Search ALEX...

How do you know if an online image is real or not? This video from Common Sense Education provides a handout on useful guidance on using a reverse image search on Google. This resource is part of the News and Media Literacy Collection. This video can be played during a lesson on assessing the validity and identifying the purpose of digital content.

In this multi-day lesson, the class uses the problem-solving process from Unit 1 to create a platform jumper game. After looking at a sample game, the class defines what their games will look like and uses a structured process to build them. Finally, the class reflects on how the games could be improved and implements those changes.

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

In Game Design, students learn basic video game coding concepts by making different types of games, including racing, platform, launching, and more! 

Game Design is a complete theme designed to be completed over eight, 45-75 minute, sessions. For each activity, students will watch a series of videos and create one coding project with opportunities to personalize their work using “Add-Ons”, which are mini-coding challenges that build on top of the core project.

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. 

Students will learn to see smartphone apps as tools to solve real-world problems. This lesson guides students through a design brainstorm process to invent an app idea related to public art. Students will be designing an app idea to tackle a problem related to public art in their community. All you need is the activity worksheet, some pens, markers, and creativity!

WHY APPS? Well, to start with, they’re everywhere. According to the Pew Research Center, 78% of teens now have a cell phone, and almost half (47%) of those own smartphones. Teens don’t have to be limited to the role of the consumer in today’s digital marketplace. All you need is a little know-how and an idea—which is the focus of this curriculum. 

In this lesson, students use the problem-solving process from earlier in the course to solve a data problem. After reviewing the process, the class is presented with a decision: whether a city should build a library, pet shelter, or fire department. Students work in teams to collect information on the Internet to help them decide what should be built, then use this information to build an argument that will convince the city council of their choice. They map what they have done within the problem-solving process that they have been using throughout the course, comparing the general problem-solving process to its specific application to data problems.

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

Artificial Intelligence conjures up all sorts of images – perhaps you think of friendly systems that can talk to you and solve tough problems; or maniac robots that are bent on world domination? There's the promise of driverless cars that are safer than human drivers, and the worry of medical advice systems that hold people's lives in their virtual hands. The field of Artificial Intelligence is a part of computer science that has a lot of promise and also raises a lot of concerns. It can be used to make decisions in systems as large as an airplane or an autonomous dump truck, or as small as a mobile phone that accurately predicts text being typed into it. What they have in common is that they try to mimic aspects of human intelligence. And importantly, such systems can be of significant help in people's everyday lives.

AI (also known as intelligent systems) is primarily a branch of computer science but it has borrowed a lot of concepts and ideas from other fields, especially mathematics (particularly logic, combinatorics, statistics, probability and optimization theory), biology, psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and philosophy.

In this chapter, we'll explore a range of these intelligent systems. Inevitably this will mean dealing with ethical and philosophical issues too – do we really want machines to take over some of our jobs? Can we trust them? Might it all go too far one day? What do we really mean by a computer being intelligent? While we won't address these questions directly in this chapter, gaining some technical knowledge about AI will enable you to make more informed decisions about the deeper issues.

Do a quick Google search on how social media affects your mood, and the results make it seem like all the social media platforms will plunge you into depression. Facebook shows everyone’s perfect life and exotic vacations. Expertly curated selfies abound on Instagram. But, if you look at the actual research, the results aren’t that simple. In this Above the Noise video, host Myles Bess breaks down the science and cuts through the hype about the link between depression and social media use and looks at how different social media platforms may affect your brain in different ways.

Students will apply the programming concepts that they have learned to the Harvester environment. Now, instead of just getting the character to a goal, students have to collect corn using a new block. Students will continue to develop sequential algorithm skills and start using the debugging process. In this lesson, students will develop debugging skills and will continue developing their programming skills.

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

This is a lesson plan using a clip from The Big Bang Theory to show how to use flowcharts when explaining an algorithm.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand algorithms (written in pseudocode or flow diagram), explain what they do, and correct or complete them
• Produce algorithms in pseudocode or flow diagrams to solve problems
• Use basic flowchart symbols appropriately

Imagine a future where humans are unable to access the data, literature, art, photographs, discoveries, and vital records of previous generations. That bleak future may be on the horizon! Learn how our fragile, rapidly-obsolete systems of storing data could lead to a digital dark age. This video comes with discussion questions.

In this online activity, students will practice debugging in the "collector" environment. Students will get to practice reading and editing code to fix puzzles with simple algorithms, loops, and nested loops.

The purpose of this lesson is to teach students that failure is normal when learning a new skill. Students will be given pre-written programs that do NOT work. They will be asked to fix these programs. This process, called "debugging", teaches students essential problem solving and critical thinking skills. These skills transfer over as students proceed to harder and harder programming projects.

Students will be able to:
- read and comprehend the given code.
- identify a bug and the problems it causes in a program.
- describe and implement a plan to debug a program.

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

It’s time to use interactive tools to your advantage. Interactive websites are designed to help you learn through simulations and interaction. You will be learning about interactive websites through a series of three Quests. Good luck!

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

When you have completed this activity you will:

1. know about interactive websites and resources [Empowered Learner]

2. understand the different types of interactive learning [Empowered Learner]

3. understand how to use geographical information [Computational Thinker]

We’re going to take our first baby steps from hardware into software! Using that CPU we built last episode, The Central Processing Unit: Computer Science Crash Course #7, we’re going to run some instructions and walk you through how a program operates on the machine level. We'll show you how different programs can be used to perform different tasks, and how software can unlock new capabilities that aren't built into the hardware.

