Computational Thinking Help and Inspiration
Computational Thinking Mentors
If you feel confident with Computational Thinking and are using it in your classes, consider being a CT Mentor. CT mentors will be available to answer questions and share ideas with others who'd like support in implementing CT. Contact the SIP team if you'd like to be a mentor or have a mentor.
Why do we teach Computational Thinking?
Computer science is more than just coding. Thinking like a computer scientist involves more skills than just being able to write code. Educators need students to bring their creativity and ability to think collaboratively to a problem in order to solve it. The computer will not solve problems without a human first working through how to approach the problem.
The 2016 ISTE Standards for Students defines the goal for computational thinkers as “students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.” For students to become computational thinkers, they must develop their skills in this area.
LEGO Education sees computational thinking as a fundamental skill of analytical thinking that will support students to solve problems through computing and computer applications. Students need to learn not only how to approach and solve problems in general, but to solve them with the added component of mathematical or computing processes. Finding success in these processes will better prepare students to use coding and computing applications in the future.