Classroom Resources

As both Hacker and the CyberSquad go off in search of a giant cyber-slug, the kids realize that Hacker has a listening device that taps into their communications system. The kids decide to devise a secret code so they can send messages back and forth without hackers understanding what they are saying. The code involves numbers, which are associated with pictures, and it's used to send messages explaining where the CyberSquad should travel to find the cyber-slug. This video can be played during a lesson on encryption.

Watch Ruff Ruffman show that while texting can be fun, creative, and a great way to stay in touch, it also has some drawbacks, in this animated video from RUFF RUFFMAN: HUMBLE MEDIA GENIUS. This video can be played to introduce a lesson on identifying, demonstrating, and applying personal safe use of digital devices.

In this video excerpted from Pathways to Technology, you'll learn about the wide range of jobs that an information technology (IT) degree can make possible. From PCs to smartphones to cars, almost every tool we use today has computer technology embedded in it. The IT specialist is the person who keeps those computers operating and finds ways to make them run faster and more smoothly, so we can all get our work done. This video has discussion questions. 

We ended the last episode at the start of the 20th century with special-purpose computing devices such as Herman Hollerith’s tabulating machines. But the scale of human civilization continued to grow, as did the demand for more sophisticated and powerful devices. Soon, these cabinet-sized electro-mechanical computers would grow into room-sized behemoths that were prone to errors. But it was these computers that would help usher in a new era of computation - electronic computing.

Learn why protecting your information online is crucial with this video from the NOVA Cybersecurity Lab. The Internet was originally designed to connect large computers at universities, businesses, and governments. It grew exponentially once personal computers became common in the 1980s. Connecting to the Internet leaves computers vulnerable. People can use computers to delete data, spread viruses, or even steal someone’s identity. The good news is that there are several ways to stay safe online. You can learn about protecting information by trying coding, password cracking, and spotting email scams in NOVA’s Cybersecurity Lab. This video includes a student viewing guide to promote discussion.

Our brains are great at using past experiences to make quick decisions on the fly, but these shortcuts can also lead to bias. "Confirmation bias" is our brain's tendency to seek out information that confirms things we already think we know. Help your students learn to recognize this when they encounter news online, as a way to examine competing opinions and ideas and to avoid drawing questionable conclusions.

Students will be able to:

• Define confirmation bias and identify why it occurs.

• Explore examples of confirmation bias, particularly related to news and online information.

• Identify strategies for challenging their own confirmation biases.

Users will need to create a free account to access this resource. 

Staying safe online is a lot like staying safe in the real world. By helping a Digital Citizen sign up for a new app, students learn about the kinds of information they should keep to themselves when they use the internet -- just as they would with a stranger in person.

• Recognize the kind of information that is private.
• Understand that they should never give out private information online.

Users will need to create a free account to access this resource. 

Computers draw lines and circles during many common tasks, such as using an image editor. But how does a computer know which pixels to darken to make a line?

Students will discover two common algorithms used to draw a line between two points and a circle of a given radius. 

Computers talk to each other over the internet via messages. However, the internet is not reliable and sometimes these messages get lost. There are certain bits of information we can add to messages to make sure they are sent. This information makes up a protocol.

In this activity, students consider how different methods of communication operate successfully. By looking at rules and procedures in place, students are introduced to communication protocols. By working through a role-play scenario, pupils test their own protocol operating in an unreliable environment similar to that found in packet switching on the Internet, specifically, TCP/ IP.

On the internet, data is broken into packets for transportation. However, the channels in which these packets travel is not always reliable. Individual packets sometimes are damaged, lost or lose their ordering.

In the game Tablets of Stone, tablets are packets and their content is data. Packets contain both data and header information. The size of the header information affects how much data can be transferred – so a balance has to be reached, as packets are of finite size.

Students will find that they will need to swap some of their data boxed for information such as packet number and total packets, or whether or not the packet is an acknowledgment packet. Due to this information taking up data boxes, overall more packets will be needed.

In each of the “Create your own Google logo” activities, students code and design their own versions of the Google logo. These activities introduce students to computer science and the programming language Scratch. These activities are most appropriate for students ages 9-14 and take 15-60 minutes to run.

Be sure to review the Materials tab for the lesson plan, starter guide, and more. 

Users will need a Google account to use this resource. 

This video shows an entertaining way to introduce Computer Science to students. It also offers an explanation of a public encryption key in a way that students can easily grasp. Students find out things they thought were safe on the internet are not safe.

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 the 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 be able to:
- explain why encryption is an important need for everyday life on the Internet.
- crack a message encrypted with a Caesar cipher using a Caesar Cipher Widget.
- crack a message encrypted with random substitution using Frequency Analysis.
- explain the weaknesses and security flaws of substitution ciphers.

