Computing Resources for Computer Science
Compilation provided by the #CSforAR / #ARKidsCanCode Team
If you would like to recommend a resource, please email CSforAR@ade.arkansas.gov with the subject line of “Computing Resource.”
Name of Tool | Grade/Age Levels Approx | Description | Notes and Necessary Equipment |
All | Is it possible to have a room that’s just always open for the Arkansas CS Educators to hang out in when they want to just drop in and drop out? Wouldn't it be nice if we--all of us, but especially the extroverts-- just had a place to be together while online? Well this is the place! There may or may not be a CS specialist in there at a particular time, but come hang out and make a new friend! | Necessary equipment:
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5 Cybersecurity projects for the Computer Science Teacher | 9-12 | 5 Cybersecurity projects for the Computer Science Teacher in Python - Slides from PD. All code is available in the slide notes via repl.it. Starts with a crash course in Python. Then you learn about cracking passwords, encryption, scraping websites, and building web servers and websites. | Target audience is 9-12 CS teachers who are interested in levelling up their infosec understanding. Necessary equipment:
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K-12 | This document is not controlled by ADE or the CSforAR team. It was created and shared amongst Arkansas CS teachers as a resource | Varying | |
Grades 3-8 | A free computer science curriculum that makes coding easy to teach and fun to learn. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 3-12 | CS Unplugged is a collection of free teaching material that teaches Computer Science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons and lots of running around. | No necessary technology beyond downloading the lessons | |
Students 4th-12th | Daily Challenges to play with block-based coding (or javascript for advanced users). No circuit playground required. Email john.hart@starfishnw.org with questions | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 9-12 | CodeHS is a comprehensive teaching platform for helping schools teach computer science. They provide web-based curriculum, teacher tools and resources, and professional development. A free starter pack is available | Necessary equipment:
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Grades K-12 | Everything from an introductory Hour of Code to building real working apps, games and websites using blocks, JavaScript, CSS, HTML and more. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades K-12 |
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Grades 9 - 12 | Scholarships for Students Affected by COVID-19 Codecademy teaches millions of learners web development, mobile development, and data science skills. In the wake of school closures due to COVID-19, we’re offering 10,000 scholarships to Codecademy Pro for free to high school and college students across the world for the rest of the school year. Those students get access to the same features that every Codecademy Pro learner does: roadmaps to figure out what to learn, thousands of hours of courses and projects to learn programming and data science, and a community of supportive peers. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades K-8 |
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Grades 7-12 | This site allows for code practice in Java and Python through self graded challenges. Create a free account to save progress. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades K-12 | Use digital citizenship lesson plans to address timely topics and prepare students to take ownership of their digital lives. Browse lessons by grade level and/or topic. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 6-12 | Online computer science and digital literacy courses aligned to Arkansas standards. Students can learn Java, C#, Python, HTML, Unity and more through an online platform with instructional videos, lessons, auto-graded quizzes and tests and many hands-on projects. | Fee waived for the remainder of the 2019-2020 SY for Arkansas schools. Computer, Internet access required. | |
Computer Combat Cards and other activities | Grades K-12 | Links to:
| Varying Technology Required; however, a computer and internet access is needed to download most resources |
Grades 10-12 AP CSA | Resources (lessons, quizzes, and tests) to help prepare students for the AP exam. | Because of the Coronavirus epidemic causing the closures of schools across the world and having to go to online/virtual/home based learning, enrolling in the free trial now gives you access to the entire Computer Science Teachers Bundle until May 9th (the day after the Computer Science A exam). Necessary equipment:
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7-12 | YouTube Video Series published out of the UK by PBS Digital Studios that covers a variety of computer science topics. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 4-10 | CRCC is a groundbreaking online robotics tournament that engages students in coding. Schools can compete and involve students through gaming and competition in STEM, coding and tech literacy. No previous experience is necessary, everyone can participate. CRCC is cloud-based, can be accessed from any computer and uses simulation of virtual 3D Robots that perform complex tasks and missions. By learning to program, planning and strategizing the virtual robot to participate, students will compete within their class, grade, school, district and state to win stages and progress to the finals. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 4 - 10 | Girls Who Code at Home has released a weekly series of resources to keep up your learning at home, and ideas on how to stay busy and—most importantly—brave. These resources provide support for parents who are busy working from home, options for educators in need of remote work and—of course—inspiration for our girls. | Necessary equipment:
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Teachers | This is an online course through Udemy for $13.99. If you have an interest in learning Python but not sure where to start this course goes over many basics of Python. | Necessary equipment:
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7-12 | Hack This Site is a free training ground for users to test and expand their hacking skills. Their community is dedicated to facilitating an open learning environment by providing a series of hacking challenges, articles, resources, and discussion of the latest happenings in hacker culture. Hacking Challenges:
