Computer programming Teacher Resources

A program that says, "Hello world," is considered a classic in computer programming. Have your young coders join the ranks of the many others who have created one of these programs. Of course, putting one's flare on a classic is always...

What are variables, and why do I need them? These are the questions answered in this basic computer programming video. The author stresses the importance of how the equal sign used in math class has a different meaning than the equal...

In computer programming, loops and arrays are made for each other. This video describes adding a while loop to print out each element in an array and then doing the same procedure using a for loop.

Learners explore multimedia components. In this science inquiry lesson, students read "Invitation to the Game" by Monica Hughes and they use the Alice Computer Programming System to better understand population dynamics.

It's time to unleash your class's inner geek. This introductory video starts one on a path of learning to code. It is the first in a series of videos that help you learn the fundamentals of coding. The series focuses on producing art and...

Creating interactive programs can be very exciting for new computer programmers. The author shows how to use mouseIsPressed within a conditional statement to create a small JavaScript program that responds to the user's mouse press.

This video shows young programmers how to use the same concept to duplicate objects with different properties and attach functions to them. This method allows functions to be easily called with various objects.

When you introduce objects and object-oriented programming to your coding students, you are starting them on an important path. This introductory video shows how to replace the use of many variables with the use of a single object...

Similar to using variables, object properties can be changed in the program. However, you can also dynamically add new properties while the program runs. The video shows how to define an object, use an object property, change an object...

Expand your beginning coder's use of objects in programs by looking at examples where you can change code to define and use objects in arrays and pass objects as parameters to a function. All of this leads to a deeper understanding of...

Repetitive tasks, like the scenes from the movie Ground Hog Day, are common in computer programs. But how exactly do you program a piece of code to repeat specific instructions? This is where the While loop comes in handy. This video...

Text messages full of abbreviations can be easier to understand once you know what the letters stand for. The same goes for reading code because computer programmers always devise ways to reduce typing. One typical line of code that...

Functions that do calculations usually need to return a value. In this video, a function calculates and returns the total number of donuts eaten based on the years someone has been alive. Hopefully, your charges will have eaten much less...

As the author in this video states, "Life is complex." To handle this complexity, programming languages use something called Boolean operators. In a simple JavaScript code example, this video shows how to set up a conditional statement...

Do it, or else! In conversation, this sounds like an ultimatum, but when writing code, it's a normal way to communicate with a computer. This video shows how to extend our previously used conditional if statement to include the else...

This is the second part of the introductory video on the if statement. It looks specifically at the else if clause in JavaScript code. Two examples are shown: one where the options are mutually exclusive and could have been programmed...

Explore more cool programming features by learning how to use arrays in JavaScript code to tackle lists or sequences through a single variable. This video introduces arrays and specifically shows how they are defined and used.

There is an easier way to share functions among objects. The fifth section of a six-part series on object-oriented design introduces the concept of object inheritance. The coding helps pupils create a base object type that has all the...

This video explains the difference between local and global variables in JavaScript programming without getting into the nitty gritty of variable lifetimes. Using a small coding example with a function defined, the author shows how a...

While learning to code is an interesting academic pursuit in its own right, it also has other learning benefits. For one, coders learn how to learn. They continually explore, test, and draw conclusions about how certain things work. The...

This video continues the Khan Academy tutorials and activities on writing code in JavaScript. Here, we are introduced to the conditional if statement. The result is a cute program that produces a bouncing ball. Your young programmers...

The next step in your class's development as young programmers is learning to define and use a simple function in JavaScript code. Younger students may require some additional explanations to help highlight the importance of functions....

Learn how functions in coding are even more helpful when you can pass parameters to them. The author shows how to modify a simple JavaScript function to have two parameters that help you position a repeated drawing to the correct place...

As one accumulates more life experiences, there are fewer and fewer things that are strictly one thing or another. There always seems to be some gray area or middle ground. Not so with Boolean data types! We are in a world of only two...