This lesson is a student's first exposure to programming in App Lab. The lesson begins with a quick reflection prompt. Then students are introduced to the practice of pair programming before beginning to program. For this lesson, the students' view is limited to only a very few simple “turtle” commands to draw graphics on the screen. After a few warm-up exercises, using only combinations of four drawing commands, students must figure out the most “efficient” way to draw an image of a 3x3 grid. The lesson concludes with a sense-making discussion about the meaning of efficiency in programming and the reason behind beginning with such a limited set of programming tools.

Students will be able to:
- use App Lab to write programs that create simple drawings with “turtle graphics.”
- create a program with a partner following the pair programming model.
- explain different ways one might measure the efficiency of a program.

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

A layered graphic helps students understand how a news story goes from raw information – the source – to their newsfeed or text chain; then students zero in on sources in real-life news stories.

You are in need of Fact Finder: Your Foolproof Guide to Media Literacy’s 11 flexible, multimedia lesson plans to tackle these challenges. Eight skill-building lesson plans introduce essential media literacy concepts through engaging explainer videos and colorful infographics that help students revisit, retain and apply the key concepts. The accompanying News or Noise? Media Map provides a collection of examples ready for students to analyze and evaluate with the support of worksheets and discussion prompts. Three reporting lesson plans help students take what they’ve learned and apply it to their own content creation, inspired by the issues that matter to them.

A layered graphic helps students understand how a news story goes from raw information – the source – to their newsfeed or text chain; then students zero in on sources in real-life news stories.

You will need to create a free account to access this lesson plan. 

We’re going to step back from hardware and software, and take a closer look at how the backdrop of the cold war and space race and the rise of consumerism and globalization brought us from huge, expensive codebreaking machines in the 1940s to affordable handhelds and personal computers in the 1970s. This is an era that saw huge government-funded projects - like the race to the moon. And afterward, a shift towards the individual consumer, commoditization of components, and the rise of the Japanese electronics industry.

In this lesson, students add variables to two different exemplary apps to keep track of a score or a count of some number of button clicks. The major topic is variable in scope and understanding the differences, benefits, and drawbacks, of using global versus local variables. This lesson focuses more on using global variables since in event-driven apps that’s what you need to keep track of data across multiple events.

The very basics of a simple if statement are also presented in this lesson, mostly to highlight the difference between the = and == operators. Finally, students are asked to apply what they’ve learned about variables, scope, and if statements, to make their own “clicker” game modeled after one of the exemplars they saw during the lesson.

Students will be able to:
- use global variables to track numeric data in an app.
- give a high-level explanation of what “variable scope” means.
- debug problems related to variable scoping issues.
- modify existing programs to add and update variables to track information.
- create a multi-screen "clicker" game from scratch.

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

This lesson introduces arrays as a means of storing lists of information within a program. The class begins by highlighting the difficulties that arise when trying to store lists of information in a variable. Students then watch a short video introducing arrays and a subset of the operations that can be performed with them. Students will work in Code Studio for the remainder of the class as they practice using arrays in their programs. At the conclusion of the sequence, students build a simple app which can be used to store and cycle through a list of their favorite things. In the next lesson, students will continue working with a version of this app that can display images and not just text strings.

Students will be able to:
- identify an array as a data structure used to store lists of information in programs.
- create arrays and access information stored within them using an index.
- manipulate an array using the append, insert, and remove operations.
- account for the fact that JavaScript arrays are zero-indexed when using them in a program.

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

From our head down to our toes, and our feet up to our nose, the Digital Citizens teach students how to be safe, responsible, and respectful online.

Students will be able to:

• understand the importance of being safe, responsible, and respectful online.

• learn the "Pause & Think Online" song to remember basic digital citizenship concepts.

Users will need a free account to access this resource. 

In this activity, students (K-3) will be introduced to the PBS KIDS ScratchJr app by animating characters from their favorite PBS KIDS shows. Through this process, they will learn about movement blocks, the ‘start on flag’ trigger, and character selection.

PBS KIDS ScratchJr app is now available for free from the App Store on iPad and from the Google Play store on Android tablets.

This lesson introduces websites as a means of personal expression. The class first discusses different ways that people express and share their interests and ideas, then looks at a few exemplary websites made by students from a previous course. Finally, everyone brainstorms and shares a list of topics and interests to include, creating a resource for developing a personal website in the rest of the unit.

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

This site is a case study in which students are invited to share (through writing or discussion) their opinions about how a situation should be handled. This case study is related to the personal safe use of digital devices.

This case study goes as follows:

Peter’s longtime close friend, Bridget, is wrapped up in an online relationship with some older guy on MySpace, a social networking website. Peter senses danger, but Bridget resents his warnings and wants him to butt out. What can he do without risking their friendship?

Social interaction is part of what makes online gaming so popular and engaging for kids. Of course, online communication can come with some risks. Show your students how to keep their gaming experiences fun, healthy, and positive.

Students will be able to:

• Define "social interaction" and give an example.

• Describe the positives and negatives of social interaction in online games.

• Create an online video game cover that includes guidelines for positive social interaction.

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

Focusing on searching safely on the internet, the much-loved character Ruff Ruffman addresses some of the questions kids have about technology and media use, in this animated video from RUFF RUFFMAN: HUMBLE MEDIA GENIUS. With his uniquely comical style, Ruff helps guide students in responsibly navigating this twenty-first-century skill. This resource is part of the RUFF RUFFMAN: HUMBLE MEDIA GENIUS Collection. This video can be played when introducing a lesson on basic keyword searches to gather information.