “train” a model of an animal to understand how computer scientists train a computer to identify and respond to visual inputs.

As fall approaches, many people enjoy going apple picking or to the pumpkin patch. What types of crops grow in your area? How are those crops harvested? Use each step of the engineering design process to solve this challenge! Design your invention using LEGO® bricks or whatever materials you have available to you.