Computational Thinking and Coding
For many educators, teaching coding means learning it alongside their students.
Don’t be afraid to let your students “outgrow” your own computer science skills.
Even if your students are never going to become professional app developers, learning programming basics helps students develop a better understanding of “if, then” logic which can be applied to a wide variety of academic areas.
Book : Beyond the Hour of Code
Programming in the Primary Grades: Beyond the Hour of Code is a handbook to capture the engagement and empowerment of the hour of code to support content area learning.
Computing in the national curriculum - a guide for primary teachers
This guide for primary school teachers. The guide explains how primary teachers can get started with the new curriculum and provides many pointers to excellent resources and ideas for building an innovative and exciting curriculum
A Scope and Sequence for Computational Thinking: Part 1 | A SCOPE AND SEQUENCE FOR COMPUTATIONAL THINKING: PART 2
Exploring Computational Thinking curriculum are excellent supplements to classroom activities and lessons that are based on computational thinking principles. The Computational Thinking for Educators course is an educator-facing training module that demonstrates how computational thinking can be integrated into a variety of subjects. It allows participants to go at their own pace and is free of charge.
Experiments with Google create experiments using Chrome, Android, AI, AR and more.An innovative project allowing coders to create experiments using Chrome, Android, AI, AR and more. Features projects, resources, and tools and providing inspiration and motivation to coders to create and share their creations with the world. Various collections including Arts & Culture Experiments, AI+ Writing, Digital Wellbeing Experiments, AR Experiments, Chrome Experiments and many more. Of particular interest is the collection called Experiments for Learning. This is basically "a collection of experiments to create music, make art, take virtual field trips, and more. Projects are organized into different categories including: Create Music, Explore Music, Virtual Field Trips, Drawing, Math + Science, Coding +AI, Space, History + Storytelling, and many more.
Free eBook The Code Twins, ( K - 3) a children’s book from Skyward, introduces coding concepts to young readers of all backgrounds as they take on a programming mission with the book’s main characters—Brett, Yvette, and their robot friend, Cody Point Two. Along the way, Brett and Yvette help to code Cody Point Two to learn and accomplish new tasks. Their story, told in verse, features colorful illustrations and engaging experiences that demonstrate problem solving, critical thinking, interdisciplinary learning, and more. The ebook, which is sponsored by Mid-State Technical College and the Central Wisconsin Information Technology Alliance, is currently available to download at no charge in various formats (Kindle, Apple Books, ePub, or PDF).
10 Important Books to Help Kids Learn Coding
Book Coding Capers: Luci and the Missing Robot is an empowering picture book from the National Center for Youth Issues that inspires children to dream big and harness the power of computer science in their own lives. Students are invited to join the protagonist, Luci, and her friends as they go on an adventure to find a missing robot. In the process, they learn the foundational concepts of coding, the increasing capabilities of technology, and the power of persistence.
Programming in the Primary Grades: Beyond the Hour of Code is a handbook to capture the engagement and empowerment of the hour of code to support content area learning.
Computing in the national curriculum - a guide for primary teachers
This guide for primary school teachers. The guide explains how primary teachers can get started with the new curriculum and provides many pointers to excellent resources and ideas for building an innovative and exciting curriculum
A Scope and Sequence for Computational Thinking: Part 1 | A SCOPE AND SEQUENCE FOR COMPUTATIONAL THINKING: PART 2
Exploring Computational Thinking curriculum are excellent supplements to classroom activities and lessons that are based on computational thinking principles. The Computational Thinking for Educators course is an educator-facing training module that demonstrates how computational thinking can be integrated into a variety of subjects. It allows participants to go at their own pace and is free of charge.
Experiments with Google create experiments using Chrome, Android, AI, AR and more.An innovative project allowing coders to create experiments using Chrome, Android, AI, AR and more. Features projects, resources, and tools and providing inspiration and motivation to coders to create and share their creations with the world. Various collections including Arts & Culture Experiments, AI+ Writing, Digital Wellbeing Experiments, AR Experiments, Chrome Experiments and many more. Of particular interest is the collection called Experiments for Learning. This is basically "a collection of experiments to create music, make art, take virtual field trips, and more. Projects are organized into different categories including: Create Music, Explore Music, Virtual Field Trips, Drawing, Math + Science, Coding +AI, Space, History + Storytelling, and many more.
Free eBook The Code Twins, ( K - 3) a children’s book from Skyward, introduces coding concepts to young readers of all backgrounds as they take on a programming mission with the book’s main characters—Brett, Yvette, and their robot friend, Cody Point Two. Along the way, Brett and Yvette help to code Cody Point Two to learn and accomplish new tasks. Their story, told in verse, features colorful illustrations and engaging experiences that demonstrate problem solving, critical thinking, interdisciplinary learning, and more. The ebook, which is sponsored by Mid-State Technical College and the Central Wisconsin Information Technology Alliance, is currently available to download at no charge in various formats (Kindle, Apple Books, ePub, or PDF).
10 Important Books to Help Kids Learn Coding
Book Coding Capers: Luci and the Missing Robot is an empowering picture book from the National Center for Youth Issues that inspires children to dream big and harness the power of computer science in their own lives. Students are invited to join the protagonist, Luci, and her friends as they go on an adventure to find a missing robot. In the process, they learn the foundational concepts of coding, the increasing capabilities of technology, and the power of persistence.
Game Integrating Computational Thinking and Environmental Problem Solving
The New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) pioneered Design–Make–Play, a novel approach to learning and engagement, drawing on deeper learning research and supporting the creation of learning experiences that develop critical thinking, knowledge integration, innovation, and creativity skills. K - 12 open-world game anyone can play, brings Design–Make–Play to the worlds of computational thinking and environmental problem solving. The game, called The Pack, is set in a future world where healthy ecosystems have faltered and resources are scarce. To restore the environment, players embark on an open-ended quest to find food and water by using their “Pack”—creatures that have unique functions such as digging, moving, holding, grabbing, and repeating. The Pack is free to download for Mac OSX and Windows.
Teach Computational Thinking Through Storytelling in the Primary Grades
Integrating Coding and Robotics Into ELA Classrooms
Game Using Computer Science to Solve a Nancy Drew Mystery
Nancy Drew Codes and Clues Mystery Game sparks an interest in coding, especially for girls, through a fun and engaging story. The mystery adventure also builds critical thinking and reading skills, as students read along with story dialogue. As members of Nancy Drew’s De-TECH-Tive crew, players choose disguises, find clues, and program a robot puppy to solve the mystery of a missing project at the Tech Fair
100 Of The Most Popular Programming Languages Explained In Minutes The list of programming languages has increased significantly in the last 10 years. It is often times difficult to keep up, much less learn the difference between all of them. This guide will provide you invaluable resources to not only learn about the different programming languages but also begin to understand them. This in depth guide will be beneficial to beginners and experts alike.
Primary Coders Teaching with Unplugged Activities free iBook
✅ A great way to introduce younger students to the basics of coding, is to provide them with tactile, manipulatable commands. Use this to print and cut out coding blocks that kids can arrange manually. They can even use these commands to program a partner who is acting as the "robot!"
In the Nearpod Library there are a dozen free presentations that you can customize. Topics:include Algorithms, Debugging, Functions, Loops, Variables and more.
K - 2 Creative Computing Curriculum Creative computing curriculum introduces computer science as a creative, collaborative, and engaging discipline to children in kindergarten through second grade. Across 4 units and 15-20 lessons, students will learn about algorithms and programming, computing systems, the Internet, and impacts of computing, while developing strong practices and dispositions. Lessons are designed to be implemented in 45 to 60-minute periods approximately once per week.
Book Computational Thinking and Coding for Every Student is the beginner’s guide for K-12 educators who want to learn to integrate the basics of computer science into their curriculum.
Free iBook K-2 Coding
Free Lessons Primary Coding Adventures
3 Handy Apple Guides to Help Teachers Integrate Coding in Teaching Below are three important guides from Apple Education to help teachers integrate coding into their instruction. The guides feature a plethora of educational resources designed specifically for younger students. These include reflection questions, coding activities, lessons, tutorials, and many more. The guides are ordered by level of difficulty. Code 1 and 2, for instance, can be used regardless of prior coding experience. Code 3, however, requires familiarity with Code 1 and Code 2. You may want to give them a try and see whether they work for your teaching context or not.
1-Learn to Code 1
"This Teacher Guide is designed to help you bring coding into the early primary classroom, no matter what your level of experience with coding is. You’ll use visual-based apps like codeSpark Academy and Tynker to teach students ages five to seven to think like a coder. The guide includes activities, reflection questions, journal prompts, and more to help you teach coding concepts and apply them in everyday contexts."
2- Learn to Code 2
"This Teacher Guide is designed to help you bring coding into the primary classroom, no matter what your level of experience with coding is. You’ll use visual-based apps like Tynker to teach students ages eight to eleven to think like a coder. The guide includes activities, reflection questions, journal prompts, and more to to help you teach coding concepts and apply them in everyday contexts."
3- Learn to Code 3
"This Teacher Guide is designed to help you bring Learn to Code 3 from Swift Playgrounds into the classroom. It includes activities, reflection questions, journal prompts, and more to help you bring coding into any classroom. Prior experience with Learn to Code 1 and 2 is recommended."
The New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) pioneered Design–Make–Play, a novel approach to learning and engagement, drawing on deeper learning research and supporting the creation of learning experiences that develop critical thinking, knowledge integration, innovation, and creativity skills. K - 12 open-world game anyone can play, brings Design–Make–Play to the worlds of computational thinking and environmental problem solving. The game, called The Pack, is set in a future world where healthy ecosystems have faltered and resources are scarce. To restore the environment, players embark on an open-ended quest to find food and water by using their “Pack”—creatures that have unique functions such as digging, moving, holding, grabbing, and repeating. The Pack is free to download for Mac OSX and Windows.
Teach Computational Thinking Through Storytelling in the Primary Grades
Integrating Coding and Robotics Into ELA Classrooms
Game Using Computer Science to Solve a Nancy Drew Mystery
Nancy Drew Codes and Clues Mystery Game sparks an interest in coding, especially for girls, through a fun and engaging story. The mystery adventure also builds critical thinking and reading skills, as students read along with story dialogue. As members of Nancy Drew’s De-TECH-Tive crew, players choose disguises, find clues, and program a robot puppy to solve the mystery of a missing project at the Tech Fair
100 Of The Most Popular Programming Languages Explained In Minutes The list of programming languages has increased significantly in the last 10 years. It is often times difficult to keep up, much less learn the difference between all of them. This guide will provide you invaluable resources to not only learn about the different programming languages but also begin to understand them. This in depth guide will be beneficial to beginners and experts alike.
Primary Coders Teaching with Unplugged Activities free iBook
✅ A great way to introduce younger students to the basics of coding, is to provide them with tactile, manipulatable commands. Use this to print and cut out coding blocks that kids can arrange manually. They can even use these commands to program a partner who is acting as the "robot!"
In the Nearpod Library there are a dozen free presentations that you can customize. Topics:include Algorithms, Debugging, Functions, Loops, Variables and more.
K - 2 Creative Computing Curriculum Creative computing curriculum introduces computer science as a creative, collaborative, and engaging discipline to children in kindergarten through second grade. Across 4 units and 15-20 lessons, students will learn about algorithms and programming, computing systems, the Internet, and impacts of computing, while developing strong practices and dispositions. Lessons are designed to be implemented in 45 to 60-minute periods approximately once per week.
Book Computational Thinking and Coding for Every Student is the beginner’s guide for K-12 educators who want to learn to integrate the basics of computer science into their curriculum.
Free iBook K-2 Coding
Free Lessons Primary Coding Adventures
3 Handy Apple Guides to Help Teachers Integrate Coding in Teaching Below are three important guides from Apple Education to help teachers integrate coding into their instruction. The guides feature a plethora of educational resources designed specifically for younger students. These include reflection questions, coding activities, lessons, tutorials, and many more. The guides are ordered by level of difficulty. Code 1 and 2, for instance, can be used regardless of prior coding experience. Code 3, however, requires familiarity with Code 1 and Code 2. You may want to give them a try and see whether they work for your teaching context or not.
1-Learn to Code 1
"This Teacher Guide is designed to help you bring coding into the early primary classroom, no matter what your level of experience with coding is. You’ll use visual-based apps like codeSpark Academy and Tynker to teach students ages five to seven to think like a coder. The guide includes activities, reflection questions, journal prompts, and more to help you teach coding concepts and apply them in everyday contexts."
2- Learn to Code 2
"This Teacher Guide is designed to help you bring coding into the primary classroom, no matter what your level of experience with coding is. You’ll use visual-based apps like Tynker to teach students ages eight to eleven to think like a coder. The guide includes activities, reflection questions, journal prompts, and more to to help you teach coding concepts and apply them in everyday contexts."
3- Learn to Code 3
"This Teacher Guide is designed to help you bring Learn to Code 3 from Swift Playgrounds into the classroom. It includes activities, reflection questions, journal prompts, and more to help you bring coding into any classroom. Prior experience with Learn to Code 1 and 2 is recommended."
The best way to describe computational thinking is to look at the way a computer thinks… or at least runs a program. This is actually the most important concept a student learns through coding and developing computer programs. We must keep in mind that it is not the coding that is important… but the thinking process. After all… one can use a computer, but not actually use computational thinking skills.
Guidelines for Developing Computational Thinking Competencies The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has developed a set of guidelines to help educators integrate computational thinking across the curriculum. The effort is part of an overall goal of enhancing science, technology, engineering, and math instruction. The ISTE Computational Thinking (CT) Competencies are designed to prepare students with the skills needed to solve problems of the future. The CT Competencies provide a framework to help teachers leverage computational thinking across all areas of the curriculum, not just in computer science classes. The final draft of ISTE’s STEM teaching guidelines cover the five different roles educators play in the classroom: Learner, Equity Leader, Collaborator, Designer, and Facilitator.
Guides for Integrating Artificial Intelligence and Computational Thinking Featuring in-depth interviews with practitioners, guidelines for classroom teachers, and a webinar about the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in education, the Hands-On AI Projects for the Classroom guides from ISTE and General Motors provide K–12 educators with practical tools for integrating AI and computational thinking across various grade levels and subject areas.Each guide includes background information and four student-driven projects that directly relate to subject-area standards while providing foundational learning on what AI is, how it works, and how it impacts society.
Guides for Integrating Artificial Intelligence and Computational Thinking Featuring in-depth interviews with practitioners, guidelines for classroom teachers, and a webinar about the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in education, the Hands-On AI Projects for the Classroom guides from ISTE and General Motors provide K–12 educators with practical tools for integrating AI and computational thinking across various grade levels and subject areas.Each guide includes background information and four student-driven projects that directly relate to subject-area standards while providing foundational learning on what AI is, how it works, and how it impacts society.
Computational Thinking
- Magazine on the fun side of all things to do with computer science. Scroll down to see issues. Explore how computer science is also about people, solving puzzles, creativity, changing the future http://www.cs4fn.org/magazine//magazine.html
- Powerpoint
- Computational Thinking for Educators' Google in collaboration with representatives from leading educational and scientific platforms have put together this free online course entitled 'Computational Thinking for Educators' introducing teachers to the importance of computational thinking. The course is particularly intended for educators working with students between the ages of 13 and 18. who are interested in enhancing their teaching with creative thinking and problem solving. Students often confound computational thinking with computer science when, in fact, the two refers to two different concepts. Computer science is the corpus of knowledge and studies that deal with computation and the ways computers function. Computational thinking is a cognitive process that involves the use of different skills and ways of thinking to solve computational problems and to write computer programs.
