Computer Science Resource Database
Supporting CS Teachers with Intensive, On-Going Support and Resources
The LTC supports Illinois K-12 schools and educators as they strive to grow their own CS curriculum and comply with forthcoming state-level mandates. This digital resource library can help accomplish both goals by providing access to vetted CS resources geared toward a variety of grade levels, content areas, and use cases.
Questions? Looking for a particular type of resource? Please contact Brian Bates at bbates@ltcillinois.org.
AAUW Cybersecurity
The world’s leading cyber security company, Symantec, partnered with AAUW to develop the STEMpack: Cyber Security curriculum. A total of four lessons across five days of instruction and activity, this curriculum is designed to inspire and introduce participants to cyber security and computer science. Overview This curriculum is intended for a classroom setting with a computer available for each student, to be led by an experienced educator who is comfortable using technology. The robust lessons build on one another and cover the origins of the internet, binary code, an introduction to programming languages and coding, deconstructing a computer, and more. The lessons can be flexible depending on educators’ needs, but each features more than two hours of instruction and activities for computer science education for students with varying degrees of prior knowledge.
Alice
Using an innovative programming environment to support the creation of 3D animations, the Alice Project provides tools and materials for teaching and learning computational thinking, problem solving, and computer programming across a spectrum of ages and grade levels.
American Society for Cybernetics
The American Society for Cybernetics was founded in 1964 in Washington, DC to encourage new developments in cybernetics as an inter-/trans-/meta-disciplinary field. Ever since, it has remained at the forefront of cybernetic thinking and doing. Society members have made cybernetics central to their work in biology and the life sciences, the arts, medicine, therapy (psychological and social), mathematics, the physical sciences and engineering, design, management, and business. They have reached out to other societies and groups interested in similar areas and approaches. Remarkable people have joined and been recognized by us.
Anita Borg Institute
ABI is a social enterprise founded on the belief that women are vital to building technology that the world needs. We are on a quest to accelerate the pace of global innovation by working to ensure that the creators of technology mirror the people and societies who use it.
Association for Women in Computing
AWC is dedicated to promoting the advancement of women in the computing professions. Our members include many types of computer professionals, such as programmers, system analysts, operators, technical writers, Internet specialists, trainers and consultants. AWC members sometimes mentor students and/or teachers.
AWS Educate
Professors, teaching assistants, and educators receive access to AWS technology, open source content for their courses, training resources, and a community of cloud evangelists. Students receive credits for hands-on experience with AWS technology, training, content, career pathways and the AWS Educate Job Board.
BBC Bitesize
Complete computing curriculum with topics and explanations K-12.
Beauty and Joy of Computing
Beauty and Joy Computing provide classroom activities that teach programming and non-programming concepts. (E.g., computing-in-the-news discussions every day, CS unplugged activities, take-a-computer-apart, binary numbers, worksheets, etc.)
BeeBot
The new Bee-Bot App from TTS Group has been developed based on our well-loved, award-winning Bee-Bot floor robot. The app makes use of Bee-Bot’s keypad functionality and enables children, 4 and up, to improve their skills in directional language and programming through sequences of forwards, backwards, left and right 90 degree turns.
Black Boys Code
“Black Boys Code is a Not-for-Profit organization dedicated to introducing young boys of colour in their critical development years (ages 8 to 17) to computer science through one-day and two-day workshops, Hackathons, after school and summer programs. Our programs are aimed at boys of a young age to build capacity and skills in the field of computer technology. We utilize mentorship, industry exposure, and intensive training in the field of computer science to help the boys understand they have the ability to become technological innovators and creators of their own futures.”
Black Girls Code
Black Girls Code mission: to introduce programming and technology to a new generation of coders, coders who will become builders of technological innovation and of their own futures. Hackathons.
Blockly Games
Blockly Games is a series of educational games that teach programming. It is designed for children who have not had prior experience with computer programming. By the end of these games, players are ready to use conventional text-based languages. Sample lesson plan: https://educators.brainpop.com/lesson-plan/computer-coding-lesson-plan-blockly-maze-game/
BlocksCAD
BlocksCAD is an easy to use, yet robust, blocks-based, programmatic, computer automated design tool specifically designed for education. Students as young as eight can create their own designs that can either be fabricated on any 3D printer or converted to an AR/VR platform. BlocksCAD supports coding and math learning by building computational thinking, logic and spatial reasoning skills. BlocksCAD supports education by providing curriculum that get kids excited while giving teachers the resources they need to connect their student activities to the academic skills they need to teach. CSTA Standards Alignment with BlocksCAD Grade 6-8: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z39nX72YB24e60SEOgVwkVPPxCcgZIIcSd7LxnZ7S6A/edit CSTA Standards Alignment with BlocksCAD Grade 3-5: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-MdwR9xzCC_Oc9VY7xSxLzvaHwKRervW6YiDn4lZa_Y/edit?usp=sharing
Bloxels
Bloxels uniquely unlocks kids’ innate creativity by leveraging something they love: video games. Kids, K-8, can play fun games and channel their creative potential as they gain greater understanding of important topics like design logic, and computer science and demonstrate their knowledge of history, science and mathematics and more through the games they create.
BlueJ
A free Java Development Environment designed for beginners, used by millions worldwide. Free etextbook and instructor resources.
Bootstrap
“Bootstrap crafts research-based curricular modules for grades 6-12. Our materials reinforce core concepts from mainstream subjects like Math, Physics and more, enabling non-CS teachers to adopt our introductory materials while delivering rigorous and engaging computing content drawn from CS classes at universities like Brown, WPI, and Northeastern. Our Algebra class can be integrated into a standalone CS or mainstream math class, and aligns with national and state math standards. And since every child takes algebra – regardless of gender or background – Bootstrap is one of the largest providers of formal CS education to girls and underrepresented students nationwide. Our other modules model physics, data science, and sophisticated interactive programs, and can be integrated into Social Studies, Science, Math, Intro and even AP CS Principles courses. Teachers can mix-and-match content across various modules to fit their needs. By leveraging the existing networks of Math, Social Studies, and Physics teachers, nationwide, Bootstrap is built to scale. We work with school districts across the country, reaching hundreds of teachers and thousands of students each year. Most of our teachers have also attended a Bootstrap Workshop, where they received specialized training to deliver the class.”
BrainPop
Our Creative Coding feature, in partnership with Vidcode, takes a project-based approach to the teaching of coding. It gives students a way to show what they know about a given topic – regardless of curriculum area – by coding their own projects using BrainPOP assets. We introduced the feature with four project types – Meme, Stop Motion Animation, Doodle Augmented Reality, and Newscast – with more to follow. Creative Coding was designed so that students and teachers of all subjects, even with little or no coding experience, can jump right into a scaffolded project.
Cato’s Hike
Maze puzzler makes learning programming an adventure.
Code Combat
We started CodeCombat to give learners the feeling of wizardly power at their fingertips by using typed code. As it turns out, that enables them to learn faster too. WAY faster. It’s like having a conversation instead of reading a manual. We want to bring that conversation to every school and to every student, because everyone should have the chance to learn the magic of programming. HTML, Python and Java programming, lesson plans, and assessments.
Code.org
Code.org® is a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science and increasing participation by women and underrepresented minorities. Our vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science, just like biology, chemistry or algebra. Code.org organizes the annual Hour of Code campaign which has engaged 10% of all students in the world and provides the leading curriculum for K-12 computer science in the largest school districts in the United States. Code.org is supported by generous donors including Microsoft, Facebook, the Infosys Foundation, Google, Omidyar Network, and many more.