Grade 9 — Branch and Share¶

Unpiloted draft

Core lessons are written but have not been tried in a classroom. Grade placement of topics is unverified against the CDC syllabus (see research/decisions.md).

Grade placement

Python and MySQL are confirmed in CDC's Grade 10 textbook, not Grade 9 (see alignment/cdc-ncf2076.yml). Modules 6–7 can move to Grade 10; modules 1–5 and 8 do not depend on them.

Big idea: branches let people work in parallel; remotes let work travel. Length: ≈ 16 periods (to calibrate to CDC hours). Accounts: only for learners 13+, managed by the teacher; otherwise a LAN server or bundles on USB. Tools: Git CLI (Git Bash on Windows), Python, SQL (MySQL or SQLite), Forgejo LAN or class organisation.

How this chapter is built¶

Grade 8 gave students one line of history on one computer. Grade 9 adds two dimensions: parallel lines (branches and merges) and other computers (remotes). The terminal arrives first so that every later command can be written down exactly.

 M1  terminal             (cd, ls, mkdir)
 M2  CLI cycle            (Grade 8 in commands)
 M3  branches             (labels on commits)
 M4  merge / conflict     (two lines join)
 M5  remotes              (work travels)
 M6  Python               (.gitignore, debugging)
 M7  SQL                  (recipe vs dish)
 M8  pair project         (agreement, changelog, tag)

Modules¶

#	Module	Periods	Tiers	Key commands
1	Terminal basics bridge	1	1–3	`pwd`, `ls`, `cd`, `mkdir`
2	status/add/commit/log on the CLI	2	1–3	`init`, `status`, `add`, `commit`, `diff --staged`
3	Branches	2	0–3	`branch`, `switch -c`, `log --graph --all`
4	Merge and the conflict game	2	0–3	`merge`, `merge --abort`
5	Remotes	2	1–3	`clone`, `push`, `pull`, `fetch`, `bundle`
6	Python under version control	2	1–3	`.gitignore`, `log -p`
7	SQL under version control	2	1–3	schema/queries, dumps
8	Pair project: Ward Facts	3	1–3	`tag`, `shortlog`

Chapter outcomes¶

use the terminal to create and navigate folders
run the basic Git cycle on the command line
create, switch and merge branches
resolve a simple merge conflict
clone, push and pull to a shared remote
explain why scripts (not live databases) are versioned

Free resources used in this chapter¶

Software Carpentry's Unix Shell and git-novice episodes 2–9 (CC BY), Learn Git Branching levels intro2, intro3, rampup1 and the Remote tab, Pro Git chapters 2–3, Visualizing Git, Oh My Git!, and — for learners 13+ with internet — GitHub Skills. Full list: free resource library.

Assessment¶

Practical (create → branch → merge → push), Parsons card test, short written questions in board style. First-draft item bank: assessments/g09-item-bank.md (to be reviewed after Pilot 1).

Capstone¶

Ward Facts — pairs maintain a Python script and a SQL file that answer three questions about a small (synthetic) ward dataset. Practice repo: practice-repos/g09-ward-facts/.

Ready for Grade 10?¶

A student is ready when they can, without help: create a branch, commit on it and merge it; resolve a one-line conflict; and recover from a rejected push by pulling.