- Coding Vocabulary
- How to Get Girls Into Coding
- 4 ways forward-thinking districts are inspiring more students to code
- 12 Suggestions for Starting Coding
- Metacognition and Computer Science
- How Scratch fosters creativity, learning in students
The key to the success of Scratch, the online coding platform for kids, is that it has fostered virtual collaboration and peer-to-peer learning, says Mitch Resnick of the MIT Media Lab, where the program was developed. Students have embraced Scratch because it allows them to exercise creativity and explore new concepts in a meaningful context, according to Resnick. - Why Move from Blocks to Text?
- How teachers incorporate coding literacy into student learning interesting part on teachers fear of getting stuck and not knowing how to help students
- Computational Thinking in the Primary Curriculum
- Computer Science Unplugged teaches students computer science lessons without technology, allowing students to get to the core of what the field is based on--computational thinking. The lessons incorporate physical activity as well as real-life objects that students are familiar with. In conventional computer science instruction, these principles are accessible only to those who learn how to program.
- How to Get Girls into Coding
- How to Engage More K-8 Girls in Computer Science
- What Really Keeps Women out of Tech Middle School and High School Teachers
- Can Google Convince Girls to Code?
- Are Women Better Coders?
- Teach students to learn by doing with Google school coding clubs
- Coding for Kindergarteners shares tips for introducing coding to the youngest students in your school.
- What is Computational Thinking: provided by CS4FN (Computer Science for Fun)
- 12 Suggestions for Teaching Coding
- A handy guide is also online to help readers dissect computer science education degree programs and coursework at all academic levels. The guide provides salary and scholarship information, info on cutting-edge jobs and technology, and advice on how to enter and thrive in one of today's hottest job sectors.
- Highlighted Resources on Computational Thinking: provided by the CSTA
- Report of a Workshop on The Scope and Nature of Computational Thinking: provided by the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences National Research Council, 2010
- Why Programming Teaches So Much More Than Technical Skills
- Is Coding the New Literacy? | Mother Jones
- Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum: A Conceptual Framework: paper by DePaul University, May 2009
- Computational Thinking: A Problem-Solving Tool for Every Classroom: document by Pat Phillips, 2008
- Computational Thinking and Thinking about Computing: article by Jeannette M. Wing, provided by Philosophical Transactions, Series A, July 2008
- Computational Thinking: article by Jeannette M. Wing, published in Communications of the ACM, March 2006
- Computational Thinking For All: Teacher Resources from ISTE.
- Article "Stem graduate shortage?" computer science is where the jobs are"
- Article Computational Thinking: it represents a universally applicable attitude and skill set everyone, not just computer scientists, would want to learn.
- Article Computer Science is not Just for Big Boys
Coding Activities Without Computers
- If Then Game gr. K - 3Thinking Myself interactive slide show
- Book Coding Concepts for Kids: Learn to Code Without a Computer (Lynn, 2020)
- 15+ Ways of Teaching Every Student to Code (Even Without a Computer) This site gives an overview of some of the programs and app below
- Coding with Plastic Cups
- Teach Your Kid to Code Unplugged Activities Links to an external site.Includes deck of cards, chalk activity, egg carton activity, origami, and unplugged worksheets.
- ✅ A great way to introduce younger students to the basics of coding, is to provide them with tactile, manipulatable commands. Use this to print and cut out coding blocks that kids can arrange manually. They can even use these commands to program a partner who is acting as the "robot!"
- CS Unplugged This series of logic exercises uses cups, ping pong balls and post-it notes to teach students the logic behind coding. The site also has videos of each exercise being used in a class.
- Look at the Activities section and Community section > Teachers (for Curriculum connections)
- If-then Statements Unplugged
- Teach Algorithms with Hip Hop
- Unplugged Coding for Winter STEM Activity ( can be adapted for any time of year) gr. 2 - 5
- Check out this Wakelet collection
- Coding Games: Play fun games to learn how to code on your compute
- Conditionals: Coding With Cards (PDF): Play this coding game with your class to learn about conditionals.
- If - Then Game gr. K - 3
- ****Rosie's Runtime free game K - 5– an unplugged computer science activity from PLTW Launch – students get an introduction to computer science through an interactive game that rivals recess. Using a life-sized game board and "code cards," students direct Rosie the Robotic Dog through a maze. This activity introduces them to the way computers "think" by putting precise commands into the correct sequence to create a working program. As they help Rosie jump over mud puddles and gather bones, students have opportunities to learn from failed attempts by finding and fixing "bugs" in their program.
- Code a Dance
- Abstraction and Algorithm Design
- Pattern Recognition
- Decomposition
- Design a Crew Exploration Vehicle
- Inputs & Outputs Unplugged
- Bee Bot
- Divide and Conquer use a range of grouping and equal sharing strategies.
- 1. Tinkersmith has a neat coding with cups activity for kids that only requires plastic cups, their free printable cards, and writing materials. In this Unplugged Cup Stacking Coding Game you will need a few people to do play, as one person serves as the “robot” and others do the programming.
2. Kodable has a FuzzFamily Frenzy game to play. Similar is style to the Tinkersmith game above you write a program for your “robot” to follow. In this case it is having them jump, grab, squat, drop and move. Sounds like some great action-packed learning.
3. Computer Science in a Box is a group of offline coding activities with printable sheets and simple instructions. Age recommendations start at 9 (but use your own judgment.) Covers: representing information, algorithms, and representing procedures. - How to train your robot–a lesson plan from Dr. Techniko K - 2
- Robot Turtle
- My Robotic Friends Using a pre-defined "Robot Vocabulary" students will figure out how to guide each other to accomplish specific tasks without discussing them first. This lesson teaches children the connection between symbols and actions, as well as the invaluable skill of debugging. "My Robotic Friends" works best as a group activity and includes a teacher workbook for classroom use.
- Try Computing unique lessons
http://hourofcode.com/ts - Puzzles and Computational Thinking
- Inspiring Unplugged Activities
- Inspiring computing booklets
- More Primary Unplugged Activities
- Magic and computational thinking
- Interdisciplinary Activities
Card Games
Bits & Bytes is a fun card game to teach kids computing skills: logic, problem solving, and critical thinking. You can learn the basics of programming and computer science without needing a computer. littlecodr is a deceptively simple card game lets kids lay out a series of steps for their siblings and parents to follow. When they master the basic game, you can add advanced cards. http://www.bitsbox.com
Bits & Bytes is a fun card game to teach kids computing skills: logic, problem solving, and critical thinking. You can learn the basics of programming and computer science without needing a computer. littlecodr is a deceptively simple card game lets kids lay out a series of steps for their siblings and parents to follow. When they master the basic game, you can add advanced cards. http://www.bitsbox.com
Board Games
A number of board games teach basic programming and computer science concepts. Robot Turtles, from Think Fun, lets kids and siblings as young as 4 or 5 learn about algorithms by ordering their parents around. The game also has an Adventure Quest option to create your own boards. Code Monkey Island is another fun board game. You also can find Coding Farmers which lets kids and adults play with basic English instructions and graduate to playing with Java code on cards.
A number of board games teach basic programming and computer science concepts. Robot Turtles, from Think Fun, lets kids and siblings as young as 4 or 5 learn about algorithms by ordering their parents around. The game also has an Adventure Quest option to create your own boards. Code Monkey Island is another fun board game. You also can find Coding Farmers which lets kids and adults play with basic English instructions and graduate to playing with Java code on cards.
- Robot Turtles http://www.thinkfun.com/products/robot-turtles/
- Code Monkey Island http://codemonkeyplanet.com/
- Coding Farmers http://www.mathandcoding.org/codingfarmers.html
Literature
- Coding Palz series (ages 4 -7 ) each book teaches a coding concept through storytelling
- List of fiction and non-fiction books that relate to coding concepts. K - 12
- The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires It focuses on the importance of never giving up and learning from mistakes with students.
- Computational Fairy Tales The Computational Fairy Tales book includes ~30 rewritten or revised stories from the online collection and 15 all new chapters. Each story serves to illustrate a computational concept, supplementing official instruction or motivating computer science concepts. The stories have also be set up to provide a natural progression both within the computer science concepts and within the fairy tale quest.
- Sasha Savvy Loves to Code (Kindle) It's a story about a 10-year-old who has a growing interest in programming. The idea is to help other girls find and enter the industry who may or may not know what coding is.
K - 12 Curriculum Overview of UK Computational Thinking
K - 6 Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum
from Australia
K - 2 Creative Computing Curriculum Creative computing curriculum introduces computer science as a creative, collaborative, and engaging discipline to children in kindergarten through second grade. Across 4 units and 15-20 lessons, students will learn about algorithms and programming, computing systems, the Internet, and impacts of computing, while developing strong practices and dispositions. Lessons are designed to be implemented in 45 to 60-minute periods approximately once per week.
from Australia
K - 2 Creative Computing Curriculum Creative computing curriculum introduces computer science as a creative, collaborative, and engaging discipline to children in kindergarten through second grade. Across 4 units and 15-20 lessons, students will learn about algorithms and programming, computing systems, the Internet, and impacts of computing, while developing strong practices and dispositions. Lessons are designed to be implemented in 45 to 60-minute periods approximately once per week.
Guides Demystifying Computational Thinking
Freely downloadable guides to the UK’s new computational thinking curriculum. The guides were written especially for primary (elementary) and secondary teachers to demystify the study of computational thinking in primary and secondary schools. The guides enable teachers to quickly come to grips with the new computing curriculum and to build on current practice. They also offer help for schools with planning and give guidance on how best to develop teachers’ skills.
Click Here to Download Free Primary Guide
Click Here to Download Free Secondary Guide
Freely downloadable guides to the UK’s new computational thinking curriculum. The guides were written especially for primary (elementary) and secondary teachers to demystify the study of computational thinking in primary and secondary schools. The guides enable teachers to quickly come to grips with the new computing curriculum and to build on current practice. They also offer help for schools with planning and give guidance on how best to develop teachers’ skills.
Click Here to Download Free Primary Guide
Click Here to Download Free Secondary Guide
JavaScript for Kids
Learn to Program with Minecraft
Official ScratchJr Book
Python for Kids
The Everything Kids Scratch Coding Book
Book: The Coding Workbook: Build a Website with HTML & CSS
Learn to Program with Minecraft
Official ScratchJr Book
Python for Kids
The Everything Kids Scratch Coding Book
Book: The Coding Workbook: Build a Website with HTML & CSS
Book : Beyond the Hour of Code
Programming in the Primary Grades: Beyond the Hour of Code is a handbook to capture the engagement and empowerment of the hour of code to support content area learning.This short text is designed to get teachers excited about using programming instructionally and inspiring them to start creating their own code-centered lessons.
Book Computational Thinking and Coding for Every Student is the beginner’s guide for K-12 educators who want to learn to integrate the basics of computer science into their curriculum.
No Fear Coding K - 5 computational thinking across the curriculum
Find coding books for kids on:
Programming in the Primary Grades: Beyond the Hour of Code is a handbook to capture the engagement and empowerment of the hour of code to support content area learning.This short text is designed to get teachers excited about using programming instructionally and inspiring them to start creating their own code-centered lessons.
Book Computational Thinking and Coding for Every Student is the beginner’s guide for K-12 educators who want to learn to integrate the basics of computer science into their curriculum.
No Fear Coding K - 5 computational thinking across the curriculum
Find coding books for kids on:
K - 6
Creative Coding Rotation Station for K-5 Classrooms
Computer Science Opportunities from Kindergarten to Career Amazon Future Engineer is a comprehensive childhood-to-career program to inspire, educate, and train children and young adults from underserved and low-income communities to pursue careers in computer science.
Cognimates is a platform where children (7-10 years old) participate in creative programming activities in which they learn how to build games, program robots, and train their own AI models.
EarSketch is a website that allows students to use code with musical tracks to create and mix music. Students can work with the built-in library of sounds, instruments, and samples or add their own to create original musical works. In terms of creating original music, it's similar to GarageBand, but EarSketch also includes the use of code to create scripts and program different functionality.
Code for Life is a K-12 website designed to teach coding for students in the primary grades through high school. Starting with the block-based coding language Blockly, the game Rapid Router begins with simple puzzles and progresses all the way through to Python. Code for Life offers a complete set of teacher materials for all levels (beginning to advanced) to support teachers not just in skills teaching but in conceptual understanding as well. Teachers can also create class groupings to monitor student progress.
Code for Life is a K-12 website designed to teach coding for students in the primary grades through high school. Starting with the block-based coding language Blockly, the game Rapid Router begins with simple puzzles and progresses all the way through to Python. Code for Life offers a complete set of teacher materials for all levels (beginning to advanced) to support teachers not just in skills teaching but in conceptual understanding as well. Teachers can also create class groupings to monitor student progress.
Learn to Code with El Chavo is a free educational game for five- to eight-year-old children to learn about the logic behind computer coding through the characters of El Chavo del Ocho (often shortened to El Chavo), a Mexican television sitcom that gained enormous popularity in Latin America and Spain, as well as in the United States. The online game helps children develop problem-solving skills and analytical competencies. The first two levels focus on learning how sequences and spatial reasoning works. The game also offers a Parent section where parents can follow their child’s progress.
In the Nearpod Library there are a dozen free presentations that you can customize. Topics:include Algorithms, Debugging, Functions, Loops, Variables and more.
💡Transitioning from Block-based coding to text-based Coding - Start Early Despite increased exposure to block-based platforms in the elementary classroom, students are not learning the text-based code that is fundamental for each block. In order to push computer science education forward, teachers need to introduce text-based coding and syntax to students alongside the key principles for block-based coding.
The good news is that teaching basic syntax can be made easy! I am not suggesting that K-5 teachers learn an entirely new platform. What I am suggesting is that teachers learn some basic functions in either Python or JavaScript to teach along with block-based coding in order to get students acclimated to syntax and text structures within programming languages. It is not necessary to learn the entire Python or JavaScript languages. Identifying a set of quick lessons with corresponding practice time in the classroom is a great complement to block coding approaches.
For Python, both learnpython.org and programiz.com offer helpful introductions. The basic lessons cover print function, parentheses, for loops, python output, data types, and operations. A simple IDE (integrated development environment) to use in the classroom (without all the confusing bells and whistles) is IDLE, which is free for beginners. Microsoft MakeCode is a great program for block coding and also has a button that shows the Javascript equivalent of each block. Visual Studio IDE is probably the best platform to facilitate a JavaScript-based approach similar to the aforementioned Python design. Some short activities such as simple “Hello World” print functions as well as computational algorithms combined with print output functions would introduce tech space coding while working through block-based curriculum.
Google’s Exploring Computational Thinking involves a set of problem-solving skills and techniques that software engineers use to write programs that underlie the computer applications you use such as search, email, and maps. Here are specific techniques. Decomposition: Breaking a task or problem into steps or parts. Pattern Recognition: Make predictions and models to test. Pattern Generalization and Abstraction: Discover the laws, or principles that cause these patterns. Algorithm Design: Develop the instructions to solve similar problems and repeat the process. CT Models in K-12 Curriculum Several committed teacher-contributors in collaboration with Google engineers have put together classroom-ready lessons and examples showing how educators can incorporate CT into the K-12 curriculum.
Computer Science Opportunities from Kindergarten to Career Amazon Future Engineer is a comprehensive childhood-to-career program to inspire, educate, and train children and young adults from underserved and low-income communities to pursue careers in computer science.
Cognimates is a platform where children (7-10 years old) participate in creative programming activities in which they learn how to build games, program robots, and train their own AI models.
EarSketch is a website that allows students to use code with musical tracks to create and mix music. Students can work with the built-in library of sounds, instruments, and samples or add their own to create original musical works. In terms of creating original music, it's similar to GarageBand, but EarSketch also includes the use of code to create scripts and program different functionality.
Code for Life is a K-12 website designed to teach coding for students in the primary grades through high school. Starting with the block-based coding language Blockly, the game Rapid Router begins with simple puzzles and progresses all the way through to Python. Code for Life offers a complete set of teacher materials for all levels (beginning to advanced) to support teachers not just in skills teaching but in conceptual understanding as well. Teachers can also create class groupings to monitor student progress.
