Computer Science Curriculum Resources

Resources to learn about national standards for computer science and how to implement them in the classroom.

Created by teachers, administrators, and industry professionals, the most comprehensive, and inclusive, computer science curriculum for the United States appears to be the model curriculum from the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA). Their well-rounded curriculum includes lots of topics for the many students who will not be interested in programming but do need to understand how technology works.

The United Kingdom adopted a broad national curriculum in 2013, a computing programme, which has generated a lot of positive attention and energy to adopt a hands on approach to teaching not only programming but computer science concepts that animates programming.

In addition, there are several foundations which highlight teachers and curriculum that engage kids with computer science, technology, and the world outside their classrooms. Skype in the classroom also uses their technology to connect teachers and students with other classrooms and experts in different topics.

Many countries have a national computer science curriculum, created by a government or like the CSTA by private groups. There also are many groups, for example, CS Unplugged, which provide resources to help teachers who want to include computer science concepts in what they teach.

CSTA K—12 Computer Science Standards

A model curriculum created by teachers, administrators, industry, and others which align to various national standards, for example, Common Core. Their materials also includes links to resources for computational thinking and computer science curriculum.

Edutopia

The foundation created by George Lucas, of Star Wars fame, highlights teachers and schools using technology, experts, and their communities to improve learning in schools.

Skype in the classroom

A program to use Skype call technology to connect classrooms with other classrooms and subject matter experts to expand what kids encounter in their classrooms.

UK National Curriculum: Computing Programme

The government website holds the standards for computing programmes taught in UK schools, as well as background information.

Learn More

CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards

http://csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/K12Standards.html
http://csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/CSK8.html
http://csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/CompThinking.html
http://csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/CurrResources.html

Edutopia

http://www.edutopia.org/

Skype in the classroom

https://education.skype.com/

UK National Curriculum for Computing Programme

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum
http://community.tes.co.uk/national_curriculum_2014/b/computing/default.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwXjGMpWprI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia55clAtdMs

Ontario Canada: Secondary School Computer Studies

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/computer.html

Online Learning: A Bachelor’s Level Computer Science Program Curriculum

A review of free online computer science courses from US universities.
blog.agupieware.com/2014/05/online-learning-bachelors-level.html
http://blog.agupieware.com/2014/06/online-learning-intensive-bachelors.html

CS Unplugged

http://csunplugged.org/

Author

  • Tim Slavin

    Tim is an award-winning writer and technologist who enjoys teaching tech to non-technical people. He has many years experience with web sites and applications in business, technical, and creative roles. He and his wife have two kids, now teenagers, who are mad about video games.

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