Computer Science Teacher Resources
Modern homes and classrooms are set up with any number of technological devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. And there is a strong possibility that your students already know how to navigate these devices and the online world they access. But do they understand the science that powers their digital lives?
Start young computer scientists with the basics of computer anatomy and functions, as well as a historical perspective of the personal computer. A helpful video on Alan Turing, whom many consider to be the father of computer science, can also fill in some blanks for students who can’t identify the ancestry behind their smartphones.
Extend your curriculum with a research project on Big Data and its role in learners’ lives. An informative presentation on computer language that focuses on top-down and bottom-up processing augments a programming class, as well as a project that inspires programmers to design a virtual card game.
But computer science doesn’t stop with computers! Apply the algorithms that power personal devices to everyday processes, like sorting socks or making peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. Learners can also create physical representations of binary numbers with egg cartons in a hands-on activity.
No matter what your computer science pupils need, we’ve got you covered with our teacher-curated resources at Lesson Planet!
Showing 1,120 resources
Other
Iste: Computational Thinking for All
Advances in computing have expanded our capacity to solve problems at a scale never before imagined, using strategies that have not been available to us before. This professional article introduces educators to the idea of teaching...
Other
Programming Simplified: Java Programs
See some examples made for beginning programmers to understand how to use java to write simple Java programs. These codes demonstrate how to get input from user, working with loops, strings and arrays.
Code.org
Code Studio: Computational Thinking
Introduce the Computational Thinking model as a way of preparing real-world problems for digital representation. With nothing but paper and markers, students learn the four steps of computational thinking.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Studying Evolution With Digital Organisms
Students observe natural selection in action and investigate the underlying mechanism, including random mutation and differential fitness based on environmental characteristics. They do this through use of the free AVIDA-ED digital...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Evolution of Digital Organisms
Students are introduced to the concepts of digital organisms and digital evolution. They learn about the research that digital evolution software makes possible, and compare and contrast it with biological evolution.
University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury: Cs Unplugged: Binary Numbers
With this lesson plan, educators can teach the binary system to anyone who can count. Using this approach, many adults are also excited when they finally understand what bits and bytes really are.
University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury; Cs Unplugged: Text Compression
Learn how compressed formats such as zip, gzip, or gif images are all based on a method called Ziv-Lempel coding, which turns out to be an interesting exercise in finding patterns in text.
University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury: Cs Unplugged: Sorting Networks
A student team activity that demonstrates an approach to parallel sorting, or how much computation can be done at the same time. It can be done on paper, but the instructional activity becomes more meaningful if the students do it on a...
University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury: Cs Unpluggeed: Network Protocols
Students learn what information makes up a protocol for bits of information added to messages to make sure they are sent over the internet.
University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury: Cs Unplugged: Finite State Automata
This student activity is based around a fictitious pirate story which leads to the unlikely topic of reasoning about patterns in sequences of characters. Experiencing this concretely will help lay the foundation for understanding finite...
University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury: Cs Unplugged: Dominating Sets
This activity explores the dominating set problem, and sets it up as the basis for a the public key encryption activity.
University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury: Cs Unplugged: Cryptographic Protocols
This is another activity that achieves something that doesn't seem possible- people who don't trust each other and can't see each other are able to agree on the outcome of a random coin flip.
University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury: Cs Unplugged: Public Key Encryption
This student activity about public key encryption allows learners to simulate encrypt and decrpyt messages without having to share a password to unlock them.
University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury: Cs Unplugged: The Turing Test
Explore how we might recognize whether a system is truly intelligent. It involves reasoning about what it means to be intelligent, and even what makes us human.
Google
Cs Education at Google: Cs First: Create Your Own Google Logo
A set of three activities where learners learn how to use the programming language Scratch to create Google logos, including ones for Valentine's Day and one for Earth Day.
Science Friday Initiative
Science Friday: Making a Computer From Bubbles
Listen to this discussion of a Video Pick of the Week, which looks at how bubbles can be used to behave like electrons in a computer circuit in order to do computations. Includes a link to the video. Aired Jan. 13, 2012. [6:38]
Science Friday Initiative
Science Friday: 25 Years of Computer Viruses
Take a look back on twenty-five years of computer viruses.
University of California
Univ. Of California: Career Exploration Link
Are you interested in exploring a career? The occupational career exploration links allow you you to select a professional area and display potential job paths within that field.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Behind the Scenes: Browse the J Query Source Code
Learn about the open source jQuery source code programmers use in programming interactive web pages.
University of California
Ucla: Leonard Kleinrock, Professor
A biography of Leonard Kleinrock, inventor of the Internet technology. Includes links additional articles on his work and the internet in general.
Other
An Illustrated History of Computers Part 1
This site describes the history of computer innovations beginning with early mechanical devices to the electronic devices of the 20th century.
Other
The History of Computing Project
This site provides a the history of computing devices, software, computer companies and biographies.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Information Age
This exhibition surveys the history of information technology and its relation to society from the origin of the telegraph to the present. Its emphasis is as much on social as technical change. This support page contains background...
Great Idea Finder
Computing History
This site contains a listing of computing inventions and inventors throughout history with links for more detailed information.