Code for Life is a K-12 website designed to teach coding for students in the primary grades through high school. Starting with the block-based coding language Blockly, the game Rapid Router begins with simple puzzles and progresses all the way through to Python. Code for Life offers a complete set of teacher materials for all levels (beginning to advanced) to support teachers not just in skills teaching but in conceptual understanding as well. Teachers can also create class groupings to monitor student progress.
Learn to Code with El Chavo is a free educational game for five- to eight-year-old children to learn about the logic behind computer coding through the characters of El Chavo del Ocho (often shortened to El Chavo), a Mexican television sitcom that gained enormous popularity in Latin America and Spain, as well as in the United States. The online game helps children develop problem-solving skills and analytical competencies. The first two levels focus on learning how sequences and spatial reasoning works. The game also offers a Parent section where parents can follow their child’s progress.
In the Nearpod Library there are a dozen free presentations that you can customize. Topics:include Algorithms, Debugging, Functions, Loops, Variables and more.
💡Transitioning from Block-based coding to text-based Coding - Start Early Despite increased exposure to block-based platforms in the elementary classroom, students are not learning the text-based code that is fundamental for each block. In order to push computer science education forward, teachers need to introduce text-based coding and syntax to students alongside the key principles for block-based coding.
The good news is that teaching basic syntax can be made easy! I am not suggesting that K-5 teachers learn an entirely new platform. What I am suggesting is that teachers learn some basic functions in either Python or JavaScript to teach along with block-based coding in order to get students acclimated to syntax and text structures within programming languages. It is not necessary to learn the entire Python or JavaScript languages. Identifying a set of quick lessons with corresponding practice time in the classroom is a great complement to block coding approaches.
For Python, both learnpython.org and programiz.com offer helpful introductions. The basic lessons cover print function, parentheses, for loops, python output, data types, and operations. A simple IDE (integrated development environment) to use in the classroom (without all the confusing bells and whistles) is IDLE, which is free for beginners. Microsoft MakeCode is a great program for block coding and also has a button that shows the Javascript equivalent of each block. Visual Studio IDE is probably the best platform to facilitate a JavaScript-based approach similar to the aforementioned Python design. Some short activities such as simple “Hello World” print functions as well as computational algorithms combined with print output functions would introduce tech space coding while working through block-based curriculum.
Google’s Exploring Computational Thinking involves a set of problem-solving skills and techniques that software engineers use to write programs that underlie the computer applications you use such as search, email, and maps. Here are specific techniques. Decomposition: Breaking a task or problem into steps or parts. Pattern Recognition: Make predictions and models to test. Pattern Generalization and Abstraction: Discover the laws, or principles that cause these patterns. Algorithm Design: Develop the instructions to solve similar problems and repeat the process. CT Models in K-12 Curriculum Several committed teacher-contributors in collaboration with Google engineers have put together classroom-ready lessons and examples showing how educators can incorporate CT into the K-12 curriculum.
- Resources for Educators Check our moderated forum, resources page, and connect with these other organizations promoting the use of Computational Thinking.
- More from Google: Computer Science Custom Search customized search engine to find computer science lesssons K -12
- Google CS First is a free program launched by Google to help students enhance their computer science education through a variety of after-school, in-school, and summer programs. All clubs are run by teachers and volunteers. The materials provided by Google CS First are free and available online and each of these materials include lesson plans to help you use them with your students. (article)each students to learn by doing with Google school coding clubseamch students to learn by doing with Google school coding cl
- Google CS First for Elementary Students
If you are an elementary teacher interested in teaching coding to elementary students, try Google CS First. Google CS First consists of projects with video tutorials for students to learn as they create these projects. - Teach students to learn by doing with Google school coding clubs These materials include: Play musical notes, create a music video, and build an interactive music display. Learn how programming is used to create music. Check out lesson plans. Learn how computer science and technology are used in the fashion industry while building fashion-themed programs, like: a fashion walk, a stylist tool, and a pattern maker. Check out lesson plans. Use computer science to tell fun and interactive stories. Storytelling emphasizes creativity, with club members telling a unique story each day. Check out lesson plans. Create animations, interactive artwork, photograph filters, and other exciting, artistic projects. Check out lesson plans. Create projects for a friend! Students are encouraged to sign up with a friend or make a new friend in the club! Projects include things like: telling the story of how the friendship started, making a cooperative game and imagining a company together. Check out lesson plans.
Learn basic video game coding concepts by making different types of games, like: racing, platform, launching and more! Check out lesson plans.
- Guide as PPT | Workbook as PPTCode.org , provide a good starting place for educators to introduce more programming into their classrooms. Introduction to code.org for students
- Scratch gr 4- 12 Before starting with Scratch try Made With Code. Scratch is a simple drop and drag programming Great support and tutorial lessons
- Complete Guide to Scratch with tutorials and projects
- Scratch curriculum page of Wesley Fryer | algebra connections (compare to Snap below) How to Upload and download scratch projects| Share Projects on the Web Creative Coding with Scratch Guide from Harvard School of Education
- Creative Coding with Scratch Guide from Harvard School of Education Creative coding with Scratch Workbook for Students Guide as PPT | Workbook as PPT
- Terrific Scratch Projects for Beginners
- Fractured Fairy Tales with Scratch | Part 2
- Scratch in Practice (SiP) shares stories, strategies, and resources from the Scratch Team and educators around the world. The SiP website features new themes to explore and discuss, and the team hosts conversations on social media
- Creating Scratch and Scratch Jr. STEAM Projects
- Fun Coding Activities for Kids that Teach Reading Skills Wth Scratch Jr.
- Excellent Lesson Set: kids will learn how to code with Scratch which is a programming language that can be used to create games, make stories, animations and so
- Interactive Scratch Stories
- Scratch Control Blocks | Easy Scratch Games Tutorial for Beginner
- Scratch Gravity Mix some math and some code to create dynamic games with realistic physics.
- Coding with primary sources from the Library of Congress. If you do not have an account, you must sign up to access. free
- Itch create your own Scratch course or use the ones provided. For example, set up the beginning of a project and give directions for completing it and students can add their own options. itch.ucodemy.com/
- *Scratched ScratchEd is a network of educators who are using the student-friendly programming language Scratch in their classrooms, often in unexpectedly creative ways. ScratchEd empowers teachers at all levels of familiarity to learn with and from one another as they develop ideas and strategies to help their students succeed. Includes resources to build knowledge of computer science and interactive programming projects. The resources address students of all ages, and include projects across all disciplines, from mathematics to social studies. The Creative Computing Curriculum Guide is a collection of ideas, strategies, and activities, and the Scratch Cross-Curricular Integration Guide, has opportunities for students to explore certain content areas in and through Scratch
- their Creative Computing Curriculum Guide (link opens is a 32 page guide that includes a nice template for planning a mini Scratch project, prompts for thinking about remixing projects, and guidelines for assessment.
- Second, Scratch Projects Across the Curriculum is a listing of 56 sample projects for math, ELA, science, social studies, world languages, music, and visual and media arts. Click on the link for any of the projects in the list to find details on how it was made and instructions for your own use. https://www.freetech4teachers.com
- Coding Games in Scratch is a book for children with little to no coding experience.
- ScratchX – Play with Experimental Extensions for Scratch. With Experimental Extensions, you can create Scratch projects that connect with external hardware (such as electronic devices and robotics) and online resources. Free.
- ScratchMath, written by Jeffery Gordon, is a free ebook filled with examples of using Scratch in elementary school math classes. The examples are Scratch models through which students can learn concepts dealing with place values, multiplication, and division. Each example includes the steps that need to be completed in Scratch to create models like a multiplication array, a divisibility checker, and factoring game.
- Create Scratch Animation to demo loops
- Engage Elementary Students in Scratch Coding Projects with Step by Step Tutorials from Raspberrypi.org
Looking for ways to engage your elementary students in coding? Check out these six "Look after yourself" Scratch projects form Raspberrypi.org. Each project comes with step by step directions that can be followed by upper elementary students. - Snap! is a drag-and-drop programming interface designed to help students learn to program. Snap! uses a visual interface that works in your browser on your laptop as well as on your iPad. To design a program in Snap! drag commands into a sequence in the scripts panel. The commands are represented by labeled jigsaw puzzle pieces that snap together to create a program. You can try to run your program at any time to see how it will be executed. After previewing your program you can go back and add or delete pieces as you see fit.Snap! may remind some people of Scratch. That is because the Snap! developers call their program "an extended re-implementation of Scratch." The potential benefit of Snap! over Scratch is that teachers who have a mix of iPads, Android tablets, and laptops in their classrooms can have all of their students use the same programming interface.
- Boogie Bot (K - 5) An iPad programmable dancing robot, who will introduce kids to the basics of computer science. Kids will learn to code in a fun way. Make coding equally fun by programming a robot to do a silly dance. Kids can be engaged for hours learning to code and making Boogie Bot dance. With lots of amazing dance moves, lively music and trendy dance floors
- BlocksCAD is a 3D CAD ( gr. 3 - 12) The program specifically designed to help kids create 3D printable objects while learning math and programming.BlocksCAD is essentially Scratch combined with OpenSCAD and allows the user to use blocks (similar to Scratch) to build a 3D model. The interface is fairly intuitive, and with some practice even complex shapes can be created using the tools available. free
- Code for Life K - 12 is a versatile platform for learning and teaching coding. Teachers can easily let students work independently on the Blockly puzzles -- especially as they begin to learn basic coding principles. Using the teacher dashboard, it's also easy to monitor skill development. The best way to use Code for Life, however, is to take advantage of its comprehensive lesson plans. These incorporate unplugged activities and suggestions for discussions to truly build students' conceptual knowledge. For students who aren't particularly interested in simply doing coding-related puzzles (a drawback of many learn-to-code platforms), these lessons are effective ways to go beyond mere skills and pique the interest of students who like collaboration, hands-on learning, and discussion.
- Codeable Crafts (K - 2 ) introduces children to coding and storytelling by combining simple crafting (crayons, stickers, cutout shapes) with visual block-based coding to create original stories. Children draw on animal templates, name their creatures, and then snap together a set of coding blocks, like puzzle pieces, to make a sequence of interactions. After designing their characters, children can select their favorites to star in an imaginative story using a small set of advanced coding blocks to create sound, movement, and text.
- Polyup is a free digital programming environment—designed for mathematics and computer science classrooms—which translates abstract mathematical concepts and exercises into physical form. The gamified environment uses the building blocks of mathematics as its syntax so that it is accessible for a wide array of K–12 students.
- Code Studio, a K-5 curriculum that has both unplugged and digital resources for teaching coding. There are three courses, with about 20 lessons per course. The courses use block programming that looks similar to Scratch, but students will see familiar characters from games such as Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies. Teachers can sign up for a free account that allows them to track student progress and access lesson plans and resources. You might even find free face-to-face professional development in your area! And although labeled for K-5, the second and third courses could be used with middle school students who have not been exposed to coding.
- MakeCode. MakeCode offers free programs that students can use to develop their programming skills. These include coding with LEGO Mindstorms, Adafruit, and Micro:bit. Checkout the MakeCode YouTube channel for project ideas.
- LightBotLearn core programming logic, starting from super-basic programming, for ages 4+, on iOS or Android (or Web browser) . Learn how to sequence commands, identify patterns, use procedures, and utilize loops!
- Lightbot Junior
‘Lightbot Junior is specifically designed for ages 4-8, and is an easier version of the popular Lightbot: featuring a gentler learning curve and not-as-complex puzzles. You can play as Boybot or Girlbot as you solve puzzles that use game mechanics that are based on Computer Science ideas…’ - 4 Games that use computational thinking
- Lost in Space: Students learn to drag function blocks together to build applications of increasing complexity that move an astronaut named Biff and his spaceship toward desired goals. As challenges get harder, students will learn to use logic skills to bundle commands and create algorithms.
- Puppy Adventure: Students learn to drag function blocks together to build applications of increasing complexity in order to move a lost puppy named Pixel toward various desired goals. As challenges get harder, students will learn to properly bundle commands and create algorithms. The puzzles are designed to teach students about sequencing, repetition, and conditional logic.
- Sketch Racer: Students program a turtle named Snap to mimic geometric shapes and follow set patterns. Each puzzle presents a pattern and a starting position for Snap. Students are required to program the turtle using the tile-based commands such as "move forward," "move backward," "turn to the left" and "turn to the right." Each puzzle may have a number of correct solutions, but players are encouraged to solve them using the fewest possible blocks. With Sketch Racer, students will learn about sequencing, repetition and algorithmic logic. They will need some prior knowledge of angles and geometry to successfully complete the puzzles.
- 15 Blocks: Students create a simple computer app using no more than 15 blocks. The activity allows players to work with pre-loaded characters, backgrounds, and movements to create an animation that requires logic and creativity to build. Programming commands are based on the Tynker system of visual programming blocks, which simulate basic coding commands and processes.
- MathScienceMusic.org is a free web-basedd toolkit for teachers, bringing together the best resources in math, science and music. Designed for students, kindergarten through college.
- K-8 programming http://learn.code.org/
- Code Kingdoms is a site designed to teach students/kids how to code. Students play through levels that teach the basic concepts of coding. As the students advance through levels they will interact w/ animals and use computational thinking to discover new abilities and challenges. Also, a user can create their very own kingdom and have other kids play through them.
- Blockly for Dash & Dot Robots (Also android) If you have the robots, give these challenges a try.
- Code Gym A Google-supported open source coding laboratory using drawing, music and creative fiction to introduce coding concepts
- An Hour of Code, provide a good starting place for educators to introduce more programming into their classrooms. Life After the Hour of Code shows you how to extend this special week of coding to everyday school programming. | Hour of Code Resources K - 6
- 20+ ways to celebrate the Hour of Code in ANY class: This post offers ideas for primary, middle, and secondary students. It includes unplugged no-tech computer science ideas.
- 20+ ways to celebrate the Hour of Code in ANY class: This post offers ideas for primary, middle, and secondary students. It includes unplugged no-tech computer science ideas.
- Get Started with Logo Sample projects to get started with logo. Students can also experiment on their own.
- LightBotLearn core programming logic, starting from super-basic programming, for ages 4+, on iOS or Android (or Web browser) . Learn how to sequence commands, identify patterns, use procedures, and utilize loops!
- K-8 programming http://learn.code.org/
- Run Marco (gr. K-3) Marketed as an "adventurous coding game," it's something that students can play on an iPad, Android, Kindle Fire, or online. This is similar to Kodable in that players learn coding by advancing through a game, and there doesn't seem to be a way of creating your own code from scratch. The blocks, however, have words as well as pictures. While the words are more prominent, the pictures are obvious enough and should be easy for pre-readers.
- Blocky Games is a series of educational games that teach programming. It is designed for children who have not had prior experience with computer programming. By the end of these games, players are ready to use conventional text-based languages.
- Robozzle Your kids can use simple commands to help a robot solve puzzles, follow a linked list, or even count in binary. With a growing database of over 1000 puzzles, your kids will have plenty of opportunities for problem solving and fun.Stencyl - A wonderful site for creating iOS or Flash based games by putting blocks together (i.e. Scratch). Games can be published on a variety of platforms. More functionality than Scratch . Tech-savvy users will find the interface intuitive and will dive right in, but the less experienced may initially be daunted. To overcome any early frustration, students and teachers should dedicate a few hours to the helpful online tutorials. Finished games can be exported as stand-alone Flash files or can be uploaded to Stencyl itself. With annual paid versions of Stencyl, games can be played (and optionally sold) on many additional platforms, including iOS and Android. In addition to the support website and core program itself, Stencyl comes with an image editor, a database of free user-created resources, and an online reference encyclopedia. The Stencyl website is very comprehensive and full of tutorials, game ideas, help forums, and a live chat area.
