Computer Skills

About this course

Seventh grade is a project year. The programming unit starts in Scratch with sprites, the stage, variables and data types, if and else logic, repeat and forever loops, custom blocks as functions, and debugging, then has your student build a working game before crossing over into text-based code. The Python lesson is a real introduction with running examples: print, variable assignment, an if-elif-else grading ladder, a for loop over a range, and a while loop counting down lives, along with a candid explanation that spelling, punctuation, and four-space indentation now matter in a way they never did with blocks. The unit closes with a final project your student designs and builds themselves.

The hardware and networking material is middle-school serious: components inside the case, hard drives compared with solid-state drives, Windows and macOS and Linux side by side, file paths and file types, keyboard shortcuts, systematic troubleshooting, how packets travel with IP and DNS and HTTP, LANs and WANs and cloud storage, and binary. The software unit is aimed at producing real work, covering formatting and citations in a word processor, spreadsheet formulas and charts, presentation design and delivery, photo editing with cropping and brightness and composition, email etiquette, Google Workspace, collaborative editing, and building a portfolio with written reflections on each piece. Two units handle safety and ethics at a level appropriate to a student who is about to encounter the wider internet: password security, phishing, malware and antivirus, safe browsing, social media risks, awareness of online predators, minimizing personal exposure, and a clear technical explanation of encryption and VPNs, including that free VPN services often sell the data they collect.

There are 72 lessons in 8 units, each planned for about 35 minutes. A lesson reads like a textbook page with headings, examples, code where relevant, a verse tied to the topic, and a short set of written review questions, then finishes with a ten-question quiz that grades itself. To do the work rather than only read about it, your family needs a computer with a real keyboard, a word processor and spreadsheet and presentation program (Microsoft Office, LibreOffice, or the free Google Workspace tools, which get a lesson of their own), a photo editor, and internet access for Scratch, which runs free in a browser. Python is free to install if your student wants to run the examples, though the lessons teach the code by reading and explaining it. Units 7 and 8 revisit hardware and typing from fresh angles, so expect some deliberate overlap with the opening units rather than entirely new ground.

What the course covers

• Hardware components, HDD versus SSD, and operating systems compared
• File systems, paths, file types, and systematic troubleshooting
• IP, DNS, HTTP, packets, LAN and WAN, and cloud storage
• Binary numbers
• Scratch: sprites, variables, conditionals, loops, custom blocks, and a finished game
• First Python: print, variables, if-elif-else, for and while loops, indentation
• Word processing with citations, spreadsheets and charts, and presentation delivery
• Photo editing, email etiquette, and collaborative online documents
• Building a portfolio with reflections
• Passwords, phishing, malware, antivirus, and safe browsing
• Social media risks, online predators, and protecting personal information
• Encryption, HTTPS, and how VPNs work
• Touch typing, the number pad, ergonomics, and measured speed goals

What your student will be able to do

• Design, build, and debug a working game in Scratch
• Write and read simple Python using variables, conditionals, and both kinds of loop
• Produce cited documents, spreadsheets with charts, and a delivered presentation
• Assemble a digital portfolio and write a reflection on each piece
• Recognize phishing, malware, and unsafe browsing and respond correctly
• Explain in plain terms what encryption and a VPN actually protect

Scope and sequence

All 8 units of Computer Skills for Grade 7, in the order they are taught.

Every lesson, by title

All 72 lesson titles are listed here — nothing is withheld until you download. Open a unit to read its contents.

One whole lesson, exactly as it comes

This is a real lesson taken from the middle of the course — the teaching text, the practice, the homework, and the first three quiz questions with their answers. It is not a marketing excerpt.

What you will need

Drawn from the materials named across all 72 lessons of this course. Most families already own most of it.