Note: You will need to create a free account on code.org before you can view this resource.

In this lesson, students continue learning the concept of loops. Here, Laurel the Adventurer uses loops to collect treasure in open cave spaces. A new get treasure block is introduced to help her on her journey.

This lesson gives students more practice with loops and encourages them to put multiple blocks inside of a repeat< as they try to collect as much treasure as possible.

Students will be able to:
- Identify the benefits of using a loop structure instead of manual repetition.
- Break down a long sequence of instructions into the smallest repeatable sequence possible.

Note: You must create a free account to access and use this resource.

Dive into app development by exploring existing apps that may serve similar users. Each group identifies a handful of apps that address the same topic they are working on, using those apps to help refine the app idea they will pursue.

Note: You will need to create a free account on code.org before you can view this resource.

This lesson extends the drawing skills to include width and height and introduces the concept of random number generation. The class learns to draw with versions of the ellipse() and rect() that include width and height parameters and to use the background() block to fill the screen with color. At the end of the progression, the class is introduced to the randomNumber() block and uses the new blocks to draw a randomized rainbow snake.

Note: You will need to create a free account on code.org before you can view this resource.

This is a lesson plan from Google Education's Applied Digital Skills. During this lesson, students will research a topic related to technology safety, create a project, and present their findings. As they complete the lesson, students will explore all sides of the topic they choose related to technology, ethics, and security. Students will explain technology's risks and dangers, and consider solutions to keep users safe. They will plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits. Students will publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences.

Before entering their code in Processing, the SciGirls write out their code in plain English, a process known as pseudocode. The girls will define pseudocode. This video can be played to introduce a lesson in pseudocode.

Video games are fun to play, but have you ever wondered how to make one? Carmelo, a grad student in the MIT Media Lab, shows how anyone can start learning how to create video games by talking to machines through programming languages using block-based programming. This video can be played to introduce a lesson on computer programming.

We ended the last episode, Early Programming: Crash Course Computer Science #10,  with programming at the hardware level with things like plugboards and huge panels of switches, but what was really needed was a more versatile way to program computers - software!

As an English/digital media teacher at Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Kentucky, Jason Behler has found that his students become deeply engaged when creating their own podcasts, especially because he allows them great freedom in selecting their own genre and content. His students develop skills in collaboration and time management as well as technical and communication skills. Podcasting does not need to be confined to a class in digital media, and it does not require expensive equipment. Podcasting can be integrated into any content area to add spark to your lessons. This video has support materials that include discussion questions.

Lesson begins on page 34 of the document accessed via the resource link.

Students will:

- understand how copyright laws apply to creative works of authorship.

- create a work to be registered.

- define the terms: copyright, public domain, plagiarism.

- identify where on websites copyright notices are displayed and what information is included with the notice.

- identify what copyright does not protect.

-learn how to register a copyright notice.

We all make choices every day about the media we consume and create. But do kids understand what makes a media choice healthy or not? Hint: It's about more than just screen time. Use the activities in this lesson to give kids a framework for making informed media choices.

Students will be able to:

• Learn the "What? When? How Much?" framework for describing their media choices.

• Use this framework and their emotional responses to evaluate how healthy different types of media choices are.

• Begin to develop their own definition of a healthy media balance.

Users will need to create a free account to access this resource. 

An infographic and explainer video break down some of the often-invisible ways that search engines —and people — make recommendations; then students hunt for these “search signals” to rank and evaluate real examples.

To access this lesson plan, you will need to create a free account. 

In days gone by people would say "We built this civilization on the internet." It would be hard to criticize them for making such a remark, without it we would be largely handicapped by the sheer volume of data we need to wade through and edit. There are currently 4 billion users with the bulk now coming from Asia and growing! Without having the internet it becomes a lot harder to stay informed. We literally have access to the entire archive of the Natural History Museum, British Museum, the finest collection of manuscripts, and just about anything else you can possibly imagine. With these tools, we are able to make better decisions simply because we know more about the world we are presently living in. Barriers between people, culture, language, and concepts are being broken down and a new global civilization is emerging. The hope that people can forever be united and peacefully co-operate can happen.

Then why are more and more countries trying to censor, snoop on and in some cases block, delete and rewrite articles on the internet? It sounds counter-intuitive but many governments have decided that this is the best thing to do. But there is a huge consequence for these actions.

Students will read about internet censorship, review a video about internet censorship, review vocabulary surrounding internet censorship, and explore arguments for and against internet censorship. 

Many computer users are familiar with compressed formats such as zip, gzip, or gif images. These are based on a method called Ziv-Lempel coding, which turns out to be an interesting exercise in finding patterns in text.

