Since 2014 Peabody Charter School has been using Processing to teach basic computer coding in a year long curriculum. This work was jointly designed and focuses on helping students feel empowered to tackle text based programming in a fun and creative way. The curriculum takes students through a sequence of exercises focused on developing their understanding of the 2D coordinate system, slowly building up their confidence through self discovery, spatial puzzles and creative exercises. As student's confidence with the 2D grid grows and their understanding of commands increases, more complex shapes are introduced and slowly additional computing concepts are added (variables and conditionals).

As the school transitioned to chromebooks, the curriculum has shifted to doing most of the work using online Processing editors. Specifically, this editor.

Paper worksheets help guide students through the exercises (which last 1-2 weeks depending on student progress through the exercises) and allow them to reflect using pencil and paper to further their knowdlege.

Current exercises include:
The beginning
Introducing Color
Circle Puzzles
Base Code for grid
Rectangle/Triangle Puzzle
House Puzzle
Base code for house
Color puzzle and pumpkin

Ant game
Base Code for Ant game
Winter scene
Base Code for winter scene
Introduction to Variables
Working with Variables I
Working with Variables II
Introduction to Random
Introduction to Conditionals
More fun with Conditionals I
More fun with Conditionals II

Note that in general, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Contact info:
email: zwood "at" calpoly.edu
and John.Wilcox "at" PeabodyCharter.net

Z. Wood home page