Middle Resources
1. Books for Check-out
2. Coding Websites and Apps
3. Connected Coding Kits for Check-out
4. Lesson Resource Websites
5. More Resources and Articles
Books for Check-out
Computational Thinking {and Coding} for Every Student By Jane Krauss and Kiki Prottsman
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. Readers will find
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Hacking the Curriculum: Creative Computing and the Power of Play by Ian Livingstone and Shahneila Saeed
This book explains the critical importance of coding and computing in modern schools - and offer teachers and school leaders real practical guidance on how to improve their current provision to a generation of youngsters for whom digital skills are critical. |
Coding Websites and Apps
Links to apps and websites need to be vetted on a regular bases to maintain COPPA and FERPA compliance. Apps and websites that appear on this website may need parental consent. Please follow your building and district process in obtaining proper parental consent.
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Beetle Blocks (website)
BeetleBlocks is a graphical blocks-based programming environment for 3D design and fabrication. It is made to use code to control a beetle that can place 3D shapes and extrude its path as a tube. Then it will make a 3D print. |
Code.org - App Lab/Game Lab/Web Lab (website)
Build real working apps, games and websites using blocks, JavaScript, CSS HTML and more. |
Code Academy (website)
Codecademy is an online freemium interactive platform that offers free coding classes in 12 different programming languages including Python, Java, PHP, JavaScript (jQuery, AngularJS, React.js), Ruby, SQL, and Sass, as well as markup languages HTML and CSS. The site also offers a paid "pro" option that gives users access to a personalized learning plan, quizzes, realistic projects, and live help from advisors. |
Khan Academy Computing (website)
Learn how to program drawings, animations, and games using JavaScript and ProcessingJS, or learn how to create webpages with HTML and CSS. You can share whatever you create, explore what others have created and learn from each other! Learn from select topics from computer science - algorithms (how we solve common problems in computer science and measure the efficiency of our solutions), cryptography (how we protect information), and information theory (how we encode and compress information). Or learn the basics of programming! |
Pencil Code (website)
Dream it. Code it. Learn professional programming languages using an editor that lets you work in either blocks or text. Create art, music, games, and stories. Or invent a program that will change the world. |
Pixar in a Box (website)
Pixar in a Box is a behind-the-scenes look at how Pixar artists do their jobs. You will be able to animate bouncing balls, build a swarm of robots, and make virtual fireworks explode. The subjects you learn in school — math, science, computer science, and humanities — are used every day to create amazing movies at Pixar. This collaboration between Pixar Animation Studios and Khan Academy is sponsored by Disney. |
Scratch (website)
With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is provided free of charge. |
Swift Playgrounds app for iPad (website) 📲
With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is provided free of charge. |
Trinket (website)
Share Code from any Device. Trinket lets you run and write code in any browser, on any device using block or Python code. 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. |
Tynker (website)
Tynker is a complete learning system that teaches kids to code. Kids begin experimenting with visual blocks, then progress to JavaScript and Python as they design games, build apps, and make incredible projects. |
vidcode (website)
Students learn to code by making video special effects, Snapchat and Instagram-inspired filters, memes and more! Easy for non-technical teachers. The next step after Scratch or drag and drop coding. Includes bite-sized tutorials, and is inclusive. Students can upload and use their own graphics, videos and audio. Align and data driven by allowing teachers to clearly track and analyze student outcomes. Standards aligned curriculum (CCSS, NGSE, CSTA, CS K-12 Framework). Full lesson plans for each activity. Curriculum pathway for 4th-12th grade students. |
Connected Coding Kits for Check-out
Not Delivered/Backordered
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Arduino Maker Bundle (website)
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. You can tell your board what to do by sending a set of instructions to the microcontroller on the board. To do so you use the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring), and the Arduino Software (IDE), based on Processing. |
Cubelets Twelve Kit (website)
The Cubelets TWELVE the best way to introduce children of all ages to robotics, coding, and design thinking. Cubelets are an expandable system of robot blocks, and the TWELVE the best mix of SENSE, THINK and ACT blocks for novice and experienced builders. Reprogram or control your robots when paired with the included Bluetooth® Cubelet. |
📲 indicates applications and tools requiring iPad/tablet to run program.
Please call 8043 or 8027 as these are only available on a limited basis.
