Computer Science Resources for Teachers
Wanting to bring computer science into your classroom?
Here are my favorite tools for teachers:
For Elementary School Teachers:
✨Kodable: Great for pre-readers that aren’t ready for Code.org.
✨Code.org: Completely free and a great way to get started with programming if there’s 0 buy-in from your campus.
✨Dash : A great robot for early and upper elementary school. It has such a fun personality and the kids love “driving” it around.
✨Bee-bot: Good for early elementary and does not require a device. Hello unplugged activity!
✨Sphero : Their indi robot is great for preschool offline coding. It’s more advanced than the Bee-bot and has a unique color tile coding system.
✨Ozobot: If you don’t have access to a ton of devices that are needed for most robots, this is perfect for you! It allows you to teach coding and introduce robots with completely offline activities.
For Middle School Teachers:
✨Sphero : Their Bolt robot is great for middle school. It also allows you to easily integrate the engineering design process into the computer science classroom.
✨Scratch: Again completely free and a great way to set students up for success in coding before they jump into text based coding.
✨Code Combat: Students can learn Python and Javascript by playing a video game. Every time I’ve used this with students they CAN’T STOP.
For High School Teachers:
✨Codecademy: Perfect for high school students wanting to learn HTML, Python, and Javascript at their own pace. Their courses will teach the students how to code, so even if you’re not a coding pro your students can still be!
✨Finch Robot 2.0: This robot can be programmed with Python, Java and Javascript- which I have not seen in the educational robotics market yet!
Fun Activity Idea: I had my high school students go through their HTML course and used the code they learned in the course to code their own website on Tumblr! Their website included their resume and this way I was also able to bring in college readiness content into my STEM classroom. I did not have my students publish their website live to protect their information, but you can publish password-protected blogs.
For Any Teacher:
✨Cospaces: Coding in 3D. Need I say more? The only downside is that the subscription can be a little pricy. However, they do have discounts for Title 1 schools!
✨Tinkercad: I have yet to personally try this myself, but I think it’s a really unique idea to combine CAD skills, 3D printing and coding.
✨Microsoft LEGO Mindstorms: I have used LEGO Mindstorms in the past, but was not a fan of the software they used. However, they have now totally revamped it, so it’s worth a revisit. Students can also compete in local and national competitions through the First LEGO League.
Have any other computer science tools you use that are not listed? Feel free to comment them below, would love to hear!