Children’s rhymes and stories are good examples of text compression because they often involve repeated words and sequences.

Games, social media, and other online spaces give kids opportunities to meet and chat with others outside the confines of their real-life communities. But how well do kids actually know the people they're meeting and interacting with? Help students consider whom they're talking to and the types of information they're sharing online.

Students will be able to:

• Analyze how well they know the people they interact with online.
• Reflect on what information is safe to share with different types of online friends.
• Learn to recognize red flag feelings and how to respond to them.

Resources available in both English and Spanish.

This lesson demonstrates how a slight manipulation of a conditional statement can allow for the creation of a new and powerful tool in constructing programs, a while loop. Students are introduced to a while loop by analyzing the flow chart of a conditional statement in which the "true" branch leads back to the original condition. Students design their own flowcharts to represent a real-world situation that could be represented as a while loop, and they learn how to recognize common looping structures, most notably infinite loops. Students then move to App Lab, creating a while loop that runs exactly some predetermined number of times. While learning about creating while loops, students will be introduced to many of the common mistakes early programmers make with while loops and will be asked to debug small programs. They finally progress to putting if statements inside a while loop to count the number of times an event occurs while repeating the same action. This activity will recall the need for counter variables and foreshadows their further use in the following lesson.

Students will be able to:
- explain that a while loop continues to run while a boolean condition remains true.
- translate a real-life activity with repeated components into a form that could be represented by a while loop.
- analyze a while loop to determine if the initial condition will be met, how many times the loop will run, and if the loop will ever terminate.
- write programs that use while loops in a variety of contexts.

Note: You will need to create a free account on code.org before you can view this resource.

This lesson builds on the understanding of loops from previous lessons and gives students a chance to be truly creative. This activity doubles as a debugging exercise for extra problem-solving practice.

This series highlights the power of loops with an array of puzzles meant to get students thinking about why repeat loops are superior to longhand.

Students will be able to:
- identify the benefits of using a loop structure instead of manual repetition.
- differentiate between commands that need to be repeated in loops and commands that should be used on their own.

Note: You will need to create a free account on code.org before you can view this resource.

To conclude this unit, students design a recommendation engine based on data that they collect and analyze from their classmates. After looking at an example of a recommendation app, students follow a project guide to complete this multi-day activity. In the first several steps, students choose what choice they want to help the user to make, what data they need to give the recommendation, create a survey, and collect information about their classmates' choices. They then interpret the data and use what they have learned to create the recommendation algorithm. Last, they use their algorithms to make recommendations to a few classmates. Students perform a peer review and make any necessary updates to their projects before preparing a presentation to the class.

Note: You will need to create a free account on code.org before you can view this resource.

This lesson introduces a formal binary system for encoding information, the ASCII system for representing letters and other characters. At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher introduces the fact that computers must represent information using either "on" or "off". The class is then introduced to the ASCII system for representing text using binary symbols and practices using this system before encoding their own messages using ASCII.

Note: You will need to create a free account on code.org before you can view this resource.

After first completing a web search scavenger hunt, the class learns about the inner workings of search engines and has an opportunity to flex their analytical skills in a search for strange and unlikely animals.

Note: You will need to create a free account on code.org before you can view this resource.

The class learns to combine the velocity properties of sprites with the counter pattern to create more complex sprite movement, such as simulating gravity, making a sprite jump, and allowing a sprite to float left or right. In the final levels, the class combines these movements to animate and control a single sprite and build a simple game in which a character flies around and collects coins.

Note: You will need to create a free account on code.org before you can view this resource.

To conclude the study of the problem-solving process and the input/output/store/process model of a computer, the class proposes apps designed to solve real-world problems. This project is completed across multiple days and culminates in a poster presentation highlighting the features of each app. The project is designed to be completed in pairs though it can be completed individually.

Note: You will need to create a free account on code.org before you can view this resource.

This is a lesson plan from Google for Education, Applied Digital Skills. During this lesson, students learn to identify and avoid online scams by analyzing a real-life situation in a group. Students will work collaboratively to identify online scams. They will analyze an online scam to identify suspicious behavior and warning signs. Then they will create a group document discussing an online scam and provide guidelines for how to avoid scams. 

Learn how to keep your digital life safe, spot cyber scams, understand the basics of coding, and defend against cyberattacks with the NOVA Cybersecurity Lab. Players assume the role of chief technology officer of a start-up social network company that is the target of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. In the game, players must complete challenges to strengthen their defenses and thwart attackers. The lab also features stories of real-world cyber attacks, a glossary of cyber terms, and short animated videos that explain the need for cybersecurity; privacy versus security; cryptography (cyber codes); and what exactly hackers are. This game can be played during a lesson on cybersecurity.