- Exploring Computer Science K-12 Curriculum ECS introduces students to problem solving, web design, programming, data analysis, and robotics. ECS also teaches about the ethical and societal issues that accompany technology - issues about privacy, piracy, and responsible communication. The ECS mission is to make inquiry-based computer science education available to all students, particularly girls, African Americans and Latinos who are underrepresented in the field. ECS is now in schools in LA, Chicago, and Washington D.C., but should be available for all students.
- Sketch Nation: Creating a game is super simple: Just draw the in game objects, play around with the customization options and before you can say "Sketch Nation Studio," you will be enjoying your own self-created game!
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sketch-nation-studio/id506337826?mt=8&uo=4 - W3schools It has tutorials for all kinds of learners starting with newbies and moving progressively in difficulty to advanced learners. It also has an editor where you can try out your codes and see how they would look like when you use them on your blog or website.Gamestar Mechanic - gr. 5 - 12 A nice site for teachers wanting to teach their students how to program games. This is done by reinforcing skills such as, problem solving, writing, storytelling, and more. Through an epic adventure-based plot, teaches kids the fundamentals of game design. Kids will be able to publish their created games and try out the original games of others; and this site closely monitors all created content.
- Computing At School is a free-to-join association for anyone with an interest in computing in education. Sponsors include Microsoft and Google among others. Benefits of joining include free-to-attend annual conference, regional hub meetings, competitions, newsletters and teachshares. Meet up with lots of other like minded people to share and steal good practice.
- LightBotLearn core programming logic, starting from super-basic programming, for ages 4+, on iOS or Android (or Web browser) . Learn how to sequence commands, identify patterns, use procedures, and utilize loops!
- Programming games for primary students.
- CodeMonkey (gr. 4 - 6) If you want to type out some actual code, CodeMonkey will give you that. This quirky game puts you in control of a monkey who is on a quest to recover all his bananas which were stolen by a mean gorilla and scattered across multiple levels. Coding adds another level of complexity but also gives you a more authentic coding experience. CodeMonkey has a bunch of free challenges is a game through which students learn some basic programming skills. CodeMonkey provides little tutorials for to help students through the challenges.
See CodeMonkey in action in the video.
- Code Studio as is explained in this excellent review, provides a variety of features that set it apart from other coding platforms. Most important of them all is its integration of HTML5 which makes it accessible through different browsers. Code Studio also provide coding lessons tailored for each age group and grade level. By completing these lessons, students are expected to be able to create their own games and apps to share with others using popular social networking sites. Another important feature of Code Studio is its user interface which allows teachers to run and manage their own classes and also monitor the progress of their students. Lesson plan guide
- Mozilla's X-Ray Goggles lets you see the code behind any web page and change that code to display anything that you want in place of the original text and images. After you have made the changes you can publish a local copy of the web page. Mozilla's X-Ray Goggles provides a good way for students to see how the code behind a webpage creates what is shown to them. You or your students could use X-Ray Goggles to alter an article on the web to make it a satire story. Of course, X-Ray Goggles is also just a good tool for practicing writing some simple code. You can see how X-Ray Goggles work by watching this short video www.freetech4teachers.com
- CodeCampKidz - for students 5th-8th learning how to code in html, Javascript, and more.
- Greenfoot | Android ( gr. 7 - 12) is a Java interactive development environment created to help students learn. It allows easy development of two-dimensional graphical applications, like simulations and interactive games. Using Greenfoot, students learn the Java programming language in a fun, interesting, and visually engaging way! and up through high school and college. download it for free.
- TeachKidsProgramming (java) step by step course lessons
- Java Visualizer – A free online tool hosted by University of Waterloo that allows the user to view the execution of their code line by line and see the output.
- Program to Inspire Girls to Become Coders TechGirlz is a program which inspires middle school girls to explore the possibilities of technology to empower their future careers. To achieve its mission, TechGirlz has created engaging, interactive “TechShopz” led by industry professionals, community leaders, and students. The organization shares its free workshop curriculum with schools, community groups, and other organizations that aim to inspire girls around the world with technology. The programs range from beginner to advanced, with more than 60 tech topics from which to choose, including game design, mobile app design, podcasting, cybersecurity and internet safety, HTML and CSS, and virtual reality. The organization’s vision is to create a world where girls have a lifelong passion and confidence in their use of technology throughout their careers.
Plus: Today 26 percent of all coders are women. What would the internet look like without them? The Missing Code website shows us. View the Missing Code film and then tap the free computer science activities that are released biweekly for students, educators, and parents. The activities are of varying levels of difficulty; some are online, some offline. Each activity features a woman in tech who pioneered innovative technology.
- Tech Girls Resources and activities. Can be used with both genders. Offers workshops for girls
- How to Engage More K-8 Girls in Computer Science
- Girls Who Code - Code at Home Activities
- Girls Who Hack
- How to Engage More K-8 Girls in Computer Science
- Girl Develop it (GDI) project. The mission of GDI is to lessen the gender gap on the web by getting more women to develop software, and they're going about that by offering low-cost web programming courses to women in their local area (including Philadelphia).
- Girls Who Code geared specifically toward 13- to 17-year-old girls, pairs instruction and mentorship to “educate, inspire and equip” students to pursue their engineering and tech dreams. see video | Code at Home, a series of free computer science activities for students and teachers. New activities are released each Monday and they offer projects for learners at all levels. I especially appreciate that each activity spotlights a woman in the tech industry and asks students to reflect on the skills and qualities of computer scientists that go beyond coding.
- Black Girls Code aims to help address the “dearth of African-American women in science, technology, engineering and math professions,” founder Kimberly Bryant writes, and build “a new generation of coders, coders who will become builders of technological innovation and of their own futures.”
- An Introduction to Webmaker for Educators Tools to break down HTML code Make Isolate code components so it does not look overwhelming and dual screens to see the website as the code is entered. Appmaker tool included. This video demonstrates how to set implement a curriculum with K-8.
- Computer Science Curriculum at The Girls' Middle School An example of 3-D modeling and design for middle school students.
- Made with Code Google initiative to engage girls with learning code with projects and resources. article: CanGoogleConvinceGirlstoCode?
- EcoScience Works A computer-based curriculum, focused on environmental science and computer programming, developed for 7th and 8th grade students.
- CS Unplugged (gr. 4-10) A collection of free learning activities that teach computer science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons, and allows students to move.
- StoryCode. Computer Programming Through Literature. StoryCode is curriculum and training for using short stories, novels and film to teach the fundamentals of computer programming to diverse learners
- Kodu
Created by Microsoft, this downloadable program uses a visual language to create games. While the PC version is free, Xbox 360 users can pick up a copy for $5.
Middle School
- CS Unplugged (gr. 4-10) A collection of free learning activities that teach computer science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons, and allows students to move.
- EarSketch is a website that allows students to use code with musical tracks to create and mix music. Students can work with the built-in library of sounds, instruments, and samples or add their own to create original musical works. In terms of creating original music, it's similar to GarageBand, but EarSketch also includes the use of code to create scripts and program different functionality.
- Code for Life is a K-12 website designed to teach coding for students in the primary grades through high school. Starting with the block-based coding language Blockly, the game Rapid Router begins with simple puzzles and progresses all the way through to Python. Code for Life offers a complete set of teacher materials for all levels (beginning to advanced) to support teachers not just in skills teaching but in conceptual understanding as well. Teachers can also create class groupings to monitor student progress.
- Hip-Hop Music That Teaches Computer Science CodeScty is an interactive learning experience designed to introduce young people to computational thinking and coding concepts through a cultural lens that they are familiar with. CodeScty’s tech-forward music education platform includes original hip-hop music, videos, and experiential learning activities to teach computer science principles and computational thinking to seventh- and eighth-grade students who are underrepresented in STE(A)M.
- Experiments with Google create experiments using Chrome, Android, AI, AR and more.An innovative project allowing coders to create experiments using Chrome, Android, AI, AR and more. Features projects, resources, and tools and providing inspiration and motivation to coders to create and share their creations with the world. Various collections including Arts & Culture Experiments, AI+ Writing, Digital Wellbeing Experiments, AR Experiments, Chrome Experiments and many more. Of particular interest is the collection called Experiments for Learning. This is basically "a collection of experiments to create music, make art, take virtual field trips, and more. Projects are organized into different categories including: Create Music, Explore Music, Virtual Field Trips, Drawing, Math + Science, Coding +AI, Space, History + Storytelling, and many more.
- In the Nearpod Library there are a dozen free presentations that you can customize. Topics:include Algorithms, Debugging, Functions, Loops, Variables and more.Online Coding Academies
- CodePen is a code editing environment in which students can see how HTML, CSS, and JavaScript work together to form web applications. The screen is divided into four parts. There's a column for HTML, a column for CSS, and a column for JavaScript. The best aspect of CodePen is that it is a real-time editor. That means you can change any aspect of the HTML, CSS, or JS and immediately see the effects of those changes in the preview panel. This is a great way to see what happens when a variable is changed in an application. If the change didn't work as anticipated, a quick "CTRL+Z" on your keyboard reverts it back to the previous state. CodePen does have a gallery of publicly shared projects that you can copy and modify. Those public projects make it easy for students to get started using CodePen. Demonstrated in this short tutorial video. www,freetech4techers
- Online coding academies are an essential computer science learning resource to optimize your lesson plans. Academies are essential guides to help kids learn coding. These academies encourage self-paced and self-directed learning for your students.
- 100 Of The Most Popular Programming Languages Explained In Minutes The list of programming languages has increased significantly in the last 10 years. It is often times difficult to keep up, much less learn the difference between all of them. This guide will provide you invaluable resources to not only learn about the different programming languages but also begin to understand them. This in depth guide will be beneficial to beginners and experts alike.
- 💡Transitioning from Block-based coding to text-based Coding - Start EarlyDespite increased exposure to block-based platforms in the elementary classroom, students are not learning the text-based code that is fundamental for each block. In order to push computer science education forward, teachers need to introduce text-based coding and syntax to students alongside the key principles for block-based coding.
The good news is that teaching basic syntax can be made easy! I am not suggesting that K-5 teachers learn an entirely new platform. What I am suggesting is that teachers learn some basic functions in either Python or JavaScript to teach along with block-based coding in order to get students acclimated to syntax and text structures within programming languages. It is not necessary to learn the entire Python or JavaScript languages. Identifying a set of quick lessons with corresponding practice time in the classroom is a great complement to block coding approaches.
For Python, both learnpython.org and programiz.com offer helpful introductions. The basic lessons cover print function, parentheses, for loops, python output, data types, and operations. A simple IDE (integrated development environment) to use in the classroom (without all the confusing bells and whistles) is IDLE, which is free for beginners. Microsoft MakeCode is a great program for block coding and also has a button that shows the Javascript equivalent of each block. Visual Studio IDE is probably the best platform to facilitate a JavaScript-based approach similar to the aforementioned Python design. Some short activities such as simple “Hello World” print functions as well as computational algorithms combined with print output functions would introduce tech space coding while working through block-based curriculum.
- BlocksCAD is a 3D CAD ( gr. 3 - 12) The program specifically designed to help kids create 3D printable objects while learning math and programming.BlocksCAD is essentially Scratch combined with OpenSCAD and allows the user to use blocks (similar to Scratch) to build a 3D model. The interface is fairly intuitive, and with some practice even complex shapes can be created using the tools available. free
- Code for Life K - 12 is a versatile platform for learning and teaching coding. Teachers can easily let students work independently on the Blockly puzzles -- especially as they begin to learn basic coding principles. Using the teacher dashboard, it's also easy to monitor skill development. The best way to use Code for Life, however, is to take advantage of its comprehensive lesson plans. These incorporate unplugged activities and suggestions for discussions to truly build students' conceptual knowledge. For students who aren't particularly interested in simply doing coding-related puzzles (a drawback of many learn-to-code platforms), these lessons are effective ways to go beyond mere skills and pique the interest of students who like collaboration, hands-on learning, and discussion.
- Computer Science Opportunities from Kindergarten to Career Amazon Future Engineer is a comprehensive childhood-to-career program to inspire, educate, and train children and young adults from underserved and low-income communities to pursue careers in computer science.
- Book JavaScript for Kids
- Google Computational Teaching Resources
- CS Principles:Computation in Action Preview Curriculum
- Algebra Integration with coding
- 30+ Resources for Students to Learn about Coding Languages gr - 8 -12
- Girl Develop it (GDI) project. The mission of GDI is to lessen the gender gap on the web by getting more women to develop software, and they're going about that by offering low-cost web programming courses to women in their local area (including Philadelphia).
- Polyup is a free digital programming environment—designed for mathematics and computer science classrooms—which translates abstract mathematical concepts and exercises into physical form. The gamified environment uses the building blocks of mathematics as its syntax so that it is accessible for a wide array of K–12 students.
- Black Girls Code aims to help address the “dearth of African-American women in science, technology, engineering and math professions,” founder Kimberly Bryant writes, and build “a new generation of coders, coders who will become builders of technological innovation and of their own futures.”
- Made with Code Google initiative to engage and inspire girls to coding
- Code Studio as is explained in this excellent review, provides a variety of features that set it apart from other coding platforms. Most important of them all is its integration of HTML5 which makes it accessible through different browsers. Code Studio also provide coding lessons tailored for each age group and grade level. By completing these lessons, students are expected to be able to create their own games and apps to share with others using popular social networking sites. Another important feature of Code Studio is its user interface which allows teachers to run and manage their own classes and also monitor the progress of their students. Lesson plan guide
- Interactive Journalism Institute for Middle Schoolers: research project at The College of New Jersey that introduces students to CT via the creation of online magazines
- CodeCampKidz - for students 5th-8th learning how to code in html, Javascript, and more.
- Greenfoot ( gr. 7 - 12) is a Java interactive development environment created to help students learn. It allows easy development of two-dimensional graphical applications, like simulations and interactive games. Using Greenfoot, students learn the Java programming language in a fun, interesting, and visually engaging way! and up through high school and college. download it for free.
- Best Coding Games to Learn Java Online
- 6 Coding Games to Learn Java Online Learning Java first may help students transition into javascript
- Java Visualizer – A free online tool hosted by University of Waterloo that allows the user to view the execution of their code line by line and see the output.
- Code Gym A Google-supported open source coding laboratory using drawing, music and creative fiction to introduce coding concepts
hat is an algorithm? Try the Swap Puzzle gr 7
- Computing At School is a free-to-join association for anyone with an interest in computing in education. Sponsors include Microsoft and Google among others. Benefits of joining include free-to-attend annual conference, regional hub meetings, competitions, newsletters and teachshares. Meet up with lots of other like minded people to share and steal good practice.
- Google’s Exploring Computational Thinking involves a set of problem-solving skills and techniques that software engineers use to write programs that underlie the computer applications you use such as search, email, and maps. Here are specific techniques. Decomposition: Breaking a task or problem into steps or parts. Pattern Recognition: Make predictions and models to test. Pattern Generalization and Abstraction: Discover the laws, or principles that cause these patterns. Algorithm Design: Develop the instructions to solve similar problems and repeat the process. CT Models in K-12 Curriculum Several committed teacher-contributors in collaboration with Google engineers have put together classroom-ready lessons and examples showing how educators can incorporate CT into the K-12 curriculum.
Resources for Educators Check our moderated forum, resources page, and connect with these other organizations promoting the use of Computational Thinking.- More from Google: Computer Science Custom Search cusotmized search engine to find computer science lesssons K -12
- Scratch gr 4- 12 Before starting with Scratch try Made With Code. Scratch is a simple drop and drag programming Great support and tutorial lessons Guides | Workshop Resources | Scratch curriculum page of Wesley Fryer (compare to Snap below) How to Upload and download scratch projects| Share Projects on the Web |
- Beginners Game Project Here is an example of a game students can create with video instructions.