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iPad
Necessary platform for running apps that parallel with operating systems of many applications for coding, including the Apple Swift Playground📲. Swift 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. |
littleBits Code Kit Education Class Pack (website)
Color coded electronic building blocks that connect together with magnets and allow for the creation of inventions while engaging in powerful hands-on learning in STEM/STEAM. There are many different bits or modules that allow for experiments. |
MakeyMakey Standard Kit (website)
We believe that everyone is creative, inventive, and imaginative. We believe that everyone can create the future and change the world. So we have dedicated our lives to making easy-to-use invention kits. |
Sphero SPRK+ EDU (website) 📲
The Sphero Edu platform uses app-enabled robots to foster creativity through discovery and play, all while laying the foundation for computer science. Our program goes beyond code with collaborative STEAM activities, nurturing students’ imaginations in ways no other education program can. Cross-platform apps are approachable for all skill levels of programming JavaScript, allowing us to reach as many minds as possible. It is designed to inspire a love of robotics, coding and STEM all through connected play. Think outside the bot and inspire your future. |
Lesson Resource Websites
Computational Thinking (CT) Materials (website)
Incorporate computational thinking (CT) into your curriculum with these classroom-ready lesson plans, demonstrations, and programs (available in Python and Pencil Code). All materials in this collection have been aligned to both core subject and CS education standards |
Computer Science-in-a-Box: Unplug Your Curriculum (website)
Computer Science-in-a-Box: Unplug Your Curriculum introduces fundamental building blocks of computer science -- without using computers. Use it with students ages 9 to 14 to teach lessons about how computers work, while addressing critical mathematics and science concepts such as number systems, algorithms, and manipulating variables and logic. NCWIT is pleased to offer Computer Science-in-a-Box: Unplug Your Curriculum in cooperation with the authors of Computer Science Unplugged. So unplug your computer, and get ready to explore computer science! |
CS Discoveries (website)
We believe that everyone is creative, inventive, and imaginative. We believe that everyone can create the future and change the world. So we have dedicated our lives to making easy-to-use invention kits. |
Girls Who Code (website)
Girls Who Code was founded with a single mission: to close the gender gap in technology. We’re building the largest pipeline of future female engineers in the United States. |
Made with Code (website)
Girls start out with a love of science and technology, but lose it somewhere along the way. Let’s help encourage that passion in teen girls. Simply put, code is a tool that lets you write your story with technology. If you can code, you can communicate your ideas with a computer or a program so they can be brought to life in bigger, brighter, and more creative ways. |
Maker Projects: A Five-Pack of Design Challenges and LAUNCH Projects (website)
Each LAUNCH Project includes the following:
1. Design the Ultimate Roller Coaster 2. Create a City for Superheroes 3. Design Your Own Pinball Machine 4. Capture the Castle 5. Build Your Own Board Game Email or call Sheila Bowman or Curtis Andres for more information |
w3schools (website)
A web developers site, with tutorials and references on web development languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, W3.CSS, and Bootstrap, covering most aspects of web programming. The site derives its name from the World Wide Web (W3), but is not affiliated with the W3C. |
More Resources and Articles
Secondary from 2016 and 2017 NMC CoSN Horizon Report
Coding Education Rare in K-12 Schools but Starting to Catch On go.nmc.org/rare (Links to an external site.) (John Keilman, Chicago Tribune, 2 January 2016.) A Google-commissioned survey revealed that only one out of four middle and high schools offer coding classes. Chicago-area districts are striving to improve that statistic by attaching coding lessons to non-computer science disciplines
Best Coding Tools for High School go.nmc.org/bestco (Links to an external site.) (Common Sense Education, accessed 13 July 2017.) This post lists tools that high school students can use to learn more about coding and how to write code. It includes both block-based programming such as Code. org and Scratch websites and text-based programming resources through CodeCombat and Construct 2 games.
Program Helps Kansas City-Area Students Create Technology, Not Just Use It go.nmc.org/kans (Links to an external site.) (Kyle Palmer, KCUR, 17 October 2014.) Summit Technology Academy offers advanced computer programming courses to students from schools around Jackson County. Most of their class time is spent working in small teams, developing fully functioning software programs based on several coding languages. Last year, students helped the Lee’s Summit Historical Society start building a mobile app for its museum.
K-12 from 2016 and 2017 NMC CoSN Horizon Report
Coding Education in Schools: Crucial as English and Maths — Or is It? go.nmc.org/orisit (Links to an external site.) (Colleen Ricci, The Age, 7 June 2015.) Australian parliament members are working to ensure coding is taught at all primary schools across the continent by 2020. The aim is to foster students who can design and operate the apps and devices that will fuel Australia’s future economy.
Coding In K12 Computer Science: It Starts From Your Imagination go.nmc.org/startsfrom (Links to an external site.) (Jason Rukman, eLearning Industry, 2 July 2016.) The author laments that K-12 computer science lessons are too often derived from traditional academic methods that favor the absorption of concepts over demonstrating imagination. The inclusion of coding in digital storytelling and project-based pedagogies can help students learn programming while giving them the autonomy to explore their own creativity.
How to Teach Coding and Programming go.nmc.org/howtoteach (Links to an external site.) (The Guardian, 1 September 2015.) This article encompasses examples, resources, and affordable digital tools for primary and secondary educators looking to introduce coding into their learning environments.
A New Model for Coding in Schools go.nmc.org/anewmod (Links to an external site.) (Digital Promise, 4 August 2015.) Digital Promise points to the successful coding model of South Fayette Township School District in rural Pennsylvania. Coding is embedded in the school culture as elementary school children begin with block-based coding and high schoolers participate in AP computer science, Java and Python coding, as well as software development teams.
24 Coding Programs Boosting Diversity in Tech go.nmc.org/divtech (Links to an external site.) (Kadenze Blog, 15 October 2016.) While minorities and women continue to be underrepresented in the tech industry, this post highlights 24 international programs, such as Women Who Code, #YesWeCode, and We Can Code It, that are addressing the disparity through a variety of approaches.
Trends in the State of Computer Science in U.S. K–12 Schools go.nmc.org/statecom (Links to an external site.) (Google Inc. and Gallup Inc., accessed 13 July 2017.) While the importance of building coding literacy for future success is well noted, its integration in schools remains uneven. This report highlights that only 60% of schools surveyed offered at least one computer science course, underscoring the need for more urgency in the embedding of coding instruction in schools.