Microworlds is a coding platform that is free for Canadian residents and schools.
Versions are also availalbe in Cree and Ojibwe.
If you download this the book "Getting Started with Coding: Get Creative with Code" by Camille McCue
Join the communities to get free activities, resources and projects!
Whether you’re a parent/guardian or a student learning independently, the options below are engaging, easy-to-try ways to begin your exploration of computer science.
Try an Hour of Code
Watch a short video series about the basics of CS
Take an introductory, self-paced course
Create a game or an app
Try CS without a computer ('unplugged' & mobile options)
Learn CS from the Code.org team and special guests
"TakingITGlobal is launching Code to Learn@Home to continue to serve students during COVID-19 closures. In partnership with LCSI, Cisco, Fair Chance Learning, and with support from the Government of Canada, we're offering coding and computational thinking learning experiences for students of all ages."
You can find past live videos here to do at home (or at school!).
The Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code", to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. It has since become a worldwide effort to celebrate computer science, starting with 1-hour coding activities but expanding to all sorts of community efforts. Check out the tutorials and activities. This grassroots campaign is supported by over 400 partners and 200,000 educators worldwide.
Students can code for just an hour, or complete full courses.
The courses are in 45 different languages.
There are even coding activities that can be down without computers called "unplugged".
Grades 3-5
"The Day of the Programmer is celebrated on the 256th day of the year. This is because programmers are familiar with bytes and 1 byte = 8 bits, which gives 256 (2 to the power of 8) different combinations of binary digits. In this lesson, students can celebrate programmers by creating art that showcases different programming languages! Students are provided a step-by-step tutorial, code blocks, and instructions to create a Computer Linguist project using Tynker. By the end of this lesson, students will have combined creativity and coding concepts such as simple motion, simple drawing, basic math, and input/output."
You can complete this task by using Tynker block coding - or click in the bottom right corner of the screen to use JavaScript.
This is a great activity to learn about programming languages.
Learn to code. EARN CERTIFICATIONS.
Free code camp is a great website for online learning. The site lets you learn to code with free online courses, programming projects, and interview preparation for developer jobs.
Grasshopper is designed for individual learning rather than classroom implementation, so there's no dashboard or central place to monitor student progress. This makes it better suited for students to learn and practice at their own pace with teacher support. Teachers with some coding experience can advise and coach students as they encounter complex problems, while teachers without much coding experience can encourage students to work collaboratively and/or use the available help in the app. For classes using unplugged activities to teach coding concepts, Grasshopper is a great way to let students start putting that knowledge to use on an individualized basis.
Download from the App Store or Google Play.
Find everything you need here to participate in the our of code this December - or any day of the year!
The coding activities here teach problem solving and computational thinking.
No previous experience required for teachers or students! Choose from beginner or comfortable to get started in the top right corner area. Use the filters on the left side of the screen to find the perfect activity!
In this lesson, learners of all ages get an introductory experience with coding and computer science in a safe, supportive environment. This lesson has been designed for young learners, ages 4-10, but can be adapted for older learners using the differentiation suggestions provided.
In this lesson, learners of all ages get an introductory experience with coding and computer science in a safe, supportive environment. This lesson has been designed for learners in the middle grades, ages 10-13, but can be adapted for younger or older learners using the differentiation suggestions provided. Students should have a basic understanding of simple geometry and drawing angles.
In this lesson, learners get an introductory experience with computer science and create a game using basic block code.This lesson has been designed for learners in the middle grades, ages 10-16, but can be adapted for younger or older learners using the differentiation suggestions provided.
In this lesson, learners get an introductory experience with computer science and create a game using basic block code.This lesson has been designed for learners in the middle grades, ages 10-16, but can be adapted for younger or older learners using the differentiation suggestions provided.
In this lesson, learners of all ages get an introductory experience with coding and computer science in a safe, supportive environment. This lesson has two versions.
**Option 1: Blocks**
The first option uses drag-drop blocks. This version works best for:
- Students on mobile devices without keyboards
- Younger students (6+ because the tutorial requires reading)
- International students
We recommend this for international students because JavaScript syntax is not translated and for the first Hour of Code, the translated blocks provide a better introduction.
**Option 2: JavaScript**
This option teaches the same basic concepts, but because it uses both drag-drop blocks and JavaScript, the students need to be able to type on a keyboard. For older students on computers, learning JavaScript can be fun and provide an additional challenge. This version of the tutorial is also great if you have some students in your class who have already learned some coding. It is recommended for ages 11+.
In this lesson, learners of all ages get an introductory experience with coding and computer science in a safe, supportive environment. This lesson works well for any students old enough to read (ages 6+). Younger learners will probably not finish the tutorial, but will have lots of fun working through the puzzles for an hour. High school students will mostly finish the tutorial and have some time to play on the free play level at the end.
**Tutorial Summary:** This tutorial is designed to quickly introduce the App Lab programming environment as a powerful tool for building and sharing apps. The tutorial itself teaches students to create and control buttons, text, images, sounds, and screens in JavaScript using either blocks or text. At the end of the tutorial students are given time to either extend a project they started building into a "Choose Your Own Adventure", "Greeting Card", or "Personality Quiz" app. They can also continue on to build more projects featured on the code.org/applab page.
**Age Appropriateness:** The tutorial is designed for students over 13. Because it allows students to upload custom sounds and images, young students should not use this without supervision. To protect students privacy, if your students are under 13, they will not be able to use this tutorial unless you first set up accounts for them in a section you manage.
**Checking Correctness:** This tutorial will not tell students whether they completed the level correctly. Encourage students to use the target images and directions provided in every level to know if they are on the right track. If students want to move on past a particularly tricky level they can simply click "Finish" and continue on.
Have fun completing your Hour of Code with App Lab!
In this lesson, learners of all ages get an introductory experience with coding and computer science in a safe, supportive environment. This lesson has been designed for learners of all ages but does require reading. This activity requires sound as the tool was built to respond to music.
This activity will begin with a short review of "My Robotic Friends," then will quickly move to a race against the clock, as students break into teams and work together to write a program one instruction at a time.
At some point we reach a physical limit of how fast we can send bits and if we want to send a large amount of information faster, we have to find a way to represent the same information with fewer bits - we must **compress** the data. In this lesson, students will use the Text Compression Widget to compress segments of English text by looking for patterns and substituting symbols for larger patterns of text.
In this lesson, students are introduced to the need for encryption and simple techniques for breaking (or cracking) secret messages. Students try their own hand at cracking a message encoded with the classic Caesar cipher and also a Random Substitution Cipher. Students should become well-acquainted with idea that in an age of powerful computational tools, techniques of encryption will need to be more sophisticated. The most important aspect of this lesson is to understand how and why encryption plays a role in all of our lives every day on the Internet, and that making good encryption is not trivial. Students will get their feet wet with understanding the considerations that must go into making strong encryption in the face of powerful computational tools that can be used to crack it. The need for secrecy when sending bits over the Internet is important for anyone using the Internet.
Students will learn that events are a useful way to control when an action happens, and can even be used to make make multiple things act in sync. In programming, you can use events to respond to a user controlling it (like pressing buttons or clicking the mouse). Events can make your program more interesting and interactive.