- Scratch Community is a programming resource for learners of all ages. What better place to start than a site dedicated specifically to teachers who want to use Scratch to teach programming? Here you will find videos, lesson plans, worksheets, discussions and even real people to ask for help. Unfortunately the webinars are around 1.00 - 2.00 am UK time, but you can watch recordings afterwards.
- Coding Games in Scratch is a book for children with little to no coding experience.
- Free Webinar video archive by Wesley Fryer: Developing Computational Thinking with Scratch Coding (Slides – more background / videos)
- Alice gr 6 -12 is a 3-dimensional interactive animation program visualization environment. Novice programmers build animated 3-D movies and author games as they learn introductory object-oriented programming concepts. Alice provides a drag-and-drop development environment, to prevent students from making syntax errors. Resources for Alice 3 |
Javascript
- Blackbird Fills a Gap in Programming Instruction Blackbird is a platform for teaching programming to middle school and high school students. Blackbird is positioning itself as a platform that fills the gap between using a blocks-based service like Scratch and writing code. Blackbird provides a series of interactive lessons in which students write JavaScript. Blackbird lessons are arranged in progressive units. From the first lesson students are building a game they can customize to their heart's content. When they've finished all of the lessons students can move onto a "workshop" where they can work on independent projects that you can observe from your teacher dashboard in Blackbird. Features that stand out are students can get choose how much guidance they get on each lesson. Second, students' progress is locked in place as they go. Third, from your teacher dashboard you can see how much time your students spend on each activity. Blackbird is a free platform designed to make it easier than ever to introduce students to coding principles even if you don’t have any prior experience teaching coding. If you’ve used block programming in the past and are now looking for something a bit more advanced, Blackbird is for you. That said, you don’t need to have any prior coding experience in order to use Blackbird. Blackbird will show you and your students everything you need to know in order to write code from scratch.The other aspect of Blackbird that makes it different from other learn-to-code services is that Blackbird is actively looking to partner with schools to develop curriculum that meets their needs. For example, take a look at this article about Blackbird’s work with Washington’s Bellevue School District where more than 400 middle school students learned to code physics simulations as an integrated part of their science classes. It was done that way to help students see computer science as a conduit to problem solving and not as just an elective course of study that stands alone. Watch the video embedded below for an overview of how to use Blackbird to teach coding in your classroom.www.freetech4teachers.com
- JavaScript for Kids: A Beginner’s Guide to Programming
- CodeCampKidz - for students 5th-8th learning how to code in html, Javascript, and more.
- 6 Coding Games to Learn Java Online Learning Java first may help students transition into javascript
- Grasshopper app ( K - 12 ) - Developed by Google for complete beginners to easily learn javascript coding fundamentals for free. In as little as 5 minutes a day, students can complete fun lessons and visual puzzles on their phone or iPad and Chromebook to build their coding skills.
- JavaScript for Kids
- Java Visualizer – A free online tool hosted by University of Waterloo that allows the user to view the execution of their code line by line and see the output.
- Grasshopper is a free app for both Android and iOS users who want to learn to code with JavaScript. The app was created by one of Google’s experimental project teams. New users can choose to start as beginners or to skip ahead if they have some experience. Once they start, users work with blocks of JavaScript code (instead of graphical blocks like many other learn-to-code apps) to complete challenges. The app is divided into four courses: “What Is Code?” (primarily for beginners), “Fundamentals” (teaching coding concepts, such as variables, arrays, and loops), and two different sections called “Animations.” The challenges are laid out with examples and hints. Moving through the levels, students take short quizzes to reinforce their knowledge and understanding of how code works.
- Code Avengers - gr. 6 -12 A site for teachers wanting their students to learn how to code games, websites (Javascript), or apps. If Codecademy lacks a little personality for you, try Code Avengers. It has a superhero-esque theme with a built-in gamification element that awards points, badges and games to keep the learning fun and addictive. HTML/CSS and Javascript are the main focus of this site.
- Javascript: Drawing and Animation
Learn how to use variables, make animations, store your data in arrays and objects, group your code into functions, and more! from Khan Academy - Codeacdemy –. It takes things one step beyond the basics and has you writing some actual code, but it is also a one-stop shop for all your coding needs. It has a variety of stepped tutorials that walk you through the programming language of your choice based on no previous experience. Javascript, Python, HTML, PHP and Ruby are among your choices for your first coding expedition.
- TechRocket Coding and design courses for kids and teens ages 10 to 18. Python, iOS, Java, Minecraft, Valuable for making the transition from block to syntax coding.
- CodeCombat is a Web-based swords-and-sorcery game in which players explore and use programming languages to win. Using JavaScript, Python, and other programming platforms, players command their on-screen warriors into action, making them move around, engage in battle, and blast enemies.
- LearnStreet LearnStreet offers free beginner courses on HTML, Ruby, Python and Javascript.
- Treehouse: Learn Programming and Design Treehouse is the best way to learn technology. Learn to build websites, create iPhone apps, build web apps with Ruby on Rails and PHP, or start a business. With the Treehouse iPad app you can learn on the go and get job ready with little or no experience. Learn to build that app idea or land your dream job. We’ll walk you step-by-step through building projects and honing your skills with videos, quizzes, and code challenges that let you code in languages like Objective-C, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, and SQL right on your iPad.
- Udacity Udacity courses are taught by industry experts from Facebook, Google, Cloudera and MongoDB. The classes range from teaching you the very basics of programming, to more advanced courses that help you make sense of data. Learn to code in HTML, CSS, Javascript, Python, Java and other programming languages.
- Grok Code Quest from beginners to experts - to get involved in Grok Code Quest this year. Running from 30th October to 3rd December, Grok Code Quest is a friendly online competition that teaches programming in Python, and will equip students with crucial skills for the future.
For more information visit: http://get.gl/cq17_about1
- Gamestar Mechanic - gr. 5 - 12 A nice site for teachers wanting to teach their students how to program games. This is done by reinforcing skills such as, problem solving, writing, storytelling, and more. Through an epic adventure-based plot, teaches kids the fundamentals of game design. Kids will be able to publish their created games and try out the original games of others; and this site closely monitors all created content.
- Stitch Nation: Creating a game is super simple: Just draw the in game objects, play around with the customization options and before you can say "Sketch Nation Studio," you will be enjoying your own self-created game!
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sketch-nation-studio/id506337826?mt=8&uo=4 - Play My Code is "an online platform for building, playing and distributing browser games. Powered by HTML5, you can build within the browser and embed your games anywhere." Start by simply playing the games, then make small alterations to make the games easier or more difficult to play, share your altered games with friends. Before you know it you are a games developer.
- Storybricks innovative way to tell a story through the use of RPG MMO characters. The way this is done is similar to creating a game in Scratch/Alice Storytelling by dragging-n-dropping commands on top of each other to build commands.
- CodeShare - Teaching kids how to program is a hot topic. This website allows two or more people to share a screen full of code in real-time, perfect for remote tutors
- Code Avengers - gr. 6 -12 A site for teachers wanting their students to learn how to code games, websites (Javascript), or apps. If Codecademy lacks a little personality for you, try Code Avengers. It has a superhero-esque theme with a built-in gamification element that awards points, badges and games to keep the learning fun and addictive. HTML/CSS and Javascript are the main focus of this site.
- Javascript: Drawing and Animation
Learn how to use variables, make animations, store your data in arrays and objects, group your code into functions, and more! from Khan Academy - Calico - http://calicoproject.org (middle to high school) Multi-language IDE - python, scheme, jigsaw (scratch-like)
- Codesters provides students with an easy and simple editor where they can engage in creative coding projects using Python. Using its drag-to-text toolkit, students will be able to drag snippets of Python codes right into their programs and see them translated into text allowing them to learn the syntax of coding in a natural way. Alternatively, they can type their own codes and when they are done they simply click on ‘Run’ to see their program in action. Some of the interactive projects students can create using Codesters include games, simulations, animations, graphical images, and many more.
- Tynker - Javascript and Python Beginner Learn programming through games
- Trinket.io A visual introduction to code using the Python programming language and Turtles.
- OTHER ACTIVITIES WITH PYTHON AND TURTLE:
- https://www.kidscodecs.com/create-turtles-python/
https://www.kidscodecs.com/turtles-can-draw/ - http://pythonturtle.org/
- TechRocket Coding and design courses for kids and teens ages 10 to 18. Python, iOS, Java, Minecraft, Valuable for making the transition from block to syntax coding.
- 50 Best Websites to Learn Python
Roll a Story Python Project - A Beginner's Guide to HTML & CSS offers twelve text-based lessons for beginners. Once you've mastered the beginner lessons you can try your hand at the ten advanced lessons offered on the site.
- Thimble is a free Mozilla product designed to help users learn how to write HTML and CSS. Thimble features a split screen on which you can write code and see how it works at the same time. On the left side of the screen you write your code and on the right side of the screen you instantly see what that code renders. If you write the code correctly, you will know right away. Likewise, if you don't write the code correctly, you will know right away. Some of the sample projects you can work with include webpages, games, and avatars.
- Code Hero is a totally new way to learn how to code. It's a first-person science shooter game where you use the code gun to manipulate code. You learn how to code in order to succeed in the game.
- EcoScience Works A computer-based curriculum, focused on environmental science and computer programming, developed for 7th and 8th grade students.
High School
- 500 free books on programming and coding.
- NSF Bits and Bytes Free issues of CS Bits & Bytes. Look to past issues and website (http://www.nsf.gov/cise/csbytes), which includes our archive of past issues.
- EarSketch is a website that allows students to use code with musical tracks to create and mix music. Students can work with the built-in library of sounds, instruments, and samples or add their own to create original musical works. In terms of creating original music, it's similar to GarageBand, but EarSketch also includes the use of code to create scripts and program different functionality.
- Code for Life is a K-12 website designed to teach coding for students in the primary grades through high school. Starting with the block-based coding language Blockly, the game Rapid Router begins with simple puzzles and progresses all the way through to Python. Code for Life offers a complete set of teacher materials for all levels (beginning to advanced) to support teachers not just in skills teaching but in conceptual understanding as well. Teachers can also create class groupings to monitor student progress.
- CodePen is a code editing environment in which students can see how HTML, CSS, and JavaScript work together to form web applications. The screen is divided into four parts. There's a column for HTML, a column for CSS, and a column for JavaScript. The best aspect of CodePen is that it is a real-time editor. That means you can change any aspect of the HTML, CSS, or JS and immediately see the effects of those changes in the preview panel. This is a great way to see what happens when a variable is changed in an application. If the change didn't work as anticipated, a quick "CTRL+Z" on your keyboard reverts it back to the previous state. CodePen does have a gallery of publicly shared projects that you can copy and modify. Those public projects make it easy for students to get started using CodePen. Demonstrated in this short tutorial video. freetech4teachers.com
- 💡Transitioning from Block-based coding to text-based Coding - Start Early
Despite increased exposure to block-based platforms in the elementary classroom, students are not learning the text-based code that is fundamental for each block. In order to push computer science education forward, teachers need to introduce text-based coding and syntax to students alongside the key principles for block-based coding.
The good news is that teaching basic syntax can be made easy! I am not suggesting that K-5 teachers learn an entirely new platform. What I am suggesting is that teachers learn some basic functions in either Python or JavaScript to teach along with block-based coding in order to get students acclimated to syntax and text structures within programming languages. It is not necessary to learn the entire Python or JavaScript languages. Identifying a set of quick lessons with corresponding practice time in the classroom is a great complement to block coding approaches.
For Python, both learnpython.org and programiz.com offer helpful introductions. The basic lessons cover print function, parentheses, for loops, python output, data types, and operations. A simple IDE (integrated development environment) to use in the classroom (without all the confusing bells and whistles) is IDLE, which is free for beginners. Microsoft MakeCode is a great program for block coding and also has a button that shows the Javascript equivalent of each block. Visual Studio IDE is probably the best platform to facilitate a JavaScript-based approach similar to the aforementioned Python design. Some short activities such as simple “Hello World” print functions as well as computational algorithms combined with print output functions would introduce tech space coding while working through block-based curriculum. - Experiments with Google create experiments using Chrome, Android, AI, AR and more.An innovative project allowing coders to create experiments using Chrome, Android, AI, AR and more. Features projects, resources, and tools and providing inspiration and motivation to coders to create and share their creations with the world. Various collections including Arts & Culture Experiments, AI+ Writing, Digital Wellbeing Experiments, AR Experiments, Chrome Experiments and many more. Of particular interest is the collection called Experiments for Learning. This is basically "a collection of experiments to create music, make art, take virtual field trips, and more. Projects are organized into different categories including: Create Music, Explore Music, Virtual Field Trips, Drawing, Math + Science, Coding +AI, Space, History + Storytelling, and many more.
- 100 Of The Most Popular Programming Languages Explained In Minutes The list of programming languages has increased significantly in the last 10 years. It is often times difficult to keep up, much less learn the difference between all of them. This guide will provide you invaluable resources to not only learn about the different programming languages but also begin to understand them. This in depth guide will be beneficial to beginners and experts alike.
- CodePen is a code editing environment in which students can see how HTML, CSS, and JavaScript work together to form web applications. As you can see in the screenshot that I've included below, the screen is divided into four parts. There's a column for HTML, a column for CSS, and a column for JavaScript. Below that there is a preview panel that displays what the application looks like and how it functions. www.freetech4teachers.com
- GCF Learn Free is a website and YouTube channel. On GCF Learn Free you'll find dozens of tutorials on basic topics related to computer science
- Online Coding Academies
Online coding academies are an essential computer science learning resource to optimize your lesson plans. Academies are essential guides to help kids learn coding. These academies encourage self-paced and self-directed learning for your students. - Free Learning Activity Programs As you prepare your CS lesson plans, consider utilizing free learning activity program. Free learning activities are an essential lesson plan source for teachers and educators. These learning programs are a fun, exciting, and educational way to optimize your weekly lesson plans.
- Computer Science Opportunities from Kindergarten to Career Amazon Future Engineer is a comprehensive childhood-to-career program to inspire, educate, and train children and young adults from underserved and low-income communities to pursue careers in computer science.
- Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing something online.
* What is Arduino video
* Arduino part 1 coding
* Arduino part 2 coding
* Arduino part 3 coding
- Polyup is a free digital programming environment—designed for mathematics and computer science classrooms—which translates abstract mathematical concepts and exercises into physical form. The gamified environment uses the building blocks of mathematics as its syntax so that it is accessible for a wide array of K–12 students.
- BlocksCAD is a 3D CAD ( gr. 3 - 12) The program specifically designed to help kids create 3D printable objects while learning math and programming.BlocksCAD is essentially Scratch combined with OpenSCAD and allows the user to use blocks (similar to Scratch) to build a 3D model. The interface is fairly intuitive, and with some practice even complex shapes can be created using the tools available. free
- Repl.it Classroom is targeted at skilled high school or higher-ed computer science teachers that are able to create their own coding curriculum and automatic grading programs. This website is perfect for teachers who have experience with coding and want a better way of organizing their curriculum.
- W3Schools offers complete tutorials for learning to write HTML, CSS, Javascript, and PHP. If you're just getting started, work through the tutorials in sequences. Each tutorial has a little interactive section where you can test your new knowledge. If you're experienced and just need a quick reminder or clarification, W3Schools has that too. (Richard Byrne)
- Inspire | It’s Computing. Explore IEEE/TryComputing.org's Inspire collection of interactive pre-university computing lessons. “Discover resources to support and encourage students in computing. Find in-class lesson plans and opportunities beyond the classroom to give students valuable computing skills and experiences”. Among the 21 topics: Recursion, Networks, Graphics:Calculating Color, Graphics:Bits and Points, Encryption, Concurrency, Circuits and Boolean Expressions, Boolean Algebra is Elementary, AI Search, Program Your Own Game, Fun With Sorting and Solving a Simple Maze. http://www.trycomputing.org/inspire
- CodeCarrot.org. “CodeCarrot.org provides original, educational, and entertaining digital computer science themed content from GG|Interactive employees and from students around the world. Teachers and school admins looking to start teaching computer science or to improve their current computer science courses will find valuable information and resources here.” http://codecarrot.org
- Greenfoot ( gr. 7 - 12) is a Java interactive development environment created to help students learn. It allows easy development of two-dimensional graphical applications, like simulations and interactive games. Using Greenfoot, students learn the Java programming language in a fun, interesting, and visually engaging way! and up through high school and college. download it for free.
