In this skill-building lesson, students continue learning the concept of loops. Here, students use loops to collect treasure in open cave spaces. This lesson aligns to national Computer Science standards from CSTA.

This lesson contains a series of activities you can use to help students familiarize themselves with Create Performance Task, how it is scored, and some example tasks created by Code.org. Students review the Submission Requirements and Scoring Guidelines for the Create PT. Subsequently they review three example scored Create PT submissions with commentary to better understand how the Submission Requirements and Scoring Guidelines are used together. In a wrap-up conversation they identify a piece of advice, a "gotcha", and a remaining question they have about the Create.
This lesson is aligned to CSTA standards.

This lesson is designed to introduce the nuances of the Create PT, and begin to provide some answers to the questions that will inevitably arise. The Create PT is in many ways straightforward: you complete a self-directed programming project and respond to prompts about your program and process. As you dig into the details of the task, however, you quickly come across some of the nuances of individual components of the task and how they're scored.
This lesson is aligned to CSTA standards.

This lesson uses the Create PT Survival Guide to help students narrow down and brainstorm ideas for their actual project. The lesson concludes by providing students with resources to make a plan to complete the task starting in the next lesson.
This lesson is aligned to CSTA standards.

It is finally time for students to take on the Create Performance Task. For a total of 12 class hours, students should work on their projects with only types of teacher support allowed (essentially: Advise on process, don’t influence or evaluate ideas). Students may also work with a collaborative partner in in development of their program - written responses must be done on their own. The lesson includes reminders about how you can interact with students while they are working on their projects, and suggestions about time line. The Create PT requires a minimum of 12 hours of class time. At the end, students will submit their program code, program video, and written responses through their AP digital portfolio.
This lesson is aligned to CSTA standards.

At its core, the LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT product provides a programmable microprocessor. Students use the NXT processor to simulate an experiment involving thousands of uniformly random points placed within a unit square. Using the underlying geometry of the experimental model, as well as the geometric definition of the constant π (pi), students form an empirical ratio of areas to estimate a numerical value of π. Although typically used for numerical integration of irregular shapes, in this activity, students use a Monte Carlo simulation to estimate a common but rather complex analytical form the numerical value of the most famous irrational number, π.

Students will use code to write a program in Apps Script to create a joke-telling talkbot. Time to complete: 45-90 minutes

Meet Carlos Garcia, a Computer Engineer for a data science company called 8451. Carlos builds applications that help Kroger supermarkets track shipments and keep food on their shelves. Engineering Your Future shares real stories from young professionals who want to inform and inspire students about in-demand engineering careers.

Check out how humans work to make our computers, tablets and robots seem smart through coding and computer languages.

Students gain a deeper understanding of how sound sensors work through a hands-on design challenge involving LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT taskbots and sound sensors. Student groups each program a robot computer to use to the sound of hand claps to control the robot's movement. They learn programming skills and logic design in parallel. They experience how robots can take sensor input and use it to make decisions to move and turn, similar to the human sense of hearing. A PowerPoint® presentation and pre/post quizzes are provided.

Students put their STEAM knowledge and skills to the test by creating indoor light fixture “clouds” that mimic current weather conditions or provide other colorful lighting schemes they program and control with smartphones. Groups fabricate the clouds from paper lanterns and pillow stuffing, adding LEDs to enable the simulation of different lighting conditions. They code the controls and connect the clouds to smart devices and the Internet cloud to bring their floating clouds to life as they change color based on the weather outside.

Testing is critical to any design, whether the creation of new software or a bridge across a wide river. Despite risking the quality of the design, the testing stage is often hurried in order to get products to market. In this lesson, students focus on the testing phase of the software/systems design process. They start by exploring existing examples of program testing using the CodingBat website, which contains a series of problems and challenges that students solve using the Java programming language. Working in teams, students practice writing test cases for other groups' code, and then write test cases for a program before writing the program itself.

Students' understanding of how robotic ultrasonic sensors work is reinforced in a design challenge involving LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robots and ultrasonic sensors. Student groups program their robots to move freely without bumping into obstacles (toy LEGO people). They practice and learn programming skills and logic design in parallel. They see how robots take input from ultrasonic sensors and use it to make decisions to move, resulting in behavior similar to the human sense of sight but through the use of sound sensors, more like echolocation. Students design-test-redesign-retest to achieve successful programs. A PowerPoint® presentation and pre/post quizzes are provided.

Research technology's impact on the workplace and on people's daily lives, and create a report to communicate your findings. Time to complete: 2-5 hours

Using the LEGO® NXT robotics kit, students construct and program robots to illustrate and explore the Fibonacci sequence. Within teams, students are assigned roles: group leader, chassis builder, arm builder, chief programmer, and Fibonacci verifier. By designing a robot that moves based on the Fibonacci sequence of numbers, they can better visualize how quickly the numbers in the sequence grow. To program the robot to move according to these numbers, students break down the sequence into simple algebraic equations so that the computer can understand the Fibonacci sequence.

Students' understanding of how robotic light sensors work is reinforced in a design challenge involving LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robots and light sensors. Working in pairs, students program LEGO robots to follow a flashlight as its light beam moves around. Students practice and learn programming skills and logic design in parallel. They see how robots take input from light sensors and use it to make decisions to move, similar to the human sense of sight. Students also see how they perform the steps of the engineering design process in the course of designing and testing to achieve a successful program. A PowerPoint® presentation and pre/post quizzes are provided.

Where does computer science and innovation fit in the industry of agriculture? Nearly everywhere! These lessons help students investigate agriculture as a source of innovation and technology which may be unfamiliar but is critically important to food security and feeding the world. This unit features 2 lessons and 3 files. Lessons are aligned to NGSS.

Looking for an activity that combines robotics, coding, and engineering with a real life problem? This unit uses MakeBlock parts, Scratch programming, and modeling to help students design a solution to soil compaction. This unit features 2 lessons and 2 files. Lessons are aligned to NGSS.