The story of iBlocks, as told by: Otto McGuire, Computer Science Teacher*

Hi everyone – I’m Otto McGuire and I’m a colleague of Ms. Hope at Mulberry Middle School. I teach Computer Science. Our school has been really active in recent Computer Science For All initiatives – that’s why they hired me. Over the last few months I’ve watched Ms. Hope using her iBlock in her Science class. Her students are rocking through their autonomous car iBlock, and the strides they’ve made are impressing everyone. It’s made me kind of jealous! It’s exactly the kind of learning environment I need to teach Computer Science to students that are new to the concepts. The concepts need to be tied to real-life applications for them to have power, and that’s why the iBlock is such a great tool.

My principal must be a minder-reader. In our next staff meeting she asked me if I would be interested in an iBlock, too. You can be sure I jumped out of my chair with excitement. Turns out we are going to get our autonomous car iBlock re-written by Teq. It will be a similar curriculum, but will focus on Computer Science and the standards and skills that are most relevant in that field. And to make it even better, it will be fleshed out into a two-year experience for students. We’ll start in the sixth grade, and then continue in the seventh grade, where we’ll add complexity and build on year one. Who knows – maybe we can even extend it to eighth grade (it’s a great way to make sure our students are prepared for high school). Good thing iBlocks are a collaborative process – I have so many ideas about how we can work Computer Science into the autonomous car iBlock that I can’t wait to get Teq on the phone.

 Check back next week to hear more about Mulberry Middle School…

Miss earlier installments of the story? Read Part 1 and Part 2!

*This is a work of fiction that tells the story of iBlocks and how they could function in a school and impact student outcomes.

An iBlock (or instructional block) is a unique learning pathway that’s custom-built for your students. Together, we’ll create an iBlock that enables your students to explore, invent, and build the 21^st century skills they need to be successful in their academic and professional careers.

Learn more at teq.com/iblocks.