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Ages 4-10 | Learn about computers, programming and technology through these free, fun activities. | Necessary equipment:
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6-8 | This is a semester-long course targeted at middle school grades 6-8, as an introduction to Computer Science. The course is written for teachers who may have never taught computer science before. During this course, students will explore concepts in computer science through Microsoft MakeCode and Minecraft. | Necessary equipment:
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Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python (Free Online Book) | 6-12 | Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python teaches you how to program in the Python language. Each chapter gives you the complete source code for a new game, and then teaches the programming concepts from the examples. Games include Guess the Number, Hangman, Tic Tac Toe, and Reversi. This book also has an introduction to making games with 2D graphics using the Pygame framework. | Necessary equipment:
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9-12 | This resource is for beginning programmers and is an entire course on introduction to computer programming. The primary language used is java script and the topics are as follows: introduction to programming, drawing basics, coloring, variables, animation basics, interactive programs, becoming a community coder, resizing with variables, text and strings. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 4-8 | All schools in Arkansas can use the Learning Blade online lessons without cost for students in computer science and Career Development. With 100 lessons in computer science and many other STEM online lessons in Learning Blade students have about 100 hours of online lessons available. Reports can be produced for the online lessons to keep track of student work at home. For schools/teachers to get their accounts please fill out www.learningblade.com/AR. | Learning Blade is now going to offer all of our parents lessons for free use. We are soon going to be notifying our main state contacts that we have updated this page (http://www.learningblade.com/parents) to reflect this, with some additional instructions for parents. Necessary equipment:
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These projects are downloadable step-by-step guides, with explanations and colour screenshots for students to follow. Each project is a stand-alone activity, written to last for a single lesson, and will guide children to create a game or interactive project that demonstrates a real-world use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. | Necessary equipment:
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Ages 11-14 | Students are introduced to the core concepts of computational thinking, programming and computer systems through unplugged activities and learning with the BBC micro:bit. No prior learning is assumed and this is an ideal introduction for students to ensure they have a shared understanding of these important elements of computing. The lesson sequence includes:
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NICERC Blog | All Grade Levels | Multiple activities from NICERC: Click on the image that says NICERC @ Home and choose the link, it will direct you to another page with multiple activities listed at the bottom of that page. | Necessary equipment:
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9-12 | Technology is advancing rapidly and connecting us in ways never before imagined. The modules in Cyber Society are designed to enable teachers to use liberal arts concepts and ideas as an approach to increase cyber awareness among high school students. This course helps contribute to the initiative of developing a better, more educated cyber workforce. The lessons within each easily customizable module improve students’ critical thinking and critical reading skills as they pull information from articles and other sources. Students also practice their presentation skills as they participate in debates and group presentations. The modules include a wide variety of topics such as law, ethics, terrorism, communications, and business as they pertain to cyberspace. | Requires teachers to request an account with NICERC. Free curriculum environment uses a canva platform and necessary equipment for students would be a computer with internet access. *This unit was picked to reduce the amount of ancillary equipment needed. | |
Grades 6-12 | This site uses block based OR text based coding for turtle graphics. No account creation needed, simply hit Let’s Play button. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 6-10 | Penjee is a place where you can learn how to code with the python language. Penjee is an interactive, self-paced curriculum that has videos to teach new topics before kids write python code to make a penguin do various things like collect fish. Has a gradebook feature and differnetion built into the curriculum. - Submitted by Ven Morris | Necessary equipment:
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Teacher/10-12 | These are Python ‘cheat sheets’ demonstrating the basics of python and turtle graphics | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 7-12 | Cloud Development Environment. Repl.it gives you an instant IDE to learn, build, collaborate, and host all in one place. Free teacher accounts for K-12. Support for all major programming languages (C++, Java, Python, Javascript) NOTE! repl.it has added Turtle Graphics (listed separately from Python) | Repl.it works on every device with a web browser – including Chromebooks Auto-Graded Java Course (AP CS A) Auto-Graded Python Course with Solutions Necessary equipment:
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Ages 8-16 | With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. | Necessary equipment:
Scratch will run in most current web browsers on desktops, laptops and tablets. You can view projects on mobile phones, but currently you are not able to create or edit projects on phones. Below is the list of officially supported browsers. | |
