2026 Cohort

An 18-lesson set of short morning-meeting activities (10 to 15 minutes each) that blend social-emotional learning with computer science ideas such as variables, data, sequences, and debugging. Students practice solving problems together through respectful conversation.

A yearlong plan that moves students from Hour of Code to CodeSpark puzzles, Scratch, and finally a Math Arcade Studio where they build and playtest their own multiplication games. The year ends with an expo for other classes, families, and administrators. Gabrielle also co-led a teacher study on whether AI can rewrite passages to a target reading level, with Jeremy Maller and Lesley Tompsett.

A fifth-grade art module in which students take an idea from a paper design to a three-dimensional model, practicing several art-making techniques and the careful, safe use of materials. It is tied to the national visual arts standards for generating ideas and developing craftsmanship.

A five-lesson module (225 to 250 minutes) in which students use block-based MakeCode Arcade to design, code, test, and improve an original video game for the BrainPad Arcade. Allison also built a set of classroom discussion cases on AI-related wrongful arrests.

A first-grade introduction to coding with Ozobots. Students follow color codes, identify inputs and outputs, explore beginner block coding on ozoblockly.com, and design a maze for their robots to solve.

A five-lesson, 450-minute unit in which students program Ozobot Evo robots with color-coded lines and simple block programming. Real-world contexts such as traffic and road design (speed codes for a school zone, for example) tie the coding to geometry and measurement standards.

A middle school sequence that moves from flow charts and pseudocode (starting with the peanut butter and jelly exact-instructions challenge) to block coding in Scratch and then to Sphero Bolt and micro:bit sensor projects. Students finish by building an original game and programming robots to complete challenges.

Fourth graders compare data centers using real-world numbers. They convert units, compare decimals, graph the results, and write an argument for which data center they would want in their community. The module connects to standards on decimals, measurement, data, claims and evidence, and the impacts of technology.

A six-lesson hands-on math module (60 to 75 minutes each) in which students use LEGO bricks and baseplates to model multiplication as rectangular arrays. Students plan buildings on grid paper, build within a brick budget, and scale designs the way architects estimate materials. It targets Indiana standard 4.C.2.

An interdisciplinary fourth-grade unit built around Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot. Students cite evidence about Roz’s decisions, study adaptation and ecosystems, and think about artificial intelligence and what it means to belong. It connects to Indiana’s 2023 standards in ELA, science, and computer science.

A middle school science module in which students explain how AI depends on data centers, weigh the energy and environmental costs, and use hands-on programming challenges to propose more sustainable computing. It connects to NGSS standards on thermal energy transfer, human impact on Earth systems, and designing solutions.

A cross-curricular second-grade unit built around the question of why pollinators matter to humans. Students write an opinion essay and an informational essay, explain what would happen if pollinators disappeared, and use addition to find totals in arrays. Andrea also tested how well Claude and Gemini estimate the Lexile level of curriculum passages and found both usually landed within one grade level of the published level.