- GameMaker:Studio - ( gr. 5 - 12) its drag-and-drop programming system allows new designers to jump right in. When they want access to more flexible or nuanced behavior for game objects, these would-be designers can switch over to the built-in scripting language. Free version can save to play on Mac or Windows
- Free Resources from Barb Ericson and the CSLearning4U research group at Georgia Tech including CS Principles: Big Ideas student book (email Barb about the teacher edition) as well as her Java Review Book
Javascript
- CodeCampKidz - for students 5th-8th learning how to code in html, Javascript, and more.
- Code Avengers - gr. 6 -12 A site for teachers wanting their students to learn how to code games, websites (Javascript), or apps. If Codecademy lacks a little personality for you, try Code Avengers. It has a superhero-esque theme with a built-in gamification element that awards points, badges and games to keep the learning fun and addictive. HTML/CSS and Javascript are the main focus of this site.
- Grasshopper ( Android | IOS ) Grasshopper teaches users how to code in Javascript by playing through fun games and puzzles.
- Javascript: Drawing and Animation
Learn how to use variables, make animations, store your data in arrays and objects, group your code into functions, and more! from Khan Academy - Codecademy –. It takes things one step beyond the basics and has you writing some actual code, but it is also a one-stop shop for all your coding needs. It has a variety of stepped tutorials that walk you through the programming language of your choice based on no previous experience. Javascript, Python, HTML, PHP and Ruby are among your choices for your first coding expedition.
- CodeCombat is a Web-based swords-and-sorcery game in which players explore and use programming languages to win. Using JavaScript, Python, and other programming platforms, players command their on-screen warriors into action, making them move around, engage in battle, and blast enemies.
- LearnStreet LearnStreet offers free beginner courses on HTML, Ruby, Python and Javascript.
- Treehouse: Learn Programming and Design Treehouse is the best way to learn technology. Learn to build websites, create iPhone apps, build web apps with Ruby on Rails and PHP, or start a business. With the Treehouse iPad app you can learn on the go and get job ready with little or no experience. Learn to build that app idea or land your dream job. We’ll walk you step-by-step through building projects and honing your skills with videos, quizzes, and code challenges that let you code in languages like Objective-C, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, and SQL right on your iPad.
- Udacity Udacity courses are taught by industry experts from Facebook, Google, Cloudera and MongoDB. The classes range from teaching you the very basics of programming, to more advanced courses that help you make sense of data. Learn to code in HTML, CSS, Javascript, Python, Java and other programming languages.
Python
- Pybuddy A massive collection of Python libraries, they are split on different categories, you can search and also find libraries by tags.
- Learning Python the Hard Way.” It is $29.95 and comes with a beginner programming course, video tutorials and PDFs. One of the best parts about this learning option? The author Zed Shaw, a software developer, is available to help answer any questions you have via email and offers a money-back guarantee.
- Python: The programming language used throughout the Computational Thinking lessons. Visual Python is useful for modeling as is Physutil for Physics classrooms
- Python Beginner and and advanced resources
- Google Computational Thinking Lesson Plans Google makes it easy for teachers to incorporate computational thinking into the curriculum with these classroom-ready lessons, examples, and programs. Lessons include complete teacher editions, student worksheets, and any applicable Python programs
- Codecademy –. It takes things one step beyond the basics and has you writing some actual code, but it is also a one-stop shop for all your coding needs. It has a variety of stepped tutorials that walk you through the programming language of your choice based on no previous experience. Javascript, Python, HTML, PHP and Ruby are among your choices for your first coding expedition.
- CodeCombat is a Web-based swords-and-sorcery game in which players explore and use programming languages to win. Using JavaScript, Python, and other programming platforms, players command their on-screen warriors into action, making them move around, engage in battle, and blast enemies.
- LearnStreet LearnStreet offers free beginner courses on HTML, Ruby, Python and Javascript.
- Code Avengers - gr. 6 -12 A site for teachers wanting their students to learn how to code games, websites (Javascript), or apps. If Codecademy lacks a little personality for you, try Code Avengers. It has a superhero-esque theme with a built-in gamification element that awards points, badges and games to keep the learning fun and addictive. HTML/CSS and Javascript are the main focus of this site.odecademy and practice with friends.
- 30+ Resources for Students to Learn about Coding Languages gr - 8 - 12
- Mathematics for the Digital Age and Programming in Python: a text book that offers a blend of mathematics and programming with a focus on mathematics that is relevant to computing
- . ExamplesGoogle Computational Thinking Lesson Plans Google makes it easy for teachers to incorporate computational thinking into the curriculum with these classroom-ready lessons, examples, and programs. Lessons include complete teacher editions, student worksheets, and any applicable Python programs include short exercises from core subjects with key CT concepts to consider. Programs include Python examples and exercises for teachers to enhance their existing lessons.
- Construct (gr 6-12) Windows- It aims to allow games to be created in an easy drag and drop manner, using an event-based programming system, or optionally with Python scripting. It features pixel shaders, motion blur, zooming and rotations, a Behaviors system, a skeletal animation system, a debugger, and over 50 built-in objects. In addition, the engine includes support for two-dimensional physics using the Boxtwo-dimensional library. Construct is developed by a group of students.
- Codecademy –. It takes things one step beyond the basics and has you writing some actual code, but it is also a one-stop shop for all your coding needs. It has a variety of stepped tutorials that walk you through the programming language of your choice based on no previous experience. Javascript, Python, HTML, PHP and Ruby are among your choices for your first coding expedition.
- CodeCombat is a Web-based swords-and-sorcery game in which players explore and use programming languages to win. Using JavaScript, Python, and other programming platforms, players command their on-screen warriors into action, making them move around, engage in battle, and blast enemies.
- LearnStreet LearnStreet offers free beginner courses on HTML, Ruby, Python and Javascript.
- Lessons in Computational Thinking
- Google offers dozens of lessons for exploring computational thinking through the use of Python programming. Part of the Computational Thinking resources provided by Google are lessons for teachers who don't have any programming experience and or don't teach in a 1:1 setting. Google's Computational Thinking Lessons place a heavy emphasis on math and science, but there lessons appropriate for use in the humanities too. This lesson on Finding Patterns in Spelling Errors and History is designed for use with middle school and high school students and is aligned to Common Core Standards.
- Calico - http://calicoproject.org (middle to high school) Multi-language IDE - python, scheme, jigsaw (scratch-like)
- More from Google: Computer Science Custom Search cusotmized search engine to find computer science lesssons K -12ore from Google: Computer Science Custom Search cusotmized search engine to find computer science lesssons K -1Mre from Google: Computer Science Custom Search cusotmized search engine to find computer science lesssons K -1Exploring Computer Science K-12 Curriculum ECS introduces students to problem solving, web design, programming, data analysis, and robotics. ECS also teaches about the ethical and societal issues that accompany technology - issues about privacy, piracy, and responsible communication. The ECS mission is to make inquiry-based computer science education available to all students, particularly girls, African Americans and Latinos who are underrepresented in the field. ECS is now in schools in LA, Chicago, and Washington D.C., but should be available for all students.
- CodeHS – Aimed at Middle and High School students, CodeHS is inspired by Stanford University’s Introduction to Computer Science class. It has a step-by-step curriculum for schools to follow with videos, example code, and programming exercises. It is based around game design, so it helps keep the interest levels high with student
- Codelabs ( gr. 7 - 12 ) ) is a free online platform for learning, understanding and practicing programming. It provides a supervised tutorial on the working of a programming language works and enables the user to learn a new programming language easily and quickly. The user can execute their programs in the browser driven programming labs. It is useful for beginners as well as programmers with advanced knowledge. Tutorials are well-organized.
- Codelabs include an extensive range of programming languages such as PHP, Ruby, Python, JavaScript, etc. Various variables, data types, functions, loops, operators, and many such concepts are the core focus. These topics provide a comprehensive guide to the language and help you to learn, and understand the programming language better.
- CodeNow - Learn from professional programmers at technology companies through this non-profit's U.S.-based workshops.
- A Beginner's Guide to HTML & CSS offers twelve text-based lessons for beginners. Once you've mastered the beginner lessons you can try your hand at the ten advanced lessons offered on the site.
- Thimble is a free Mozilla product designed to help users learn how to write HTML and CSS. Thimble features a split screen on which you can write code and see how it works at the same time. On the left side of the screen you write your code and on the right side of the screen you instantly see what that code renders. If you write the code correctly, you will know right away. Likewise, if you don't write the code correctly, you will know right away. Some of the sample projects you can work with include webpages, games, and avatars.
- CodeShare Write or paste code here then share. Anyone you share with will see code as it's type
- Squad is a free collaborative code editor. With Squad, students can access the code they are writing anywhere there is an Internet connection. This means that students can chat and edit files together no matter where they are. Squad constantly saves the workspace so that they are available even when multiple machines are logged. Students can see what teammates are working on, offer recommendations and even work simultaneously on a document. Even better? If your students have a coding question (and you, like me, can’t answer) they can copy and paste the code in the workspace’s share URL and anyone with the URL can get in to help. All of the files created on Squad belong to your students. They can open (and save) local files, access a remote host via FTP/SFTP or grab a file from Dropbox. The chat feature is searchable so that students can go back and learn from past mistakes or suggestions.
- Code Studio as is explained in this excellent review, provides a variety of features that set it apart from other coding platforms. Most important of them all is its integration of HTML5 which makes it accessible through different browsers. Code Studio also provide coding lessons tailored for each age group and grade level. By completing these lessons, students are expected to be able to create their own games and apps to share with others using popular social networking sites. Another important feature of Code Studio is its user interface which allows teachers to run and manage their own classes and also monitor the progress of their students. Lesson plan guide
- Codecademy –. It takes things one step beyond the basics and has you writing some actual code, but it is also a one-stop shop for all your coding needs. It has a variety of stepped tutorials that walk you through the programming language of your choice based on no previous experience. Javascript, Python, HTML, PHP and Ruby are among your choices for your first coding expedition.
- AliAlice gr 6 -12 is a 3-dimensional interactive animation program visualization environment. Novice programmers build animated 3-D movies and author games as they learn introductory object-oriented programming concepts. Alice provides a drag-and-drop development environment, to prevent students from making syntax errors. Resources for Alice 3 |
- Code Avengers - gr. 6 -12 A site for teachers wanting their students to learn how to code games, websites (Javascript), or apps. If Codecademy lacks a little personality for you, try Code Avengers. It has a superhero-esque theme with a built-in gamification element that awards points, badges and games to keep the learning fun and addictive. HTML/CSS and Javascript are the main focus of this site.odecademy and practice with friends.
- 30+ Resources for Students to Learn about Coding Languages gr - 8 - 12
- Code School Code School teaches web technologies in the comfort of your browser with video lessons, coding challenges, and screencasts.
- Dash – With a sole focus on website development, Dash is a well laid-out, and easy to use online coding school for HTML/CSS and Javascript. It has 5 in-depth tutorials that will teach you how to create a personal website, a blog, a business website, a CSS robot, and a Madlibs game. At the end of each lesson, students are encouraged to use what they learned and create a project of their own outside of Dash. A good option for doing this might be the Editey apps that let you share websites hosted on Google Drive.grammr is a browser-based app that functions as an online learning lab for students who learn best at their own pace. The 15 programming technologies available to learn on Programmr can be used individually or in combination to create command-line programs, web apps, mobile apps, rich media apps and more. The app even comes with an “auto-faculty” feature that can check students’ work in any of the offered languages.
- Crunchzilla is a service that students can use to learn to write Javascript programs. There are two versions of Crunchzilla; Code Maven and Code Monster. Code Monster is designed for students of middle school age.
- Code Monster contains 58 short lessons that take students from the very basics of things like resizing and repositioning objects to complex creation of animations. Students can work through the lessons in sequence or jump directly to any of the lessons. Students receive instant feedback on each lesson because the code that they write and the results of the code are displayed side by side.
- Game Maven is another site for learning how to program Java by Crunchzilla. This is a fun site that saves a user's progress as they type java commands to learn how to program a simple game.
- E.A.K. (Erase All Kittens) (HS) is an online platform game, made by Drum Roll, that teaches kids to code and create on the web. It does this in a unique way - by encouraging them to hack into levels, written in HTML and CSS (the languages of websites) - in order to complete the game.
- LearnStreet LearnStreet offers free beginner courses on HTML, Ruby, Python and Javascript.
- Ruby Cheat Sheet
- Ruby Tutorial
- Code Player is a site for creating or learning how to program/code through video. These videos cover HTML 5, CSS, Java, and more. A programmer can either create a tutorial by entering code and having Code Player create the video, or a person wanting to learning to program can come and browse the videos.
- Video Lessons from Pluralsight (Web, Free): Online training site Pluralsight offers three video courses for kids, teaching them how to program in C# using Visual Basic, use Scratch, and use App Inventor. If your kids are old enough to sit through video instructions, these could help supplement the hands-on training they get through play.
- Mathematics for the Digital Age and Programming in Python: a text book that offers a blend of mathematics and programming with a focus on mathematics that is relevant to computing
- Python Tutorial
- Project Euler: Mathematical Challenges that require Computational Thinking/programming to solve them.
- Lessons in Computational Thinking
Google offers dozens of lessons for exploring computational thinking through the use of Python programming. Part of the Computational Thinking resources provided by Google are lessons for teachers who don't have any programming experience and or don't teach in a 1:1 setting. Google's Computational Thinking Lessons place a heavy emphasis on math and science, but there lessons appropriate for use in the humanities too. This lesson on Finding Patterns in Spelling Errors and History is designed for use with middle school and high school students and is aligned to Common Core Standards.
- Unity isn’t click and play: the system assumes you can program in C# or Javascript. But it does make developing games a lot easier, thanks to its physics engine and a wide range of downloadable scripts. Unity is one of the tools that made this revolution possible, and this guide will help you get started with your own game. Beginner's Guide
- Bootstrap [www.BootstrapWorld.org] gr 6-12 teaches students to program their own videogames in an algebraic programming language, exposing them to key math concepts. Middle and high-school teachers around the country have implemented the curriculum as a one-month module, a weekly activity or an after school program.
- Codea Codea lets you create games and simulations — or just about any visual idea you have. Turn your thoughts into interactive creations that make use of iPad features like Multi-Touch and the acceleromete
- Calico - http://calicoproject.org (middle to high school) Multi-language IDE - python, scheme, jigsaw (scratch-like)
- Code Hero is a totally new way to learn how to code. It's a first-person science shooter game where you use the code gun to manipulate code. You learn how to code in order to succeed in the game.
- Play My Code is "an online platform for building, playing and distributing browser games. Powered by HTML5, you can build within the browser and embed your games anywhere." Start by simply playing the games, then make small alterations to make the games easier or more difficult to play, share your altered games with friends. Before you know it you are a games developer.
Games to Learn Programming
- Tynker Kids with no knowledge of programming can learn logic with this iPad app. The app contains story puzzles that kids can solve through dragging and dropping to make visual code blocks. Kids learn to recognize patterns and break down a problem into small steps. Tynker free games and additional games are available with in-app purchasing. Recommended for ages 9 to 12.
- Grasshopper ( Android | IOS ) Grasshopper teaches users how to code in Javascript by playing through fun games and puzzles.
