TEACHING STRATEGIES

Teaching Strategies for Global Impact

When you’re used to teaching programming and traditional CS content, working the global impacts of computing into class lessons can be a challenge. After all, isn’t that more like social science?

Indeed, teaching about social impacts requires a different set of teaching strategies than teaching programming. And if you’re teaching AP Computer Science Principles, there’s the additional challenge of preparing students for the Explore Performance Task, in which students are required to research a computing innovation and write about its impact.

Beyond day-to-day lesson plans, the Teach Global Impact collaborators have developed these articles and notes on meta-strategies to help you tackle social impacts in a CS classroom.

Our Strategy Recommendations: Articles and Notes

Where Global Impact Fits in a CSP Syllabus

Global Impact cuts across all of the other content in AP Computer Science Principles, touching on all the other Big Ideas in the CSP framework. (And even if you're not teaching CSP, you'll find that the social impacts of computing can easily intersect with whatever major concepts you're organizing your class around!) Sequencing There is [...]

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Support for Advanced Content-Area Reading

Wait, What? Reading in a CS Class? One thing that makes CSP unusual for a computer science course is the amount of reading that will necessarily be involved, especially where Global Impact is concerned. Many teachers use the book Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion (B2B) as a "textbook" [...]

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Teaching Online Research and Technical Writing

Perhaps the most unusual feature of AP Computer Science Principles in comparison with the typical high school CS course is that it includes writing, and specifically writing backed up by research. Especially if teaching these skills is new to you, it can be challenging to prepare students for the Explore PT, help them meet the [...]

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Cooperative Learning

Why Cooperative Learning? One important engagement strategy recommended for CSP -- or any CS classroom! -- is cooperative learning. Cooperative learning (CL) is more than just simple “group work”. It involves specific structures and processes that have been proven to improve learning for all students. In these types of classroom activities, each student is accountable [...]

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Global Impact and Programming Assignments

Getting students thinking about the global impact of computing requires setting aside some time for focused class discussion, exploratory activities, critical reading, and the like. But there are also plenty of opportunities to tie global impact into the nitty-gritty of programming assignments. "What can you do to enhance the benefits of this program and mitigate [...]

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Using Current Events in the Classroom

Highlights from the news make a great attention-grabber at the beginning of class, and provide handy concrete examples for thinking about the global impacts of computing. Visit our Computing in the News page for a curated feed of current news stories that demonstrate the impact of computing innovations, along with tips for using them in [...]

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Other Sources for Strategies

Project-Based Learning and Inquiry-Based Learning

Teaching Global Impact will necessarily involve a lot of exposition (reading, videos, lectures) and discussion or reflective writing in which students process, respond to, and reinforce what they're learning. However, there is still plenty of room for creative project-based learning around the impacts of computing, and even for inquiry-based or problem-based learning -- especially when [...]

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Impact in Active Recruiting

Broadening participation in computer science to a more diverse set of students requires more than just offering a great course that uses social impact to highlight the relevance of what you're teaching. It takes a focused effort within the culture of your whole school to change students' perceptions of what CS is about -- and [...]

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Leading Classroom Discussions

Often, a simple class discussion is the best format for getting students engaged with Global Impact topics. ...But leading a discussion isn't always "simple"! It can be challenging to make sure all students are involved, not just a few big talkers. We recommend using cooperative learning strategies to provide structure, especially for smaller-group discussions. Good [...]

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