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integrated computational thinking

Art Pathway B: Explore Art Through Computational Thinking (Overview)

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Step 1 of 4: Introduction

As students begin understanding art and creating their own art, one of the questions an educator might first encounter is how to provide opportunities for them to grasp complex processes used to create artistic works.

In this building block, you will consider how might computational thinking practices and tools help students explore, appreciate, and analyze artistic processes as well as artistic products. While the artworks themselves can be complex, it is helpful to break down the processes that led artists to create them and provide opportunities for students to understand the processes as well as appreciate the artistic work. While the aim of this integration pathway is not for students to follow step-by-step procedures when they create art, using computational thinking practices to analyze existing work, can simplify complex artistic processes in order to deepen students’ understanding of art.

This building block highlights three practices to integrate computational thinking in the Arts classroom.

B1. Understand Artistic Processes

B2. Appreciate Computational Art

B3. Analyze Art


    As you complete this project, and others in this building block, consider the following questions for your own classroom instruction:

    • What does it look like to apply computational thinking to understand, appreciate, and analyze artistic works?
    • Does computational thinking support student exploration of art? How?