Louisiana Computer Science: 5th Grade
- Level Elementary School
- Number of Lessons 33
- Grade 5th
This course is aligned to LA computer science standards and is designed to provide instruction for Louisiana fifth grade students. It is meant to be taught approximately once per week. This course also includes interdisciplinary lessons in math and science to support thinking across disciplines.
See the full syllabus for all topics and activities, or explore the course to try it out.
UNITS - 8 (33 lessons)
Students get comfortable with the CodeHop Playground and key computer science vocabulary before the course begins.
Students identify the parts of a computing system and practice recognizing simple hardware and software problems.
Students model how data moves across networks and learn how to protect their privacy and digital reputation.
Students turn tables of information into line graphs, analyze data to make predictions, and run their own inquiry project.
Students compare and refine algorithms, plan with pseudocode, and design both an app and a game using conditionals and variables.
Students analyze how computing has changed as more people take part, and explore cybersecurity policies and global collaboration.
Students apply coding to fifth grade math, building converters and quiz games that model decimals, rates, and quadrilaterals.
Students use programming to explore science topics such as day and night, Earth systems, ecosystems, and pollution.
The course covers five required units that follow the Louisiana computer science standards: Computing Systems, Networks and the Internet, Data and Analysis, Algorithms and Programming, and Impacts of Computing. Fifth grade students model how data moves across networks, build line graphs from real data, compare and refine algorithms, and design both an app and a collaborative game.
The course is aligned to the Louisiana K-5 Student Standards for Computer Science. Its five required units are organized around the same categories as the standards -- Computing Systems, Networks and the Internet, Data and Analysis, Algorithms and Programming, and Impacts of Computing -- and every lesson that meets a specific standard lists that standard code beside the lesson title in the syllabus.
Students complete two multi-session design projects: an app designed with the design thinking process to solve a real user need, and a collaborative game built with loops, conditionals, and variables. They also run an inquiry project that graphs the results of their own investigation.
Lessons run about 45 minutes and are designed to be taught once per week across a full school year. Fifth grade includes 28 required class sessions, or roughly 38 sessions if you also teach the optional math and science lessons.
Students program in CodeHop, a block-based coding environment that runs in a web browser. Nothing needs to be installed, and student work saves automatically to their own accounts.
