Computer Science Integration

The CSI toolkit is designed to support professional learning practitioners who are interested in delivering  high-quality workshops to educators. Featuring CS integration lessons that are aligned to the California K-12 Computer Science Standards and organized by their respective concept areas, this toolkit offers ready-made resources, and research-based strategies that encourage student inquiry into STEM subjects and career fields.  Practitioners are encouraged to copy, modify, and use the materials (with attribution) to meet the needs of the educators they serve, fostering engaging, standards-aligned, and impactful professional learning experiences.

Looking for new ways to generate interest in computer science and connect your science and math curriculum to real-world STEM careers? The CS4NorCal collection of integrated computer science lessons are proven to engage students and potentially increase comprehension of science and math standards.

Each lesson is structured around the proven 5E instructional framework to guide students through a cycle of discovery and application. Aligned with California education state standards for CS, math, and science, these activities challenge students to solve problems by mimicking the work of scientists: using sensors, analyzing data, and understanding the real-world impacts of technology. Explore the lesson resources below to access engaging, hands-on projects that are shown to increase student interest and significantly improve performance in science.

Organized by CS concept, explore the lessons below:

Impacts of Computing 

As defined in the California K-12 Computer Science Standards, this concept explores the social, ethical, and cultural impacts of computing technologies.

• High-Low Lesson Plan: This lesson examines the real-world impact of a technological solution to a community problem. Students analyze the Wello Waterwheel, an invention designed to help transport water more easily. They use a "3-Reads" strategy to explore a video about the invention, identifying quantities and asking questions about its effects. The core of the lesson has students calculate the potential impact on the local water supply (the hydrologic system) if the entire village were to adopt this new technology. By designing a system to monitor the environmental effects of the Waterwheel, students directly engage with how technological innovations have societal and environmental consequences, a key aspect of understanding the impacts of computing.

Data and Analysis 

This concept focuses on how computers collect, store, represent, and analyze data to gain insights.

• Earthquake Safety Lesson Plan: This hands-on lesson teaches students about earthquake safety and data analysis. Students build model cities and use a shake table to simulate an earthquake. A micro:bit sensor gathers acceleration data from the model buildings, which students then analyze to find a correlation between building height and shaking frequency. Finally, they use their findings to design safer structures, learning how data can be used to mitigate natural hazards.

• Seeing Color: This lesson begins with students exploring how humans see color of pigments and of light.  Students then delve into how computers represent colors with ratios of red, green, and blue light by learning to program RGB LEDs.  Students learn how to make data visualizations using a strip of neopixels (RGB LEDs) as an output to an environmental sensor functioning as the input. The knowledge gained in this lesson is used in the following lessons.  

• Secret Handshake Machine Learning: In this unplugged activity, students invent a secret handshake.  Then using micro:bit CreateAI, they apply a machine learning program to train the micro:bit to detect their handshake as an input.  Students may use their knowledge gained in the Seeing Color lesson to incorporate LED light displays as an output.  It powerfully illustrates how students may program a computer to use data to recognize patterns and react with a specific output.

Algorithms and Programming 

This concept involves creating and implementing the step-by-step instructions that computers follow.

• Water Turbidity: In this lesson, students use their skills gained from the coding challenges to develop a turbidity sensor—to test water clarity. They will invent a sensor to take readings, connecting the abstract concept of an algorithm to a real-world scientific investigation.

• Atmospheric Pressure: Similar to the turbidity lesson, students follow an algorithmic process to collect and interpret data about atmospheric pressure, reinforcing the idea that algorithms are essential for both computers and scientific inquiry.  They may also use the knowledge gained in Seeing Color to create a classroom data display of the current atmospheric pressure.

Networks and the Internet 

This concept explores how computers are connected to share information and resources.

• Parachutes: Students create a parachute that will deliver emergency supplies, landing with the lowest impact possible.  To monitor impact data they create a network between an acceleration sensor on the parachute to a central computer able to capture data from each parachute, thus modeling the role of protocols in transmitting data across networks and the Internet.

• Fireflies: Students learn about the meaning and uniqueness behind the different firefly species.  They then design a way to mimic a firefly species using LED lights and wireless sensor networks.  This lesson mimics actual research done by scientists to learn more about fireflies.  

• Infection Game: A networking simulation where a biological virus spreads through a population, the classroom, via the proximity of one another (signal strength). This game demonstrates how information propagates through a network, illustrating concepts like nodes, connectivity, and network topology.

Computing Systems 

This concept focuses on the components of a computer (hardware and software) and how they work together.

• Noise Awareness Day: Students use a computing device with a microphone (input) to measure sound levels in their environment. The device then processes this data and displays a result (output) onto a website. This lesson provides a clear and practical example of the fundamental input-process-output model of a computing system and uses the computing concepts learned throughout the previous lessons.

The CSI model lessons provide a robust and thoughtfully structured pathway for students to engage with the five core concepts of computer science. By grounding each activity in the 5E instructional model and aligning it with state standards, the curriculum ensures a consistent, inquiry-based learning experience that builds from one concept to the next. The ultimate success of these lessons hinges not just on their design, but on their execution with students. “The following section explores research relating to the impacts of the lessons and the professional learning experience.”