One of the advantages of learning to code is the ability to bring our ideas to life using free and low-cost online tools. The additional lessons in this category broaden students’ understanding of what they can create with their developing computer science skills. The following resource list compiles plug-and-play activities for your classroom from Hour of Code, Scratch, and MIT App Inventor.
Activities from Hour of Code are organized by grade, computer science experience, and length, among other filters.
Here are some interesting activities we highlight:
- Robot Repair: Can You Fix the Robot Brain? (Unplugged). Difficulty: beginner. Length: 60-90 minutes. (Lesson plan)
- NASA: Explore Mars with Scratch. Difficulty: beginner. Length: a few hours. (Lesson plan)
- Program in Python with Tracy the Turtle. Difficulty: comfortable. Length: an hour, with possible follow. (Lesson)
Projects built on Scratch, supported by tutorials, Coding Cards, and Educator Guides.
Here are some interesting activities we highlight:
- Animate a Name. Length: one hour. (Educator Guide)
- Imagine a World. Length: one hour. (Educator Guide)
- Video Sensing (requires using the computer’s built-in camera). Length: one hour. (Educator Guide)
Students can develop mobile applications with an MIT App Inventor developer tool. Some require mobile devices.
Here are some interesting activities we highlight:
- BallBounce: A simple game app. (Tutorial)
- Introduction to Machine Learning: Image Classification. Difficulty: beginner. Length: two 45-minute lessons. (Lesson plan)
- Fake Voices: The Ethics of Deepfakes. Difficulty: beginner. Length: three 50-minute lessons. (Lesson plan)