- Hopscotch: Coding for Kids – Kids, ages 8 to 12, can use simple, intuitive building blocks to create games, animations, and apps. They can drag and drops blocks of code to create anything they can dream up. Hopscotch is offering a new curriculum for educators
- Lightbot In this game, your kids, ages 9 to 11, can guide a robot to light up tiles and solve the different levels using commands. Lightbot can help introduce kids to programming concepts and coding. Lightbot Jr. is an easier version of Lightbot designed for younger kids, ages 6 to 8. Guides and lessons
- Robozzle iOS, Android, Web While its simple visuals may not look like much, Robozzle provides an excellent introduction to coding because it doesn't require learning an actual programming language. Instead, players use arrows and colored tiles to teach their triangular robot how to navigate increasingly intricate paths and pick up stars. At first, the functions you program are straightforward (move forward three times, then turn right, etc.), but soon you'll be learning and employing more complex coding concepts like loops, stacks, and recursion.
- Sprite Box (IOS | Android ) ( K - 4) teaches the coding basics of sequence and commands to kids as young as four years old. The game plays through on a linear board that reminds me a whole lot of the retro Super Mario boards, but along the way you meet up with the little Sprite who assigns you different coding challenges. They start out small, then get more complex as you go on
- Kodable With this free app, your kids can help the fuzz Family explore the planet Smeeborg’s Technomazes. While playing, they’ll get a kid-friendly introduction to programming concepts. Gameplay is easy, you just drag and drop instructions for your fuzzes to follow and help them get through their mazes. ages 5 and up. Progress Reports Now available on your Dashboard!: Identify and support struggling students, Challenge excelling students, Track student achievement every week, Map YOUR progress on your coding journey Guides and lessons | Hour of Code lessons
- Run Marco (gr. K-3) Marketed as an "adventurous coding game," it's something that students can play on an iPad, Android, Kindle Fire, or online.
- Robozzle Your kids can use simple commands to help a robot solve puzzles, follow a linked list, or even count in binary. With a growing database of over 1000 puzzles
- The Foos playful characters to solve challenges gr. 1 - 3 app
- Cargo-Bot Cargo-Bot is a puzzle game where you teach a robot to move crates. The game features 36 puzzles. It was created entirely on the iPad using a program called Codea.
- Bee-Bot Bee-Bot is an app for the younger kids. Help your kid, ages 4 and up, learn directional language and programming while directing their bee robot through various scenarios.
- Daisy the Dinosaur Kids, ages 6-10, can use a drag and drop interface to program and animate Daisy the Dinosaur. Your kids can learn the basics of objects, sequencing, loops, and events by solving the challenges in this app.
Apps to Learn Programming
- Daisy the Dinosaur! Learn the basics of computer programming with This free app. It has an easy drag and drop interface that kids of all ages can use to animate Daisy to dance across the screen. Kids will intuitively grasp the basics of objects, sequencing, loops and events by solving this app's challenges.
- Coding for Kids gr. 1- 2 iPad
Coding for Kids offers a plethora of interactive and fun games to teach young learners the fundamentals of of programming. 'It teaches coding with 200+ fun games like firefighting, popping balloons or playing a dentist. Kidlo Coding helps kids improve their problem-solving skills, boosts memory and increases logical thinking skills and prepare them for school.' - Coda Game - A free iOS app that helps students create their own games, such as Air Hockey, Flappy Bird and Platform and learn how to program or code. Kids’ creations can be shared with others.
- CodeSnaps is a free collaborative coding environment requiring only one robot and one iPad. You'll take advantage of tangible, printed coding blocks to prepare programs together on a work surface without a device. When blocks are scanned with the CodeSnaps app, the program is then executed on the connected robot. Supported robots include Sphero, SPRK, SPRK+, and Ollie. Available in the App Store.
- Grasshopper app ( K - 12 ) - Developed by Google for complete beginners to easily learn javascript coding fundamentals for free. In as little as 5 minutes a day, students can complete fun lessons and visual puzzles on their phone or iPad and Chromebook to build their coding skills.
- SpriteBox : Code Hour
‘SpriteBox is a unique puzzle-platformer; a mix of exploration and learning to code…During your adventure, you'll learn to sequence commands, change parameters, debug faulty logic, and use simple to complex loops to solve problems.’ - Robot School. Programming For Kids
‘Robot School. Programming For Kids is a programming game suitable for children aged 7 and above. Try out free version of Robot School and get hooked into programming! ’ - HopScotch
Hopscotch ( gr. 3 - 6) is programming designed for everyone. Kids can use simple, intuitive building blocks to create games, animations and apps in this colorful, interactive environment. Program your characters to move, draw, and collide with each other, and use shaking, tilting, or even shouting at the iPad to control them. Hopscotch Challenge is an eBook on Kindle (free) of challenges for students to complete using the Hopscotch can be used to introduce students to basic concepts of software coding and computational thinking. Download Hopscotch, access the official Hopscotch blog, and get more information about the app on www.gethopscotch.com. These challenges are designed for 9 – 11- Overview of Hopscotch on Educade (includes video tutorial & block category descriptions)
- Hopscotch Lesson Ideas is a free guide available for free download in iTunes.
- Hopscotch is offering a new curriculum for educators
- Preparing for STEM Lessons on Coding with Hopscotch for iPad
- Hopscotch Lesson Plan by Paul Hamilton
- Hopscotch in the Maths Classroom
- Official Hopscotch Blog
- Hopscotch for Young Learners
- 3 Video Tutorials by @PaulHamilton8: Lesson 1 Moving character, Lesson 2 Leaving a trail, Lesson 3 Adding Another Object
- Scratch Jr. (K-3) Website for resources The Scratch Jr app is for iPad and Android a PBS Kids version of Scratch Jr
- tutorial videos for creating different kinds of projects in PBS Scratch Jr.
- Free Webinar video archive by Shelly Fryer: Helping Students Learn Coding with Scratch Jr. and PBS Kids Scratch Jr. (Slides)
- Fun Coding Activities for Kids that Teach Reading Skills Wth Scratch Jr.
- Free Webinar video archive by Wesley Fryer: Developing Computational Thinking with Scratch Coding (Slides – more background / videos)
- Plethora of Resources
- “Create a Simple Race Game Animation in Scratch Jr.”
- A new version of ScratchJr was launched in December 2015. PBS KIDS ScratchJr programming app The Official ScratchJr Book is a companion to the ScratchJr app. Each chapter includes several activities that build on one another, culminating in an engaging final project. An excerpt of the book appears on the Scratch Foundation’s website.
- SpriteBox : Code Hour SpriteBox is a unique puzzle-platformer; a mix of exploration and learning to code…During your adventure, you'll learn to sequence commands, change parameters, debug faulty logic, and use simple to complex loops to solve problems.’
- Code Karts Introduce coding concepts to young kids. It comes in more than 20 languages, so kids from across the globe can access it while learning the fundamentals of code in their preferred language.This app asks kids to solve logical puzzles in a racetrack arrangement. With two different game modes and 70 different levels, kids are going to have fun-filled learning along with entertainment while using Code Karts. Get Code Karts here: Available on iOS and Android
- HyperPad introduce students to programming/coding. This is done in the familiar to use drag-n-drop interface where students can easily create games, presentations, banners, and more. HyperPad also has a free educator’s kit provides you with two weeks of lessons and activities to start teaching your students STEM skills and the fundamentals of programming.
- Pixel is a free mobile (iOS/Android) app for students learning how to program or code. Your own personal interactive robot. Pixel starts off without any intelligence or emotion, so it's up to you to program some personality and life into the robot.. Pixel uses the familiar drag-n-drop blocks of code formula (i.e. Scratch) to make a robot preform functions such as speech and emotion.
- Sprite Box (IOS | Android ) ( K - 4) teaches the coding basics of sequence and commands to kids as young as four years old. The game plays through on a linear board that reminds me a whole lot of the retro Super Mario boards, but along the way you meet up with the little Sprite who assigns you different coding challenges. They start out small, then get more complex as you go on
- Mimo: Learn how to code on the Go through ( gr. 7 - 12) interactive tutorials and quizzes! is an educational app that teaches programming by breaking lessons down into two-minute segments. Mimo uses a gamified approach to motivate users by earning achievements. Each lesson starts with a basic explainer, then moves users into an interactive Q&A. Answers are followed with immediate feedback, gently encouraging another try when the user answers incorrectly.
- Codeable Crafts K-3 Android app is a clever reworking of introductory coding, combining simple crafting (coloring, stickers, cut-out shapes) with visual block-based coding to get kids making animations and telling stories. The best thing about Codeable Crafts is how easy it is to create a short simple animated story. Kids need only to drag simple, puzzle-shaped coding blocks together in different ways to experiment with programming concepts like movement, repetition, and more. They can also just have fun telling a story.
- codeSpark Academy ( Android) for students learning how to code/program ages 4-9 yrs old. Kids learn how to code by simple step-by-step instructions where they interact in the Foo Studio. This is done by dropping blocks of code and watching the actions they preform. Also, there are projects, activities, and printables, that help teach coding.
- Swift Playgrounds This app is designed to help learners of all ages dive into coding. It was made for folks who are totally brand-new to coding and looking to explore and master this computer science language. The new Swift Playground and corresponding resources are fantastic for people of all backgrounds and interests. Teacher guide | iTunes U course with videos that bring the Teacher Guide lessons to life Download the Hour of Code with Swift Playgrounds Facilitator Guide
- The Foos is easy to learn and full of playful characters. Everything happens in realtime, so it's easy to experiment.
- Kodable - gr 1 -4 iPad app designed for younger kids that has them controlling fuzzballs to complete each level. Each level deals w/ a simple concept of programming and gets more advanced as they get higher.Play on online or other devices here | Hour of Code lessons
- Lightbot Junior (2.99) is specifically designed for ages 4-8, and is an easier version of the popular Lightbot: featuring a gentler learning curve and not-as-complex puzzles.
- Kids’n’Code Solve puzzles, control robots and learn basic concepts and principles of programming. What children will learn? Kids will recognize basic patterns, learn problem solving, consistent and algorithmic thinking, spatial visualization, debugging programs. This simple and straightforward app is designed specifically for elementary students and inspired by MIT’s Scratch programming language. Users move across the screen by providing a series of commands for their animated creature to follow.
- CodeArt is an introduction to programming for kids (age 7+). Android app coming by 2017. Based on the popular graph paper programming activity, Feedback is provided via a simple color-coded interface: red implies an error. Each level has 10 puzzles in increasing order of difficulty. Video
- Pocket Code Programming Android app Program, play, and share your own games, animations, interactive art, music videos, and many kinds of other apps, directly on your phone or tablet!One Hour of Code tutorial: http://catrob.at/HourOfCode - for other tutorials see http://catrob.at/i and http://catrob.at/help
- Robozzle is a social puzzle game which teaches programming. Using only a few simple commands, teach the robot to recurse a tree, follow a linked list, or count in binary. With beautiful graphics, a painstakingly crafted user interface, and unique game play
- CodeQuest is an iOS app designed for teaching young students how to code in CSS or HTML. The way this works is like most games where a user progress from level to level learning the basics of coding. Once they complete the level they earn badges and unlock more of the game. Best of all there is a parent section where they can signup to get emails of detailed progress reports
- Tickle is the easy iOS app for learning how to program or code. This is done simply by using one of the templates (drone, Sphero, etc) and then dragging-dropping blocks of code together (users of Scratch will feel right at home. Not only can a student program a robot or drone, they can create interactive stories by using built-in interactive characters and sound. Video tutorial | sphero tutorial | drone tutorial
- Run Marco Marketed as an "adventurous coding game," it's something that students can play on an iPad, Android, Kindle Fire, or online. This is similar to Kodable in that players learn coding by advancing through a game, and there doesn't seem to be a way of creating your own code from scratch. The blocks, however, have words as well as pictures. While the words are more prominent, the pictures are obvious enough and should be easy for pre-readers.
- CargoBot ayers learn coding logic in this iPad app by using a string of commands to organize crates with a robotic arm. As levels get more complex, the user must create functions and optimize his limited number of moves to meet the objectives.
- Coda Game you can be the boss of your own awesome games. Drag and drop the visual coding blocks to create games such as Air Hockey, Flappy Bird and Platform games and share them with the world ($4)
- Cato's Hike: A Programming & Logic Odyssey Cato stepped through and discovered that this world unlike his own didn't follow the same rules. Every time he tried to take a step or an action he'd find himself stuck in place. Stuck that is until he finally discovered the rules in this universe: by writing a program for himself he would be able to overcome all obstacles and learn something new along the way
- Treehouse: Learn Programming and Design Treehouse is the best way to learn technology. Learn to build websites, create iPhone apps, build web apps with Ruby on Rails and PHP, or start a business. With the Treehouse iPad app you can learn on the go and get job ready with little or no experience. Learn to build that app idea or land your dream job. We’ll walk you step-by-step through building projects and honing your skills with videos, quizzes, and code challenges that let you code in languages like Objective-C, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, and SQL right on your iPad
- Beebot: The app makes use of Bee-Bot's keypad functionality and enables children to improve their skills in directional language and programming through sequences of forwards, backwards, left and right 90 degree turns. The app has been developed with 12 levels encouraging progression. Each level is timed and the faster it is completed the more stars you get
- Tynker Tynker gr 4-6 guide is a computing platform specifically to teach children programming skills in a fun way Guide
- Box Island: One Hour Coding - A fun free iOS app for ages 6 on up learning the basics of coding.
- Robot Factory app. (3.99) Designed for the iPad and iPhone, Tinybop’s app lets children create, test, and collect robots. They can build with exoskeletons, zephyr mechanisms, hydrostatic tentacles, machinos locomotors, G-Force mixers, and more. They can make any robot they can imagine—robot cats, robot samurais, robot spies—from 100 parts.
- LEGO MINDSTORMS Fix the Factory - Learn basic programming and logic skills while issuing commands to help a robot out of a factory maze.
- LightBotLearn core programming logic, starting from super-basic programming, for ages 4+, on iOS or Android (or Web browser) . Learn how to sequence commands, identify patterns, use procedures, and utilize loops!
- Light-bot: Hour of Code Light-bot is a mobile app that teaches basic programming principles in a "super unintimidating" puzzle game. "Light-bot lets players gain a practical understanding of basic control-flow concepts like procedures, loops, and conditionals, just by guiding a robot with commands to light up tiles and solve levels." Their Hour of Code contribution is a game that can be played in a browser or as a mobile app.
- Codea Gr (HS) for iPad lets you create games and simulations — or just about any visual idea you have. Turn your thoughts into interactive creations that make use of iPad features like Multi-Touch and the accelerometer. Codea is designed to let you touch your code. Want to change a number? Just tap and drag it. How about a color, or an image? Tapping will bring up visual editors that let you choose exactly what you want.
- A.L.E.X:is a fun puzzle game and a great way to train your brain. A.L.E.X. helps you think and plan logically as you program your robot A.L.E.X. with a sequence of commands to get through each level from start to finish.
- CodeSpells - A innovative app that teaches students how to code in Java by casting spells in a 3D virtual world.
- My Doodle Game app (gr. 2 - 6) is a fun and creative game making tool, with it you can literally draw your own games and then have hours of fun playing them! Make a scrolling shoot-em-up or a fun platformer, it's so simple to use and the results are instant. The application comes with some pre-made characters and games. You can use these or just draw your own and build up a personal library. You can mix and match heroes and enemies and make some really wacky games. Personalise your games with your own wav sound effects and mp3 music
- Pixel Press Floors iPad app that allows students to draw their own video game without programming! Lesson Plans
- L2Code HTML L2Code HTML teaches you how to code with its detailed instructions, step-by-step practice tutorials, and it even checks your work along the way. Many other websites and apps may give you the instructions, but only L2Code HTML includes the one tool you need to successfully learn HTML and build your webpage - a built-in text editor! This feature allows you to test your code immediately to see if your webpage will appear the way you want it.
