Alexis Flanders

When I started Computational Thinking for K–12 Educators, I assumed we would jump straight into coding. Instead, my very first artifact was a third-grade geography lesson titled “Where Is Home?”

The lesson asks students to use a world map to locate North America and Michigan relative to continents and oceans. At first glance, it looks like a straightforward social studies objective. But through this assignment, I begin to see computational thinking differently.

Students break the world into smaller pieces: continents, then oceans, then North America, then Michigan. That is decomposition. They notice how continents are positioned relative to one another. That is pattern recognition. They focus only on the information necessary to find their location, ignoring extra map details. That is abstraction.

Nothing about this lesson involves computers. Yet it fully encompasses computational thinking.

This assignment shifts my perspective. CT is not a separate subject, but a way of thinking. It shows up in how students organize information, break down problems, and make sense of systems.

My introduction to computational thinking does not begin with coding. It begins with a map.