Planting the Seed: An Elm-Based Introductory Computer Science Curriculum for High School Students

Abstract

Growing interest in computer science education as a vehicle for improving educational outcomes and career opportunities has led to a surge in policies aimed at expanding computer science education in K-12 schools. This expansion must be met with new educational resources, especially freely and publicly available curricula for introductory courses. This thesis contributes to this effort by presenting a high school-level introductory computer science curriculum that uses the Elm programming language. Since Elm has rarely been used as an introductory language, I justify my choice by identifying desirable features of introductory programming languages and demonstrating that Elm exhibits these features. The curriculum includes twelve hours worth of lesson plans, eight homework assignments, and a new online learning environment. All material and tools will be made publicly and freely available and are designed for teachers with any level of experience with Elm. I discuss my experience teaching a pilot program using my curriculum in a Boston, Massachusetts high school.