The Beauty and Joy of Computing
Athenian After School, Spring 2021–22
Short link to this page: bit.ly/db-tas-7
Go to the latest lesson.
Class Description
Learn to program a computer, or further develop your programming skills, using a professional-strength block-based language called Snap!. Snap! is similar to Scratch but has many additional powerful features.
The Beauty and Joy of Computing computer science curriculum comes to us from the University of California at Berkeley. BJC was made first for university students, and later was adapted for use in high school, and very recently was adapted for use in middle schools.
Professional programmer and Athenian after-school and summer teacher Dave Briccetti was part of a small pilot group of computer science teachers trained this summer on the middle school curriculum. He has been teaching BJC to students at an independent school in Lafayette, and to some of his private students since the beginning of this school year. Here is more about Dave’s teaching experience.
No Experience Required, but Challenging for All
This course is appropriate for students at all levels of programming experience. It is self paced, so you can go fast or slow.
Labs
The course is organized into units, labs, and activities.
Physical Computing
The course includes a hardware unit, where we will program micro:bits.
Classroom Resources
- Beauty and Joy of Computing for Middle School
- Beauty and Joy of Computing for High School (you are free to explore this if you run out of things to do in the middle school curriculum)
- Run Snap!
- Snap! Reference Manual
- Snap! Crash Course
- “Why Do We Have to Learn This Baby Language?” from Brian Harvey, Teaching Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
- Computing in the News
- ACM Tech News
- Dave’s YouTube Channel with many programming lessons for you to explore on your own
2022-04-11
Intro to the Beauty and Joy of Computing
BJC Introduction from U.C. Berkeley Professor Dan Garcia
Computing in the News
Each day we will spend a few minutes presenting and discussing a news item about computers.
U.S. FBI says it disrupted Russian hackers
Unit 1: Functions and Data
Let’s start together, and later you can go at your own speed.
2022-04-18
Computing in the News
Driverless cars can be tricked into seeing red traffic lights as green
Continuing: Unit 1: Functions and Data
2022-04-20
Computing in the News
This ‘Tamper-Evident Container’ Will Snitch if Anyone Tries to Meddle With What’s Inside
Continuing: Unit 1: Functions and Data
2022-04-25
Computing in the News
US drone company Zipline starts delivering medicine in Japan
Unit 1 Lab 4: Image Manipulation, Activity 1
More Free Play with micro:bits
Servo motors
2022-04-27
BJC Hardware Unit
Some students started making interactive “pets”.
2022-05-02
Computing in the News
The X-Ray Tech That Reveals Chip Designs
Keep working on interactive pets or other projects.
2022-05-04
Computing in the News
This High Schooler Invented a Low-Cost, Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Arm
Let’s spend some time with Snap!, then micro:bits.
2022-05-09
Computing in the News
Adobe Illustrator and laser cutting
micro:bit with Microblocks
2022-05-11
Adobe Illustrator and laser cutting
Several students learned to make an object in Illustrator and send it to and operate the laser cutter.
micro:bit with Microblocks
One student continued working on a game in Snap!.
2022-05-16
Computing in the News
Smart tech is helping to save China’s giant pandas