BJC Sparks
Dan Garcia, Mary Fries, Michael Ball, Pamela Fox, Deanna Gelosi, Lauren Mock, Della Dastur, Dave Briccetti, Bob Kahn · 2023
We present our experience with the design and implementation of BJC Sparks, a new introductory computer science curriculum for middle school piloted by ten teachers in the 2021-2022 academic year. Our curriculum is functional-first, using abstraction, functional decomposition, immutable data, and powerful higher-order functions such as map, keep, and combine. Based on a decade of experience teaching thousands of first-time programmers, we believe starting with functions teaches students the habit of solving problems functionally when possible, helping to avoid bugs in later programming experiences.