Computer Science Curriculum Options from Timberdoodle 5th grade kit
Timberdoodle 5th Grade Kit includes Computer Science!
This year my pre-teens discovered they liked to code after we used CodeRocket as part of the Timberdoodle Review team. We just scratched the surface of what computer science was and how they could use it, and this is why my 12 year old was excited to build his skills with the Base Kit, another Let’s Start Coding product and part of the Timberdoodle 5th grade Kit.
The Base Kit builds on the skills learned in 4th grade with the Code Rocket with the same easy to follow website based interface of lessons. Don’t worry if you are jumping into the Base Kit without previous coding experience, because the lessons are simple enough for beginners as well. My son just skipped the first few lessons that were review for him but were needed for beginners.
Hands-On Homeschool Computer Science Curriculum
What makes this Base Kit a unique homeschool computer science curriculum is the variety of components included. You get to customize your maker board during each lesson. The kit includes a maker board and a variety of components that plug into the maker board to do different things. The components include a variety of lights, buttons, turn knob and speaker.
My student was most excited about being able to customize the maker board with the elements he chose. He loved using only the lights or sounds or swapping out the different colored lights to make it do what he wanted. It was a more hands on activity that just writing code and sending it to the maker board to do what the code said, he got to build the maker board as well.
Easy to Follow Coding Lessons
Each lesson teaches a very specific coding term or skill, gently building on the previous lesson.
From the Lesson menu the student selects the lesson they want to work on. There is one login, which makes it easy to access from any online device. The lesson page lists the components needed and had the coding workspace preloaded with the example code. They upload the example code to their maker board to watch it work, followed by an instructional video explaining how it works and the different code blocks used.
My student had fun trying their own things as they learned more and grew in confidence. It is easy to explore beyond the lesson because the coding workspace is fully editable and can be changed by the student to be whatever they want it to be.
As a parent I really enjoy the Base Kit because it is so easy for my student to complete independently. I love that they have easy to use tools to explore their interests and grow in their technology skills. I don’t need any coding skills to assist them with this kit.
Read Our Other Computer Science Reviews
Blue Ribbon Project
We are a 4-H family which helps us explore a variety of new things and also provides my kids with service and leadership opportunities. My 12 year old decided to sign up for Computer Science as a project area this year and used the Base Kit for his fair project.
He used the Chapter 2 lessons on Combining Variables to make his fair project code. He programed the lights and speaker to be in sync to a set of random tones of different lengths and set it on a loop to repeat forever.
The judge was impressed with his knowledge of the different components and way he adapted the assignment code to do new things, and awarded him a blue ribbon!
Coding Base Kit for Outside the Box Kids
We have used several Let’s Start to Coding products this year as our homeschool computer science curriculum. Each one has it’s own strengths. We love how gentle the lessons are, building very slowly so the student can feel confident and not overwhelmed learning computer programming.
The hands on nature of getting to choose their components on the maker board makes the Base Kit exciting and more hands on than the others we have used, which just involve typing code and uploading it to the installed components on provided maker board.
The gentle lessons and encouraged exploration are a strength of this computer science curriculum. It also meant that sometimes their discoveries led to them figuring out what was needed for the next lesson on their own. It is much better than getting frustrated because lessons are overwhelming or assumes information that was inferred in a previous lesson.
This Base Kit is a terrific gentle approach to helping our kids learn C++ programming. It makes a great elective for students and can be found in the Timberdoodle 5th grade kit.
