By Dian Schaffhauser
Carnegie Mellon University has launched a free, online curriculum for high school students to help instructors teach programming skills using graphics and animations. The lessons were developed by the new CMU Computer Science Academy, part of the School of Computer Science.
By Dian Schaffhauser
An online open source program originally designed to help software developers collaborate but then modified to help teachers manage computer science-oriented workflows in their classrooms has added a function intended to simplify its use across the school.
KinderLab Robotics has released a new curriculum for early elementary grades designed to support education in robotics, coding and computational thinking. "Growing with KIBO - A Progressive Robotics Curriculum for Grades K–2" also offers integration with arts and literacy activities.
By Dian Schaffhauser
Amazon has expanded its "Future Engineer" initiative into K-8. The program has begun offering free online lessons and funding summer camps to help students discover the fun of computer science.
By Sara Friedman
Nonprofit AVID is working to provide educators with the training, knowledge and skills to teach Wonder Workshop's coding and robotics activities in the classroom.
By Dian Schaffhauser
Eight in 10 teachers believe that big tech companies — Microsoft, Google and Apple — need to help build computer science skills among their students. And three-quarters reported that they don't believe the government is doing enough to outfit schools to develop those skills.
By Sara Friedman
Amazon Web Services is making it easier for developers to develop, test and deploy robotics applications in the cloud through AWS RoboMaker.
By Dian Schaffhauser
Google has set aside a $25 million pool to fund research work by schools and other organizations using machine learning for "social good."
By Sara Friedman
Researchers at Digital Promise are developing a project to track the progress of computational thinking skills across the K–12 school spectrum through student feedback and teacher integration.
By Dian Schaffhauser
On Nov. 1, Microsoft will be releasing its newest Minecraft Hour of Code tutorial, which, according to a recent announcement, could be "possibly the most adventurous tutorial yet." The company has teamed up with Code.org for the release of "Voyage Aquatic," in which students "explore aquatic worlds and uncover hidden treasure" by writing code to instruct agents to execute commands.
Nintendo is working with the nonprofit Institute of Play to bring its popular Labo kits for Nintendo Switch to classrooms in North America. The Institute of Play is developing STEAM curriculum and a teacher guide for Labo and is seeking classrooms to participate.