Teach Engineering
Automatic Floor Cleaner Computer Program Challenge
Have your class use the engineering design process to program a vacuum robot. Using computer engineering concepts, teams program an automatic floor cleaner to traverse designated patterns.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Fluency, Connected Text, Computer-Based Reading
Scholars take to computers or devices to boost reading skills using educational software or websites.
College Board
AP® Computer Science A: Magpie Chatbot Lab Student Guide
How is your computer or phone able to talk to you? Explore the tasks needed for a computer to understand human voice input and then write code for a Chatbot with this lab guide.
Teach Engineering
Computer Simulation of the Sonoran Desert Community
See how changes in initial populations and parameters affect a biological community. Individuals use a special software program to simulate a desert community with five species. They adjust initial populations to see how the community...
Teach Engineering
Android App Development
Building an accelerometer app for your Android device. Groups develop an app that uses the accelerometer on an Android device. The purpose of the activity is to reinforce the programming design. The post activity assessment challenges...
Khan Academy
Challenge: SmileyFace
Two smiley faces are better than one. The interactive lesson challenges pupils to use methods to alter a program to make it more efficient. Individuals use the new code to create multiple smiley faces that speak. The engaging activity is...
Computer Science Unplugged
Beat the Clock—Sorting Networks
Can multiple computers sort a list faster than one? Using a network drawn with chalk outside, groups move through the decision network to sort numbers. A series of extension questions come with the lesson and can be used in the same...
Computer Science Unplugged
Marching Orders—Programming Languages
Computers need precise directions to complete a task. Class members experience what it is like to program a computer with an activity that asks one pupil to describe an image while classmates follow the directions to duplicate the picture.
Computer Science Unplugged
Battleships—Searching Algorithms
How does a computer perform a search in order to find data? The lesson begins with a demonstration on finding one number out of 15. Pairs then play three games of Battleship by using different search techniques. The lesson plan finishes...
Stratford Academy
Microsoft Word Exercise
Get to know the computer program, Microsoft Word, by completing 24 tasks, including typing a line of text, experimenting with format options, inserting page numbers, headers, footers, and more.
Beauty and Joy of Computing
Combining List Operations
Use list operations to modify an earlier version of Tic Tac Toe. The fourth lab in a series of five has pupils combine list operations to build more powerful operations. They take a project from a previous unit and enhance it to keep...
Beauty and Joy of Computing
Nesting Lists
Create lists within lists. The second lab in a series of five in the unit has pupils develop a simple contact list app. The tasks within the lab build the need for an abstract data type. Individuals build more complexity into their...
Curated OER
The BEAM Project: Building Efficient Architectural Models
Technology or engineering teams are given a task to design, construct, and test the efficiency of a structure that will foster an even temperature throughout an entire sunny day. Intended as a long-term project, pupils research, plan,...
Khan Academy
Challenge: Flower Grower
How does the garden grow? With inherited functions! The interactive activity has individuals alter a program to utilize object inheritance. Scholars develop an object type that two other objects use to inherit similar aspects. The...
Discovery Education
Artificial Intelligence
What makes human interaction different from interaction with computers? Learners consider the question as they build Turing tests to determine whether a computer thinks like a human. They begin by looking at current versions of Turing...
Computer Science Unplugged
Twenty Guesses—Information Theory
How do we determine how much information to include and what can be left out? By playing a game of 20 questions, the class generates the best strategies for finding a number. They then move on to guessing the next letter in a short...
Computer Science Unplugged
The Intelligent Piece of Paper
How smart is that piece of paper? The activity introduces the idea of computer programming as a list of instructions written by computer programmers. Two individuals play a game of Tic-Tac-Toe in which one follows the commands written on...
PBS
Stop and Animate
Get animated about animations. Future engineers learn about stop-motion animation using an app. Working in groups, they make their own animations where they have figurines move to music.
Curated OER
"Keep Calm Parody"
With a computer and some creative thinking, young graphic designers learn the basics about clip art and inserting images to create a parody poster. They watch a video that discusses the story behind the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster,...
Teach Engineering
Exploring Acceleration with an Android
Small groups use rubber bands to accelerate an Android device along a track of books. They collect the acceleration data and analyze it in order to determine the device's velocity.
Beauty and Joy of Computing
Building an App
Create your own app with the first lab of a five-part unit. Future computer scientists learn the basics of programming a game application. They use a given software program to design an app where users try to click on a moving sprite as...
Teach Engineering
Applying Statistics to Nano-Circuit Dimensions in Fabrication
Do flexible circuits change dimensions during fabrication? Groups use GeoGebra software to measure the length of pictures of flexible nano-circuits. To determine if the circuits change dimensions, future engineers use Microsoft Excel to...
Curated OER
Tech Integration Project Lesson Accelerator: Project Overview
Prepare middle schoolers for life in the tech world with a lesson on entering, storing, sorting, and creating database collections. They use a database tool, such as excel, to record the contents of their CD collections. They then...
Teach Engineering
Acoustic Mirrors
Investigate sound waves with acoustic mirrors. Using audio software, groups make recordings of musical instruments, both with and without acoustic mirrors. They compare the recordings to see the effect of acoustic mirrors on sound waves.