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Computational thinking is a phrase that has received considerable attention over the past several years - but there is little agreement about what computational thinking encompasses, and even less agreement about strategies for assessing the development of computational thinking in young people. We are interested in the ways that design-based learning activities - in particular, programming interactive media - support the development of computational thinking in young people. Over the past several years, we have developed a computational thinking framework that emerged from our studies of the activities of interactive media designers. Our context is Scratch - a programming environment that enables young people to create their own interactive stories, games, and simulations, and then share those creations in an online community with other young programmers from around the world. The first part of the paper describes the key dimensions of our computational thinking framework: computational concepts (the concepts designers engage with as they program, such as iteration, parallelism, etc.), computational practices (the practices designers develop as they engage with the concepts, such as debugging projects or remixing others' work), and computational perspectives (the perspectives designers form about the world around them and about themselves). The second part of the paper describes our evolving approach to assessing these dimensions, including project portfolio analysis, artifact-based interviews, and design scenarios. We end with a set of suggestions for assessing the learning that takes place when young people engage in programming.

The NMC, publishers of the Horizon Report, are inviting teachers in Asian International Schools to submit projects as exemplars.

" Written by an educator for educators, the free doctopus script gives teachers the ability to auto-generate, pre-share, and manage grading and feedback on templated Docs for group and individual projects. "

Scannable bar codes may be just what you need to spark some student interest in your classroom - read on to learn how to use them to showcase your student work and give some life to your classroom's infographics.

@whatedsaid's PYP project on plants around the world. 

The Tree of Life Web Project is a collection of information about biodiversity compiled collaboratively by hundreds of expert and amateur contributors. Its goal is to contain a page with pictures, text, and other information for every species and for each

Creative Projects for the PreK-Sixth Grade Classroom

Great for Gantt charts, but have to be 13 to use (or sign in as teacher maybe?)

Great for managing projects, but have to be 13 to use.

"The Google Open Source Program is announcing a new outreach effort, aimed at 13- to 18-year-old students around the world. Google Code-in will operate in a similar fashion to Google's Summer of Code, giving students the opportunity to work in open-source projects."

a website/blog by Lindsey Ferrie & Simon Davidson (author of "Taking the PYP Forward"

Pictorial Communication Language. Icons & Pictures that explain ideas. Great for simple presentations and for infographics. Similar to the Noun Project

could be a good way to remix music for a project

Here are 10 youth innovators, from ages seven to 15, particularly worth noting and working on projects ranging from games to anti-bullying apps.

Shot over a period of 18 months, Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti's project Toy Stories compiles photos of children from around the world with their prized possesions-their toys. Galimberti explores the universality of being a kid amidst the diversity of the countless corners of the world; saying, "at their age, they are pretty all much the same; they just want to play."