Curated OER
Challenge: Tasty Tomato
Take a big bite out of the red tomato by practicing your use of the variables mouseX and mouseY in a JavaScript coding task. The activity will guide you step-by-step and will help young coders understand how to draw objects based on the...
Khan Academy
Project: Crazy Painter
An activity titled Crazy Painter might not be high on your list of new things to try with your class; however, you will be happy to know this task has your young coders writing a mess-free painter application in JavaScript. The goal is...
Khan Academy
Challenge: Parting Clouds
Let the sun shine as your young coders move the clouds across the sky while practicing animation coding skills in JavaScript. Younger learners may benefit from more guided help or a whole-class discussion before trying this coding task.Â
Khan Academy
Project: Public Transportation
Have your charges race their car creations across the screen in a JavaScript activity. Coders start with a small program that shows one wheel moving across the screen. Use this as a good place to start and challenge your young...
Khan Academy
Challenge: Mouse Tracker
Create a small but useful little program that allows you move a dot with your mouse and see the coordinates change as the mouse moves. Â Starting with a dot that moves with the mouse, add to this program the text of the points coordinates...
Khan Academy
Challenge: Simple Shapes!
Now practice drawing a rectangle, ellipse, circle, and line by writing your own JavaScript code. Don't know where to start? No problem, you will be guided through creating every line of code. Getting an error message? Again, no problem,...
Khan Academy
Challenge: Funny Face
A simple face can draw on the computer canvas using four lines of code each containing slightly different parameters to the ellipse function. Learners are guided through making changes to certain features such as making the mouth or eyes...
Khan Academy
Challenge: Ice Cream Code
Practice adding color to your simple JavaScript picture. Three layers of ice cream in a bowl with a cherry on top, gives your beginning coders a tasty challenge.Â
Khan Academy
Project: What's for Dinner?
This creative project may make your young programmers hungry as they practice their Java Script coding. The task is fairly open ended: add shapes using different shape functions, including the fill and stroke functions to add color and...
Khan Academy
Challenge: It's a Beautiful Day
Young coders build on their programming skills by adding color to their pictures. The background, fill, and noStroke functions are explored in the JavaScript coding activity.
Khan Academy
Practice: Using Variables
A quick check of understanding is the focus in this short online quiz. Questions ask users to check out a short two- to four- line program and answer a question about the value of a variable. Get five questions correct in row to pass to...
Khan Academy
Challenge: Bucktooth Bunny
Practice creating and using variables by creating variables for the bunny's eyes and teeth in this JavaScript task. Use the slider above the number to see the power of using variables in your code.Â
Khan Academy
Challenge: Mickey Mouse Ears
My, what big ears you have! Novice JavaScript programmers adjust Mickey's ears to be proportional with his face and any changes to it. The key is to use variable expressions so that the values used are dependent upon the variable that...
Khan Academy
Challenge: H for Hopper
An "H" is just three rectangles when you are trying to draw them on a computer screen. After watching the previous Intro to Drawing video this online programing activity guides young coders to draw the letter "H" on the screen. Help and...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
A Question of Balance
It's a neat idea, but the task of designing a system for filling jars with consistent specific amounts of a product may be a little out of reach, especially for younger pupils. Intended as an engineering design lesson, this may be better...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Robot Basketball
Hold a free-throw shooting challenge in your engineering class! Each team must design a contraption that will fire off a "robot arm" or, more specifically, a catapult, to send a Ping-Pong ball into a basket. Use this as an opportunity to...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Cracking the Code
Some interesting reading on the history of barcodes opens this technology lesson plan. Readers find out how engineers contribute, and then they gather into groups to discuss possible improvements to our current UPC barcode system. Know...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Engineered Music
Sound engineers investigate the structural design of a musical instrument, the recorder. They work in collaborative groups to choose an instrument to build out of everyday craft materials. It must be able to repeat a three-note sequence...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Hand Biometrics Technology
Electronic engineering hopefuls get hands-on with hand geometry and the technology of biometrics. After taking the appropriate measurement on their hands, they configure their personal hand geometry codes and compare them to classmates....
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Solar Structures
It's time to soak up the sun! Youngsters read about active and passive solar heating systems, then they collaborate to create a miniature solar-heated building. Provide a variety of materials for them to incorporate and watch their...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Playing with Parachutes
This lesson certainly will not be a drag! Little engineers design parachutes that make use of air resistance and, as a result, slow the descent of the payload as much as possible. It is an opportunity to teach about many motion concepts:...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Spring Scale Engineering
After examining how a spring scale works, teams work together to design their own general measurement device. Reading material provides background information, but there is no part of the procedure in which learners handle an actual...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Life Vest Challenge
After reading about the history and science of personal floatation devices, patents, and intellectual property, engineering teams design a life vest for a can of soup. To evaluate which groups considered the need for waterproofing, hold...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Be a Scanning Probe Microscope
Extensive reading is done in order to learn about scanning probe microscopy and nanoscale. Afterward, individuals use a pencil to probe an unidentified object that is inside of a box so that they cannot see it. Using only what they could...