- L2Code CSS Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is the next step after basic HTML. If you want more control over the look and formatting of your webpage, then the L2Code CSS app is for you. It provides step-by-step instructions and practice tutorials to help you master layout, colors, fonts, and more.Video tutorials apps
App Building Tools
- How App Development Empowers Students
- 🎯Jotform Apps is a free no-code app builder that anyone can use. Educators, restaurants and small business owners can use this tool to build apps. Although you might have a vision for an app you’d like to build, if you’re not sure where to start, Jotform has a library with hundreds of templates to explore, including a handful of education-themed templates. As you can see on this page, the education templates set you up to create a family portal app for your school, create an app for students to request and schedule appointments with tutors, a school bus inspection app, and so much more. Of course, you can start from scratch and build your own app, too.The drag-and-drop app builder in Jotform Apps doesn’t require any coding knowledge. After logging into a free Jotform account, you’ll choose the Apps option from the product menu. Then you have the choice to explore the templates or start from scratch. If you use a template, you can still customize it and add in extra features.
***8 ways to manage your classroom with Jotform Apps
🎯Thunkable Drag and drop programming for IOS and Android. Same interface as App Inventor
- 🎯Glide is an amazing free tool that enables anyone who can make a spreadsheet in Google Sheets to create his or her own mobile app. If that sounds simple, that's because it is just that simple. The headers that you put into your spreadsheet and the data that you enter into your spreadsheet is used by Glide to generate a mobile app for you that will work on Android and iOS devices. this new video | Short tutorial video | . step by step videos | Glide 2.0 updates with audio
* To get started making your first app with Glide you will need to create a spreadsheet in Google Sheets. Your spreadsheet's column headers are what will become the sections your app. The information that you enter into your spreadsheet's columns is what will be displayed within each section your app. You can include links to videos, images, and maps in your spreadsheet and those items will be included in your app too.
* After you have created your spreadsheet in Google Sheets, go to Glideapps.com and connect to your Google account. That connection will allow you to import your Google Sheet. Once your spreadsheet is imported you will be able to see a preview of your app. You can change the layout and color scheme of your app in the Glide editor. When you're happy with how it looks, hit the share button to publish your app for others to see. You can share your app publicly via QR code and public URL or you can share your app privately via email. (www.freetech4teachers.com) - 🎯AppSheet to create a wide variety of educational apps: homework apps, apps to garner students feedback or for polling and surveying, apps for communicating with parents and the school community, classroom management apps among others.
- 🎯Metaverse is an excellent platform that allows you to create interactive learning experiences using the power of AR technology. The process is simple and easy and no coding knowledge is required. Using Metaverse Studio you will be able to instantly start creating various forms of AR experiences to use with students in your class. Every experience you create can be shared with others via email, a QR code, a generated link or embed code. Some of the AR things teachers and students are creating on Metaverse include: games, scavenger hunts, quizzes, science fair projects, book reports, presentations and many more.
- MIT App Inventor - A site filled w/ lots of educational resources for teaching students how to program mobile apps. Create your first Android application through the MIT App Inventor. Watch the video. Create your first Android application through the MIT App Inventor. Watch the video | Here's a video overview of how to create your first app with the MIT App Inventor.www.freetech4teachers.com
- Dreams for Schools has launched a coding-at-home initiative, with free online resources for elementary students and courses for middle school and high school students with slides and video lessons. The subjects: mobile app developmentand website development. https://www.dreamsforschools.org/codingathome/
- Grasshopper is a free app for both Android and iOS users who want to learn to code with JavaScript. The app was created by one of Google’s experimental project teams. New users can choose to start as beginners or to skip ahead if they have some experience. Once they start, users work with blocks of JavaScript code (instead of graphical blocks like many other learn-to-code apps) to complete challenges. The app is divided into four courses: “What Is Code?” (primarily for beginners), “Fundamentals” (teaching coding concepts, such as variables, arrays, and loops), and two different sections called “Animations.” The challenges are laid out with examples and hints. Moving through the levels, students take short quizzes to reinforce their knowledge and understanding of how code works.
- 10 Excellent Platforms for Building Mobile Apps
- TouchDevelop – Microsoft's HTML5 based coding editor that lets you create apps on a PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phones. It even works offline! There are shades of Scratch to TouchDevelop, but the tutorials are easy to follow, and the emphasis on touch enabled mobile apps as your end product is a somewhat unique offering among this crowd TouchDevelop: Programming on the Go – Free eBook
- Hour of code educator notes – One hour detailed lesson plan
- Hyperpad Build Game apps
- TouchDevelop: Programming on the Go – Free eBook
- IOS Starter Kit - $ get started with creating games
- App Day – Resources and instructions for hosting an App Day
- TouchDevelop: Ranier Beach App Day 2013 – Video (2 min)
- TouchDevelop In Classrooms – Education examples from Microsoft
- TouchDevelop video tutorials – Video collection by Mr Ray Chambers
- Microsoft Educator Network – Tutorials from Microsoft
- Swift Playgrounds This app is designed to help learners of all ages dive into coding. It was made for folks who are totally brand-new to coding and looking to explore and master this computer science language. The new Swift Playground and corresponding resources are fantastic for people of all backgrounds and interests. Teacher guide |
App Development with Swift Guide | Download the Hour of Code with Swift Playgrounds Facilitator Guide - Stanford releases Developing iOS 8 Apps with Swift course on iTunes U
- Swifty. This iOS app includes quick tutorials to introduce users to the Swift programing language. From the basics to more complex tasks, this app can help students build a foundation for understanding Swift. Swifty is free to download and lets users unlock all chapters for $3.99.
- SpriteBuilder for Mac It enables you to create user interfaces, gameplay scenes, and levels by dragging different components to different interface files and arranging their positions. This can save a lot of time compared to positioning every element on the screen in code. SpriteBuilder also includes tools to manage your assets, create animations, audio effects, and particle effects.
- AppMakr bills itself as an app creation platform that allows students to make not only mobile apps for iPhone and Android but also HTML5 websites formatted for mobile devices. This app-making app has both free and paid versions with various levels of richness to its feature suite and includes a personal dashboard to manage updates and keep track of usage statistics.
- TouchDevelop – Microsoft is throwing its own hat into the coding arena with TouchDevelop, an HTML5 based coding editor that lets you create apps on a PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phones. It even works offline! There are shades of Scratch to TouchDevelop, but the tutorials are easy to follow, and the emphasis on touch enabled mobile apps as your end product is a somewhat unique offering among this crowd
- Apple Apps Development Kit
- Make Games with Us: Build an iOS Game in Your Browser
Teaches you how to makyour first iPhone game! Your game will be written in Objective-C, the language that is used to write all native iPhone apps. You will be using a game engine called Cocos2D that is very popular in the game industry." And all this is done in a browser with an embedded text editor and a Run command that emulates the iPhone environment.
- Codea for iPad lets you create games and simulations — or just about any visual idea you have. Turn your thoughts into interactive creations that make use of iPad features like Multi-Touch and the accelerometer. We think Codea is the most beautiful code editor you'll use, and it's easy. Codea is designed to let you touch your code. Want to change a number? Just tap and drag it. How about a color, or an image? Tapping will bring up visual editors that let you choose exactly what you want. High school + | iPad
- Flowlab Create your own online & iPhone games right in your browser
No Coding Game Design
Game-Design Coding Tool Ready Maker (gr 5. 7- 12)Can get everyone into coding—young students and beginners alike.At its core, Ready Maker is a collection of game parts that the user arranges to create an original game. As they build their games, students are able to make mazes, design animations, and more with these tools, extending as far as their imagination. How original the results are comes down to what the student wants. They can follow a step-by-step guide and have a working end result, or they can go off-menu and build more creatively. Because it has a level of depth, the platform can be used across years and as skills develop. The Ready Maker app can be downloaded on Mac, PC, and iOS and Android devices. The Educators section of the company’s website allows teachers to access lesson plans, coding classes,STEM learning projects, and more. Cost: Free
Game Maker Studio
- Keep in mind that you can slow the video down by going to the settings gear and see the transcript of the narration by clicking on the three dots under the video
- Short beginner tutorials Checkout transcripts
- Classic Pong - Video Game Design in Ready Maker Beginner tutorial
- Short beginner tutorials Checkout transcripts
- Flippity Flap (Flappy Bird) Three videos for Advanced beginner.
- Space Chicken Tutorial videos 1- 11 Takes you through many of the options Advanced Beginner
Game Maker Studio
Video Tutorials
- Tree House Learn from over 1000 videos created by expert teachers on web design, coding, business, and much more. The library is continually refreshed with the latest on web technology so you'll never fall behind.
- Khan Academy This is the official iPad app of the popular Khan Academy platform. The app provides you access to a wide variety of video lessons covering multiple subject areas including: math, biology, chemistry, science and many more.
Robotics - Drones
7 Ways to Use Drones in the Classroom
Early Childhood Robotics Network links provide access to curriculum units specifically tailored for use with the LEGO® WeDo™, LEGO® RCX, and KIWI robotics kits. However, the powerful ideas they focus on are applicable to any other robotics construction kit and the activities can be easily adapted for use with different materials.
KIBO robot kit lets children build their own robot, program it to do what they want, and decorate it. Designed specifically for children aged 4–7, the kit is intended to appeal both to technically minded children and to those who connect more with arts and culture or physical activity.
Jimu is a series of robotics kits for ages eight and up. At first glance, it resembles a Lego Mindstorms set, and it operates under a similar premise—snap interlocking parts together to build a robot, then use a companion app to program your creation. You can follow the instructions and build one of the template models, or you can assemble something completely new—it's entirely up to you. Lego's Mindstrorms series has long since been the king of programmable robotics kits for kids. They aren't always the easiest such kits to use, though. Ubtech thinks it may have something simpler, with its Jimu robot.
LEGO MINDSTORMS Fix the Factory - Learn basic programming and logic skills while issuing commands to help a robot out of a factory maze. Guide written by middle schoolers
mBot it’s an all-in-one solution for kids and beginners to enjoy the hands-on experience about robotics, programming, and electronics. You can program it with drag-and-drop graphical programming software based on Scratch 2.0 and the magic happens: the robots can follow lines, kick balls and push objects, avoid walls and more. You can also switch from graphical to text-based programming in Arduino mode as it can be coded with Arduino IDE environment.
OzoBots - Comes in two versions - Ozobots original follows marker lines,, kids code the marks to give commands for the Ozobot. Ozobot 2 can do this and you can give it code to direct it. Look at the Ozobot iPad apps, games and puzzle to solve for the Ozobots. Check out the IOS Ozobot app. Ozobot Lesson Library
Ozobot Groove The app comes with built-in dance demos, versatile dance choreography tools, and help resources. Start simple by checking out and loading your Ozobot with built-in demos and downloading dances created by Ozobot community.
Tickle app for programming drones and robots
Sphero Not only can you play with the robot, but there is a collection of high quality, common core aligned, STEM lessons designed for it as well. At its core, Sphero is a robotic ball that is controlled by an app on your smartphone. More than just roll around on the ground, both in the context of play, and in the context of the classroom. Lessons
SPRK Lightning Lab (Sphero) A hub to create, contribute, and learn with Sphero robots.
Dot and Dash Dash and Dot are a pair of robots from Wonder Workshop with five accompanying apps that help kids program the robots. Lesson plans made to help K-5 educators approach coding with young students. **Getting Started Activities See video in Video section below. article | http://teachers.makewonder.com/ | share tips and tricks, resources, implementation ideas, lesson plans, etc., Teacher Forum.
RobotBASIC is a multifeatured, general purpose, versatile programming language with an integrated robot simulator. Developed with help from a 33-year education veteran, this free tool for schools, teachers, and students has well over 800 commands and functions. RobotBASIC enables users to simulate a robot with many types of sensors, control a real robot using the wireless protocol, create animated simulations and video games, and handle complex engineering problems.
Root, a miniature robot that drives and draws on classroom whiteboards to encourage social learning and freeform creativity.
Bee-Bot Bee-Bot floor robot. The app makes use of Bee-Bot's keypad functionality and enables children to improve their skills in directional language and programming
Blue-Bot the new addition to the TTS floor robot family. The app enables you to write an algorithm, send it and then Blue-Bot will follow your instructions. There are numerous features, which make writing algorithms both fun and educational.
Hummingbird Robotics Kit is a spin-off product of Carnegie Mellon's CREATE lab. Hummingbird is designed to enable engineering and robotics activities for ages 13 and up (8 with adult supervision) that involve the making of robots, kinetic sculptures, and animatronics built out of a combination of kit parts and crafting materials.
My Robotic Friends Using a pre-defined "Robot Vocabulary" students will figure out how to guide each other to accomplish specific tasks without discussing them first. This lesson teaches children the connection between symbols and actions, as well as the invaluable skill of debugging. "My Robotic Friends" works best as a group activity and includes a teacher workbook for classroom use.
Courses
- Udacity Udacity courses are taught by industry experts from Facebook, Google, Cloudera and MongoDB. The classes range from teaching you the very basics of programming, to more advanced courses that help you make sense of data. Learn to code in HTML, CSS, Javascript, Python, Java and other programming languages.
- Udemy Whether you want to get promoted, break into a new industry, start a company, continue your education, further a passion, or just accelerate your life, Udemy has a course to help you get there and get there faster.
Artificial Intelligence
Innovating Learning and Education in the Era of AI A variety of online activities for K-12 students to learn about artificial intelligence, with a focus on how to design and use it responsibly. Learning resources provided on this website can help to address the needs of children, parents, and educators who are looking for free educational activities that support project-based STEM learning in an exciting and innovative area. The website is from MIT and brings a tradition and deep expertise to how children learn about AI through project-based learning that features project-based activities, learning units, child-friendly software tools, digital interactives, and other supporting materials, highlighting a variety of MIT-developed educational research and collaborative outreach efforts across and beyond MIT. The site has resources and units for children and adults at all learning levelsThe team has also gathered external resources to explore, such as, Teachable Machines by Google. a browser-based platform that lets users train classifiers for their own image recognition algorithms in a user friendly way.
Coding Games with ChatGPT
Blog Post - Example Game
Coding Games with ChatGPT
Blog Post - Example Game
- Tony Vincent shows how to use ChatGPT to code HTML games that can be embedded in Google Sites.
- As an example he shares the playable mental math game "The Percent Progress Game".
- Even if you or your students don't know how to code, you can use this process to create your own web-based interactive games and activities!
Videos
The ability to code allows people to mold interactions between humans and computers. Coders have become the gatekeepers of how our culture uses technology. Because of this, many people now preach that everyone should learn how to code, saying that knowledge of programming languages is akin to reading and writing. But is it reasonable to assume that everyone will learn how to code?T
"Coding isn’t just for computer whizzes, says Mitch Resnick of MIT Media Lab — it’s for everyone. In a fun, demo-filled talk Resnick outlines the benefits of teaching kids to code, so they can do more than just “read” new technologies — but also create them"
There are 3 videos in the series above
What is programming? Link to above video
Videos to inspire girls to code.
Programming with 4 - 5 year olds
Stopping points
11:00 18:05 23:10 35:30
11:00 18:05 23:10 35:30
Primary Programming with the apps Scratch Jr and Hopscotch
Article on Cubetto
Think Like a Coder This is a series for middle and high schoolers that TED-Ed is publishing. They're cartoons that present a riddle or puzzle that is solved by using the logic that one would use to create a computer program. The basic premise of the series is that the main characters Ethic and Hedge have to collect artifacts and solve puzzles.
It's best to watch the series in order, but you can jump into any of the videos you'll still get a little lesson out of it.
It's best to watch the series in order, but you can jump into any of the videos you'll still get a little lesson out of it.
Algorithms / Sequencing
Video and examples
Video and examples
Patterns
video and resources
video and resources
Abstraction
Video and examples
Video and examples
Decompositon
video and resources
video and resources
Logical Reasoning
Video and resources
Video and resources