Ages 5-7 | Coding is the new literacy! With ScratchJr, young children (ages 5-7) can program their own interactive stories and games. In the process, they learn to solve problems, design projects, and express themselves creatively on the computer. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 4-12 | It requires no coding knowledge, so it’s perfect for students just starting out. Solve puzzles to master the basics using Swift — a powerful programming language created by Apple and used by the pros to build today’s most popular apps. Then take on a series of challenges and step up to more advanced playgrounds designed by Apple and other leading developers. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades K-12 | Free, online platform filled with real-world and relevant teacher lesson plans and other resources to integrate computational thinking across all core subjects. Created in partnership with Discovery Education, this robust set of resources are aligned to Common Core, CSTA, NGSS, etc. standards for Grades 6-8. Teachers across every K-12 subject area can easily ladder up or down content with relevant tasks for students. Teacher lesson plans are searchable and can be filtered by subject area and/or computational thinking skill. | TCS will offer virtual training for teachers each Thursday in April from 7-8pm EST. The overview will cover what computational thinking is, resources, and information about how to leverage content for online learning modules. Necessary equipment:
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Ages 11+ | A short collection of poems which aims to assist students learn some key computing content. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 10-12 | Created by #ARKidsCanCode former Specialist Joshua Rodgers If you have upper level CS students you'd like to keep engaged this week, this is a project I put together a while back that they might find interesting. For level 3/4 students, it should keep them engaged for a while. | For any student who may not know what a JAR file is, it's a Java Archive that is just a compressed collection of .class files that may be executed by double-clicking its icon in the desktop environment or running "java -jar filename.jar" on the command line There are instructions in the README file. For submitting you could have them submit to you the JAR file they create. When you run it, it should look like the example from the README. If any student reports that the simulator does not work, you should refer them back to the instructions. Necessary equipment:
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Grades 7-12 | Cloud Development Environment. Trinkets work instantly, with no need to log in, download plugins, or install software.Easily share or embed the code with your changes when you're done. Free Basic Package | Trinket lets you run and write code in any browser, on any device. Necessary equipment:
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6-12 | In this resource you will take your first steps with the programming language Python to draw shapes, patterns, and spirals. You will use a module named Turtle. Along the way you will learn how to think in sequences, and use loops to repeat a sequence. This is a great stepping stone from a visual programming language like Scratch to the text-based environment of Python. | Necessary equipment:
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8-12 | In this official course from Unity, you will learn to Create with Code as you program your own exciting projects from scratch in C#. As you iterate with prototypes, tackle programming challenges, complete quizzes, and develop your own personal project, you will transform from an absolute beginner to a capable Unity developer. By the end of the course - if you are completing it through a school program - you will also be ready to put your skills to the test on the Unity Certified User Programmer Exam.. | Necessary equipment:
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K-12 | Teachers, students and families… Don’t spend countless hours searching the internet for quality educational resources, ZUNI Learning Tree has already organized everything for you! ZUNI links to free and open educational resources designed to support classroom instruction, build a love of learning in the home, and ignite learning movements. You’ll find 1,000s of high quality resources for literacy, math, science, social studies, coding, STEM, and more at your fingertips. To sign up go to: | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 7-12 | This resource allows for a holistic and relevant approach to circuitry and electronic projects. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades K-12 | This is a 3D modeling and CAD design resource. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 7-12 | This is an entry-level cybersecurity game that is created for middle and high school students. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 7-12 | This resource allows for users to learn about programming in Python through lessons and a hands-on approach. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 5-12 | This resource allows users to program a virtual robot using a block-based coding environment. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 9-12 | This resource provides an assortment of challenging mathematical/programming problems. | ||
Grades 9-12 | This resource provides many resources to help learn about cybersecurity through a unit-by-unit model. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades K-12 | This resource is made for chromebooks, utilizes many different facets of programming and can be used offline. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 7-12 | This resource allows for projects to be shared, monitored, and checked for changes being made throughout. | Necessary equipment:
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SnapCAD (Vex IQ) | Grades 4-8 | This is a 3D modeling resource that can be used to help with VEX IQ. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades K-12 | This resource allows students to use a block-based programming language to create and play their own video games. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades 7-12 | This resource is a 3D modeling program that is free for students and educators. It can be utilized for things like robotics so if a teacher has to provide a robotics class virtually students can build and design projects through it. | Necessary equipment:
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Grades K-12 | This resource allows for students to approach computer science education in a multitude of ways, including programming | Necessary equipment:
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Grades K-12 | This resource allows students to learn about boolean logic through a game. | Necessary equipment:
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Disclaimer: Links to third-party websites do not constitute an endorsement of the content, viewpoint, accuracy, opinions, policies, products, services, or accessibility of the sites. Many of the resources listed above have an associated cost, while many do not; curriculum purchasing decisions are within the district's/school's discretion.