Approximately 43.4 million people are native Spanish speakers in the United States, accounting for 13.7% of the population. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States, only behind English. Cognitive load affects how much information can be moved into and from our working memory. When students do not have the ability to lessen the cognitive load, it is impossible or almost impossible for them to continue learning. This load can be affected by time of day, exhaustion, and more. This free curriculum and professional development project offers Spanish as a toggleable option for the Python curriculum so that students have it easily accessible to them when/if it is needed [1]. We use translanguaging and cognitive load theories in the development of the curriculum translation [2].
In addition to having the translation, the project provides all supporting materials in Spanish, allowing teaching and learning in either Spanish or English. We have pilots running in Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Puerto Rico, and Mexico, where every year, more teachers and students benefit from the Spanish-language translation of the Python curriculum available. Since the beginning of the project in 2018 and the launch of Spanish in 2021, the project has gone from 90 active daily Spanish users to over 2600 active daily users and has seen a doubling of users every year. The goal for the 2024-2025 school year is to reach a total of 6000 minimum daily users and additional pilots are being launched in Latin America.